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Ahhh.. just ate homemade pancakes, a couple eggs and 3 pieces of ham for lunch. I'm sated and feeling fine.

In the news..
-scored a treadmill. It's cool. Nothing beats running outside, but I can feel the benefit that a treadmill will provide. I seem to run 'lighter', cadence seems higher and there is noticeably lesser impact on the ol joints. The 'boy cave', (the one room of the house that's actually mine) is getting a little full though.
-Canucks rocked IMCDA. For a relatively small population, we have some bad ass triathletes. First place men AND first place women were both Canadian.
-watched the US Olympic trials for the Men's 400 IM last night. One of the best races I've seen. Phelps leads after the butterfly and backstroke, Lochte catches him on the breaststroke and they duke it in the freestyle head to head. Both under the world record with Phelps winning. Incredible.

"Other" stuff..
-this year I had the 'revelation' that there will be no 'training races'. Every race I'll be rested the only question is how much rest I get. For lower priority races I'll take 3 or 4 easy days, for a high priority (half IM) I'll do a full 14 day taper. Generally, triathletes have a tendency to get addicted training (guilty!) and always want to squeak just one hard day of training before I race. Resist! We train so much and race so little, make every race count! This small change philosophy has yielded a PB in 4/4 races so far this year.

-is going 'hard' tougher than going 'long'? The last couple of years I went 'long' - well long for me. Keep in mind, this is relative. I think this period was very valuable as it laid down some good groundwork for the future.
This year I've added considerably more 'hard' sessions - especially on the bike and I have to say there are times I believe that a short 1 hour interval session on the bike is harder than a 100k mid week Z1/2 ride. When I went long, I'd zone out and just ride. When I go hard - I suffer. Mental toughness is required - that little imp on my shoulder is always telling me to stop.

-Peterborough Half Ironman is this Sunday and I still have not got my wetsuit back from being repaired. If I don't get it back in time, I'm seriously thinking of going old school and doing the swim in a bathing suit.

By the numbers..
For the week of June 23- 29
Swim: 8.1k
Spin: 4.25 hrs
Bike: 100k
Run: 50k
The key sessions for the week was: Tues: brick- bike 100k moderate effort followed by 7.5k run. Thurs: swim 3.1k, spin 1 hour (27min @ threshold 310watts -upped it by 5W :), run 6.5k. Sat: Ergvideo loop of Lake Placid.

This week is taper week. Rest. Rest. REST.
Tomorrow is..
Canada Day!

Have a great one.

Slid right back into training after last week's race. Mostly zone 1 and 2 work from Monday to Friday and then picked it up on the weekend. The stats:
Swim: 8.8k
Spin: 4 hrs
Bike: 240k
Run: 53.5k
The weekend rocked. On Saturday, I did a 120k ride that featured Hockley Valley hill repeats. I'm not sure what the grade is, but the climb is about 1 mile long and takes me about 8min at 'steady' pace. Not hammering, just grinding. I was finished up repeat number 6 when the skies opened up - quel suprise - with all the sporadic rain/thunder showers we've had lately. Last hour was soggy but mission was accomplished. Later on Sat I ran 11k. Sunday was similar, minas the hill repeats. 10 hours of training in two days. Rar!

This got me thinking.. har har, yea it happens. I may slightly change the structure of my basic week to something like this: Monday: recovery swim, 30m spin. Tues: run ~80min/ ride 1 hr. Wed: swim 1hr/ride or run 1 hr. Thurs: same as Tues. Fri: same as Wed. Sat & Sun: longish ride max 4 hrs / 1 hr run. That's a pretty solid week. The only thing I'm missing is the dedicated long run, but instead make up for it by doing 2 medium long runs. The main benefits would be:
1) 2 longish run = ~34k whereas 1 long run is 22-25k
2) back to back longish rides on the weekend = quality saddle time. Doing 8 hours split over 2 days is much easier than doing one 6 hour stint. Four hours is about my max in terms having fun while riding, anything after that and riding becomes a chore and this I don't want. Plus I can still get an hour run in later in the day.

