Sunday, August 31, 2008

Welcome Fuzz to the family




So here are some of the pictures from the Beaton last weekend of my sister Molly and I and also a picture of Fuzz....our new ginnie pig that Lea decided to bring home as a pet. I'm not quite sure what to think of it yet, it's definetely an interesting creature. Anyways I'm off to bed, I had a really big day of training and I'm pretty tired but I should have time tomorrow to write a better post and let everyone know what's new and exciting. Oh and before I forget a big congrates to Drew, Donna, and Lise for completing the Ironman yesterday in Ottawa. Way to go guys!!!

Beaton pics






Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Beaton Classic

So Sunday was the Beaton Classic that was held again this year at Moonlight Beach. I had to take desperate measures to find someone to canoe for me so I asked my sister...she said she would do it but has never been in a canoe by herself before so two days before the race off we went out to the lake where I used to live in Skead to practice. We were using my old neighbours canoe from when I used to live out there and first it was picking which one she wanted to use since he has three of them. Once she was out on the water though it didn't take long and she was getting the hang of it! So Sunday morning it was really nice out, not to hot but there was a big of a wind just to make things interesting. Last year the bike was up through the conservation area so you had to use a mountain bike so everyone assumed it was the same this year so I show up with a mountain bike and they tell us of ya, changed the bike route and it's now on the road. So Lea rushed home to get my road bike and just made it back in time for the start. My swim was good, bike was alright except that the road we were using is very rough so dogging and slowing down to avoid and big bumps or holes in the road so it was hard to get a good steady speed going. Then it was the canoe and Molly did awesome, she stayed right on coarse the whole way and kept our lead. We had at least a 5minute lead and I only had to do a 5km run and I felt good again on the run so it would of been nice to have someone to push me. It's definitely not a flat run and some good sharp hills and I ran a 18:20 so it wasn't to bad. It was a fun race and I'm glad I could do it with my sister. Thank you to Sig for helping out and letting us use your canoe! Not to much else is new, I did a quick trip up to the cottage after the race to take some measurements of the roof as we will be redoing it in a few weeks after my race in Muskoka. This week is going to be another big week of training getting ready for the half ironman. Lea got some nice pictures from Sunday of my siter and I so I'll try and get those up soon.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

What a race!!

What an amazing race that was the other night watching Simon playing with the other guys on the run and wait for the right time. It was an incredible performance and it's good to see that out of a fellow Canadian.
I've been training hard the past few days all around 4hours each day. Yesterday I picked up my new Devinci bike and did my first ride on it this morning. I went out with Drew and we went out to Skead, overall it was a good 2.5 hours and I was pretty spent by the end. On my way back after I left Drew I was coming down Bancroft and I had my head down for a second and all I hear is this loud BANG! I look up and there's this guy going flying over his handle bars of his motorcycle after running into the back of a car. The bike landed on top of him so I right away stopped and called 911 while I lifted the bike off of him. He should be alright with only a couple broken bones hopefully. It was a good ride though other than that and I love my new bike. I'm still getting used to different handling of a road bike vs a tri bike but the SRAM components were really nice. Later is a hard swim in the pool and it will be another solid 4hour day.
This weekend is the Beaton Classic here in Sudbury and I'm still looking for someone to do the paddle part otherwise I'm going to end up having to do it and I'd prefer not to just in case I was to pull anything in my upper body. My swimming is just going so good right now I'd hate to have to take a few days off because of a pulled muscle or anything. Anyways not to much else new, just trying to get lots of training in around work and still enjoy a little bit of this nice weather we are finally getting.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