Other news..
I'm this >< close to getting a treadmill.
Small change in the diet. Fewer carbs, more protein. Been training on much less carbs in an effort to become a more efficient fat burner and more protein in an effort to make sure the old bod has enough for repairs. So the tip of the week is make sure you have some protein with every meal. If you wish read more on becoming a more efficient fat burner browse through Alan Couzens blog - some good stuff there.

Off to play Bubble Bobble with Sally - she's such an addict! :)
Cheers!

Muskoka Race Report

What a great day for racing! Who am I kidding, anyday is a good day for racing! Here's the breakdown for the day:

Swim: doh. Terrible! Somehow, while putting on my wetsuit I managed to pop the zipper! A very difficult thing to do and will require a professional to repair it. So now I have no wetsuit and wave starts in 15 minutes... Time to panic? NO! Be calm.... be calm.. think soothing thoughts.
I run all the way back to the transition zone and LUCKILY, D'Ornella's Tri shop had a spare suit they'll rent me. PHEW! The guy, I'm guessing it was the owner, was super cool and totally saved my ass. So a don of proverbial chapeau goes to D'Onella's!
I run back, don the wetsuit and have a quick 5 minute warmup before my swim wave start. Hey, at least I made it.
My navigation was terrible as I forgot set landmark navigation points, having direct sun in the eyes really didn't help so I really was all over the place. All things considered I was about 2-3 minutes off 'my regular' pace.
Swim stats: Distance: 2k Age group placing 4/93th. Overall placing: 39/777. Time: 31:24 Pace: 1:35/100m.
Glad that part is over with... on to the bike..

Bike: For me, the bike was zippy. I'm still learning on how hard to push the bike without blowing up for the run. Now that being said, I decided to push the bike a little harder than usual. Since I started in the 5th wave, there was many people already on the bike course and had I had to pass alot of them! Actually, I was fortunate enough to not get passed once - this made me happy as the work I put in on the bike was starting to show results. I wasn't sure, but I thought I was leading my age group at the end of the bike. (As it turned out I was actually in 2nd)
The stats:
Distance 55k. Age group placing: 2 (!) Overall placing: 18. Time: 1:30:58 . Speed: 36.3
I'm happy with that result as the course is a toughie and it's an improvement over last year.

Run: So, now the question is did I ride too hard? The answer is I did not! Two real highpoints on the run: 1) I was complimented by my fellow athletes 3(!) times on how well I was running! Not only is this a total ego stroke - yet humbling at the same time - it proves to me that even I, a complete non-runner 4 years ago, can transmogrify into an actual runner! Anything IS possible!
The 2nd highlight was when I was passed by Mike Keene, who I noticed was in my age group. Time for battle. It was apparent that Mike can run, so I just wanted to try to keep him in my sights for the last 6k. Soon, he had a 200m lead and no matter what I did, I couldn't bridge the gap. I was running out of steam. The good news is he didn't really extend the gap, so I did have him striking distance - just couldn't close the deal. -This time.
Run stats:
Distance: 15k Age group placing 6/93. Overall 35/777. Time: 1:00:20 (argh, missed goal by 21 seconds!) Pace: 4:02/km.

Final: Time: 3:04:36 Age group placing 3rd. Overall: 21. You know what's funny?? If, me, the swimmer, hadn't screwed up his swim, it would have a 3-way battle royale for the top age group spot! Either way, it was great day and big congrats goes to Eric Fernando who won our age group and Mike Keene who came in 2nd. A big thanks to my wife Sally (my fan!), Canada Post for their continued support, Trisport Canada for putting on a first class event and of course to D'Ornella's bike shop for totally saving my butt today!

Cheers!

We have a contender..

for idiot of month. Incidentally, I just bypassed the idiot-of-the-day and idiot-of-the-week award and went straight to idiot-of-the-month. This guy is just begging for a Darwin Award.

The award goes to a cyclist who:
-was riding on the wrong side of the road.
-was not wearing a helmet.
-was talking on a cellphone.