A couple BIG thank yous

So there's a few people that have been great lately and I owe a big thank you to. First there's Robin a BioPed here in Sudbury who I went I to see on Thursday for some orthotics for my feet. He said he wants to help me out and I'm getting an awesome pair of orthotics that were molded to my feet and a new pair of running shoes. I'm so lucky that Robin is doing this for me because that would of been hundreds of $$$. THANK YOU Robin and BioPed!! I'll let you know how they feel when I pick them up this week.
My second thank you goes to Adrian at Pinnacle Sports and Devinci for my new road bike that should be in on Monday that I can't wait to get. It looks like a sweet ride and thank you to Adrian and Devinci for knocking some big bucks off of that for me.
My third thank you goes out to someone really far away in the town of Nacogdoches, Texas. Bruce Partain who is the President/CEO of the Nacogdoches County Chamber of Commerce sent me a message a few weeks ago about one of my blogs when I said I helped out at the Blueberry festival here in Sudbury that my sister Molly was running. It turns out that he is in charge of the Blueberry festival down there and just came across my blog through some Google search of Blueberry festivals or something like that. He asked if he could send me some T-Shirts that I got in the mail this week, one for me and one for my sister. They are awesome and I wore mine of Thursday. I'm a huge Texas Long Horns fan so pretty much anything from Texas is cool. But the shirts look awesome and it was really nice of Bruce to do that. Thank you!
Training has been going good this week. I've been putting in some good hours all around. Those swim workouts that I've been doing are killing me though. On Wednesday I did a hard treadmill workout of with some intervals, my last one was 45seconds at 14.3 Yesterday I a 2.5 hour ride with Drew, 1 hour swim and 1 hour run. I pretty much died on the run, I think I was just over tired and was feeling exhausted. I'm on call this weekend again for the Fire Department so today will just be spent relaxing and doing some work around the house and as a recovery day. Lea is gone all weekend to a resort near Huntsville with her parents. I'll have to get everything done around the house that she doesn't want me doing before she gets back. Anyways today will probably just be a recovery run and then tomorrow I have a bike ride in the AM and then a hard swim later in the day once I'm done being on call.
Again thank you to all those people who I mentioned above, I really appreciate all that you've done!

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Not a good start to the week



So today I'm at work teaching a Bronze Med class when someone tells me I have a phone call and it's an emergency...Lea was in a car accident after she left work today and had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance. Someone talking on their cell phone wasn't paying attention ran into the back of her while she was stopped waiting for the person in front of her to turn. She's going to be alright, I think just really sore and shook up. There's no serious injuries luckily.
So this weekend we went to New Liskeard for a little triathlon with Drew and his family as well. It was raining when we left Sudbury but stopped on the way so we thought we would be alright until literally 5minutes from the race site it just started to poor!! It never let up after that and we raced in the poring rain. It made for an interesting bike as there were some technical parts to the course. I was pretty cold to start the race, no wet suit. My arms felt heavy but I still came out of the water with a good lead. I was frozen on the bike though and never really warmed up and my legs felt really tight. I the run was going to be the same way but as I left transition I felt amazing and I just kept going. I know I said that I ran good in Timmins a month ago and I haven't raced since then but but my run didn't even compare to that. It was one of those runs where you wished you had someone on your heals to push you even more because you knew you had so much more in the tank and I just could of kept going at the finish. It was an awesome feeling and I'm looking forward to upcoming races. Drew was 3rd in the same race. Lea raced also and was the top female in her race. She has been training hard the past month and I'm very proud of how she did especially in the crappy conditions.
After the race it was off to the cottage for some relaxing. It was great to see Bonnie and Mark, never get to see them enough. The weather continued all weekend though which sucked. I got to try out there new turbo engine sea doo. I went out on Saturday with Bonnie on it and I wasn't even at 3/4 throttle and we were doing 67mile/hour. Sunday morning I went out before breakfast for a 75minute easy run while Lea got some more sleep. We played lots of games, don't think I won any and then between thunderstorms Lea and I got out for some water skiing. Lea did awesome, up on her second try and I think the picture of me is cool as I'm finishing coming into the dock I sprayed the guys standing on the dock. oopps
So I have just over a month now before my 70.3 half Ironman so I said to myself enough is enough and it's time to really start training. I pulled out swim workouts I had written down from 2003 training camp in Florida and can't believe how hard I used to swim. So yesterday and today I did two of them and today at the end of the main set I threw up a little bit in my mouth. I definitely wasn't ready to hit it that hard right away but that's ok and I'll get through them. Yesterday I did a 60minute spin on the bike and today was a hard bike with 2x30minutes at race pace effort with 10minute recovery between.
Well I'm off to watch some of the swimming on TV and then it will be off to bed again for a good nights sleep.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Pics from the weekend






Had an awesome weekend of racing and relaxing at the cottage. Here are a couple of pictures from the race of Lea and I and of us water skiing. I'll write more tomorrow while I'm at work when I have more time as now I'm off to bed for some much need rest.

Friday, August 8, 2008

Short but Long Week



Isn't it funny how whenever we get a short week because of a holiday that the week feels even longer....I don't know why but the weekend just never seemed to get here this week. My training was good this week. I got a swim in everyday so I was really happy about that. Two big runs, one on Monday and the other on Wednesday with one of the other trainers that I work with. We dropped off his sister's car in Garson and then ran back to the Y. I got a flat on my rear wheel on Tuesday but it was a slow sleek because I didn't notice it while I was riding. It turned out to be a staple that I must of run over and was stuck in my tire. So on Wednesday I spent the morning stretching a new tire and glueing that on. Thursday was a 90minute easy spin except that the easy part was missing. It was raining pretty hard for most of the ride and just couldn't get into any kind of grove. This weekend Lea and I are of to New Liskeard for a race. After the race we are going to cross over into Quebec and make out way to my cottage from there to spend the rest of the weekend. Hopefully the rain holds off for the race and we can have a nice relaxing weekend at the cottage.
It looks like I'm going to be getting my first ever road bike from Devinci thanx to some sponsorship from them. It looks like a sweet set up and I can't wait for it to come in. It's a full carbon frame with the new SRAM components.
Good luck to Billy and Peter who are doing the Kids of Steel Race in Barrie this weekend along with Lise and Ken who are doing the tri. I'll try and get some good pics of the race this weekend...more so of Lea since it's a rare occasion that I can actually get some pics of her racing. Good luck to all the Canadian's over in China, kick some US butt!

Monday, August 4, 2008

Terry Fox Van and a Good Long Weekend



Last Thursday we went down to Bell Park for a few minutes to see the Terry Fox Van that Ford had completely re-done. It was really cool to see and there were some awesome pictures of him inside as well and the shoes he used to do his in. We made a little donation and got a bite to eat and we were on our way.
Friday I had a good day of training. The focus was on the swim with and a bike before and a run afterwards. The swim was a 1000m warm up and the main set was 20x100Fr @1:15 holding 1:10 and then a cool down. For my bike I went from work up to Delki and did some intervals on the track. After about 30km on the track it was time to head back to work for a bit so in total it was about a 40km ride. My run I hooked up with Jack and we ran along Ramsey that lasted about 45minutes. In all it was a good day of training for about 3hours total.
This weekend I was on call for the Fire Department starting Friday night at 6pm and goes until today at 6pm. So I wasn't able to leave Lively all weekend so it made it tricky for training but I got paid $400 just for staying here. Saturday was kind of a rest day for me. All I did for training was a run up to Meat Bird lake with a short 1200m swim and then run back home. It made for a nice easy 45minutes in total. Sunday I got in a bit more training. In the am I did a bike workout where biked over to the Fire Department and then from there I would go 2km in one direction and then 2km in the other. So a loop worked out to 8km. I had to be creative because I had my pager with me and if it went off I would never be more than 2km from the hall and I could sprint over and be there in about 3minutes. So I did a few loops, a couple of them at race pace and then biked home. When I got home I went out with Lea for her 40minute run. So that was nice to get all the lactic acid out of the legs. In the afternoon I did the same thing as Saturday where I ran up to Meat Bird but I did a bit longer of a swim, 2000m and then run back. This time though I did my run there and back hard at about 3:30/km pace. Today is even a bigger day of training. After breakfast this morning I went out for a run and Lea paced me on her bike. I did 60minutes averaging 3:45/km pace. It was hot out also because we slept in and I was running right around noon so I was feeling it on the way back. In a little bit once I'm done being on call I'm biking in to LU for the open swim from 7-9 to get a good swim workout in.
We did a bit more work around the house this weekend. Cut the grass...it groes like crazy! We put up a couple pictures and a big mirror, stained the front porch and I worked on my personal project....over top of my work bench down stairs I put up a sheet of plywood and I hung all my medals, trophies, ribbins, race numbers and all that sort of stuff from all my years of swimming and now triathlon. I think it looks really cool and it's something I've always wanted to do once I owned my own house and I did it!