Now fortuneately (or not, depending how you look at it), he didn't hurt himself during the brief time I saw him. However, it would have been supremely funny if he ran into a telephone pole. Congrats on the award.. you idiot.

Yet another pseudo funny story happened today. I was out for a quick ride and was grinding up a hill when I saw these two mountain bikers pushing their bikes up the hill. So being the smart ass that I am, I casually said: "ummm.. you do know your suppose to ride them.. not push them". I was obviously joking and he got the gist of it right away.. she, however, didn't seem to like my smarty pants comment and said: "Give us a break, we rode all the way from Elora!!" (a town about 40k away). I was dutifully impressed, her ego was assuaged and we both went our merry ways.

Cheers!

Sometimes I'm too dumb...

to follow my own advice.
Rewind.

a) What can I do?
b) What should I do?

When training always opt for option b. When racing always opt for option a. Pretty simple.

So last week, I scheduled in a 17 k run with 5X6min hard, 2 min rest interval session. The problem was the previous week was a heavy training week, capped off with a HIM. I should have taken an easy 48 hours to recover. Instead, by Tuesday I'm out there ripping it up. Consequences? Yup. A minor pull in my right calf. Dumb, dumb, dum. So, no running for 72 hours just because I chose the wrong time to push the envelope. The good news is it was very minor pull and now 1 week later - all is good. Lesson learned.
Again.

Stats for the week:
Swim: 10.4k
Spin: 3.5 hrs
Bike: 110k
Run: 47.5k
Did OK, considering I was a dum dum. Thursday was a good session on the trainer. The ol 2X20 min @ threshold on the trainer. I fired up the Ergvideo, set my threshold to 300w (gotta retest that.. soon), and had a great time. Yeah, that's a fun set.
Had a zippy, albeit short swim on Friday. Did a 1k warmup, 10X100m free on 1:30, was banging those off in the 1:15-1:16 range. Easily 2 seconds faster than 'normal'. I blame the pool. It's a newer facility that I occasionally get to and it is a 'fast' pool. Seriously.

Looking forward..
Taking it pretty easy this week as it's a scheduled easy week and I'm hoping that will set me up for the Muskoka Chase which is in .. oh.. what.. 5 days?
Yes!

Would you ... cheat?

Ok, the title may be a little mis-leading, or is it? Here is the scenario: Subaru, puts on a damn fine triathlon here is southern Ontario, they also give the option for 'swimmers' to start in earlier waves. (wave starts are done by age group and there is usually 2 minutes between each start.) Personally, I hate wave starts, I'd much rather see a mass start and just let us hash it out. However, I'm biased because the swim is my best event and I get to avoid alot of the thrashing that occurs in the mid pack.

The problem with wave starts is that if you're a good swimmer, you very quickly catch up the wave in front of you and end up swimming up, over and around the poor slower guys from the earlier waves. So the question is:
If given the opportunity would you cede yourself in the early wave?

Pretty innocuous question, but remember this is coming from a guy who will actually put on his brakes in a race to avoid even looking like I'm drafting. I try to race ethically well and I can't help but wonder if cedeing yourself in an earlier wave is .. well.. ethical. I suppose ultimeately I'm the one that has to live with decision and if there is any ambiguity, I should just start with my age group and be done with it. The flip side says, the opportunity is afforded to anyone who can swim 'fast', so it's not like you are being given special treatment. The two advantages you get by cedeing early are: no swim traffic to deal with and a cleaner T1 transition with less people being in front of you on the bike.

I'm still not sure which way I'll go, but by this time next week, I better have it figured out.

What do you think??

Check!

Lots of checks this week.
Swim 11+k. Check.
Run Hills. Check.
Bike LT session. Check.
Bike Hills session. Check.
(Aaron and Cliff would have enjoyed this: Hockley Valley ski hill X2, Old Base Line, Forks of the Credit switchback, McLaren and Mississauga ski hill. 92k of leg smashing goodness.)
Do a Half Ironman. Check.


It was one of those weeks where you JFT'd. Don't complain. Don't whine. Just F'n Train. Weekly Total:
Swim 11.2k
Spin: 4.25 hrs
Bike: 187k
Run: 64k

So as I was working on building my mitochondrial density and trying to improve my body's ability to burn fat as fuel, I was begining to wonder about how much (if any!) I'll improve this year. Realty check time. Up until this year it's been about building the aerobic engine, essentially, just logging miles. This year, it's more about improving muscular endurance (hill reps!), working lactate threshold and improving speed. Obviously, like anyone, I want a MASSIVE improvement and I want it NOW. But, hold on there bucko, is that realistic? Not really. Let's take the improving run speed component. Including races and weekly run speed workouts, I'll be lucky if I can hit maybe 20 sessions... for the entire year. Clearly, a monumental breakthrough isn't going to occur with just a paltry 20 sessions. However, the year in, year out, tweak the program here and tweak the program there is obviously where it's at. Hopefully improvements will just follow, at least for a few more years. :)

Lastly..
(bet you thought I forgot!)
The Oakville Inaugural Half Iron Race Report!

My day began at 5:13 am. There is a part of me that can't comprehend that I'm actually a person who will wake up at 5:13am on a Sunday, drive for an hour just to do a Half Ironman for 'fun'. Twenty years ago if you told me I'd the 'that guy', I'd say your crazy now pass me a beer. Now, it's just Sally who roles over and has the bed to herself who says 'your crazy' and goes back to sleep. Just like what a normal, rational person should be doing on a Sunday morning.

Since this is the event's first incarnation, only two of us managed to show up and 'break the event in'. We decided to forgo race numbers, though in my mind I assigned the host as number 1 and since I was the only other person there, I went with number 2. This will bode well, as at least I'll place in the top - overall.
Transition was top notch. Lots of space, pebble-free surface and very secure. Couldn't ask for more. The cheering section as incredible, it was basically a 1:1 ratio of cheerers and athletes.

The swim: We make our way to the pool and.... there other people there! It's actually busy! This is an odd experience for me. There are short, fat, old, young, swimmers and non swimmers. There is a flipper lady. With all these people, there was things.. umm.. oh yea, they are called waves. I felt like I was open water swimming. I chose 5X400 fr set and capped it off with 300m of drill, so the swim was a bit long, but it was my own doing. Can't blame the race director on that.

The bike: Aaron hopped on his brand new P2C and immediately started showing off by blowing past me, hammering through a green light and by the time I got there it had already changed. Oh. So that's the way we are going to play. Mr fancy-schmancy pants sporting his brand spanking new carbon frame bike with sparklers shooting out the seat post. (ok, he had no sparklers, but I have to admit, that would be a bad ass upgrade). Oh, if it sounds like I'm jealous, it's because I am.
The bike route was great, lots lof hills, LOTS of wind and many, many other bikers 'out and about'. This was a real treat for me, even though I fantastic cycling all around me, I rarely see a guy up the road I can give chase too. This was decidely different. Example:
Me: See that guy up there? Let's chase him down!
Aaron: OK!
(ramp up speed, blow past guy)
Me: See that guy half way up the hill?
Aaron: Let's get him!
Once we blew past a roadie and with in 2 seconds he was hung on my backwheel and we had an impromtu peleton cruising at 50kph! Drafting schmafting!
THIS is what cycling is all about and it was a hoot.

The Run
Primarily all trails. The perfect crushed stone kind. Ravine setting. Plenty of ups and downs and lots of rollers. Not sure we could have had a nicer run. We ran for 1:40, which either means we were insanely fast or the course was a tad short. I'm going with insanely fast. (ha!)

Post Race
The cheering section came out full force and we felt like super stars. I had a beer that was probably in my top 5 beer moments of all time. Yes it was that good. A don of the proverbial chapeau goes to Val, who chapperoned the cheering section and is understanding enough to put-up with a 'crazy' husband. (Thanks Val!)

In conclusion, I HIGHLY recommend you check this event for next year. The price is right and there is post race beer! Post race beer! Post race beer!

Cheers!