Monday, September 29, 2008

Never Stops

I guess it's been about a week since my last post....things have just been so busy lately I have barley anytime to sit down for 5minutes anymore. Training has been going good though, I've really started increasing my training to get ready for San Francisco.
Thursday and Friday last week I was in a training seminar for public speaking. I was asked earlier in the summer to be part of the Esteem Team http://www.esteemteam.com/ which is made up of high performance athletes from all over Canada and we go into as many of the schools as we can to talk and inspire kids. It's a really great program and I had so much fun during the two days of training. I now just have to finish working on my speech and then I will be going into the schools pretty soon.
My wetsuit that Xterra is giving me is going to be here tomorrow so I'm excited to try that out and I'm glad it's getting here now because it's starting to get pretty cold during the nights and it wont be long until the lakes are too cold.
Friday I drove up to the cottage just for the one night because Saturday I built a big deck on the front of one of our cottages. It's 8 feet wide and 46 feet long. Next summer my mom wants me to build a stairs coming off of it and a second level. Finishing the other cottage is coming along great and it's really starting to look good.
Like I said, training was good last week, yesterday I had a big day with a solid 5.5hours. In the morning I did an easy 75min. run and then I jumped right into the pool for another 75minutes of swimming with some fast 100's. Then I had a break while I coached the kids and then Drew, Jack and I went our for a 3hour ride with the winds from hell. We really pushed the pace for most of it and by the end I was totally spent. This morning I did a work out on the treadmill. By my last interval though I was getting pretty dizzy. I think I'm still feeling it from yesterday! Later I'm doing a swim up at LU at lunch time and the rest of the day will be spent recovering at work and then some nice steaks for supper that Lea's parents are bringing.
I think that's all for now...this week will be just more training, followed by some more training with a little bit a work between. This weekend I think we are going to be putting in our laminate floor down stairs so that will be another busy weekend.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Roofing not for me!

So it's been just over a week now since Muskoka 70.3 and I'm really feeling good. I can actually say I don't feel like I have anything wrong with me. I took Monday off after the race and then Tuesday I started with some active recouvery. The rest of the week went pretty much the same with some easy swim, bikes, and runs. Thursday night I went up to the cottage to begin replacing the shingles on the roof. My mom hired this old guy who lives up there to help because eventhough he's retired he still works 7 days a week building things for people. This guy is 68 years old and still carrying bundles of shingles up the ladder on his shoulder like they were a pillow. I don't even know how to describe this guy! So from Friday to Sunday we were able to remove all the old shingles, reshingle the whole roof, cut down a couple dead trees, and poor the footings for the new deck that I'm going back up to build on Saturday this weekend.
I got some good news yesterday when I got home...Triathlon Canada has approved my application for my International Competition Card based on my previous results to that I can start competing as a "Pro" internationally. My first race on the World Cup circuit will be November 8th in San Francisco.
So this week I will be back at it, training hard! I did a 1hour swim this morning doing some pace work with 200's, 100's and 50's. This afternoon I'm doing a one hour bike with a one hour easy run off the bike. It will be a solid first day back to the grind with an hour of each.
Xterra sent out my wetsuit today so I should have it in a couple of days to try out and if I like it then I will have a nice contract with Xterra Wetsuits.

Monday, September 15, 2008

What A Race!

This weekend was the Muskoka 70.3 Half Ironman held at Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville. Drew and I drove down Friday afternoon to Hunstville, picked up our race kit and picked up a few things from the race expo. After that we went and checked into our hotel, unloaded the truck and I went out for a quick 30minutes on the bike. We then headed back over to Deerhurst for the pasta dinner for the athletes. The food was incredible!! Drew and I ate so much pasta and chicken! Then it was back to the hotel to rest and get some sleep.
Saturday morning we went to a bike store downtown that was having a sale and I got a hard shell bike case for my bike when I travel instead of the soft one that I have now. We then took our bikes over to the race site to check them into transition where they would stay overnight. After picking up some lunch it was back to the hotel room to rest some more before the rest of my family showed up at around 3pm. They did some shopping downtown and then we all went out for supper. When we got back to the hotel I got a really nice foot massage from my aunt and then it was bed time.
Race morning we were up at 4:30am to get some food in and start packing. We left at about 5:45 and there was a light mist of rain. We parked where we were told at the air strip and got our shuttle over to the race site. Drew and I got body marked, set up our transition and were ready to go. I was racing them race as an Age Grouper and not Pro as it was only my first Half Ironman ever. I was in the 5th wave with 6minutes between waves. From the start I pulled away very fast and by the first turn I was already passing people from the wave in front of me. I continued passing so many people and even had to slow down at some points. I came out of the water and looked up at the 300-400m run all UP hill to transition.
Out onto the bike now at only around 5km in my water bottle cage some how breaks off and I loose my water bottle. I thought to myself, "this better not be a sign of how the 94km bike is going to go". So I still had my aero bottle but I had to make sure I slowed down at each bottle exchange and pick up a new water bottle. I was kind of nervous of how the bike was going to go with my back pain that I've been getting while doing long rides. I've been going to see Dr. Stauber now at the Health Coach and he's been working on my back and I've seen some major improvements so far. He has been able to level out my hips because one was higher than the other and it was very noticeable when I would run and even looking at pictures from yesterday I look like I'm not running to one side now. And he's figured out that the lower part of my back is basically straight and has no curve at all and that's where my back pain is coming from. So we've been working on that and yesterday I definitely saw an improvement! So the rest of my bike was pretty normal...I was able to hold the exact same pace through out. I held back though on the bike because I didn't know what to expect and I know I still had a 21km run ahead of me. This bike and run coarse will definitely be known as one of the hardest courses of any half Ironman there is. I can even describe to you all the hills on both the bike and the run. I have never got out of my bike ring on the front while climbing hills before in races and other guys just can't understand how I do it and today was the first ever I've had to drop down to the little ring. So onto the run I felt great, my legs felt light and I seemed to be holding a good pace that would of put me at around a 1:25 half marathon. At about 12km though I started feeling that I needed to go to the bathroom. I didn't want to stop though because I knew it would cost me a couple of minutes. I ran past one set of bathrooms and then another but then at about the 15km point I couldn't wait any longer and I ran into the bush, pulled down my race suit and well the rest I don't need to describe....So I ended up loosing at least 3minutes and I wasn't happy about that. Back on the run I found myself behind about 4 people that I had already passed. The last 5km though I was in pretty bad shape and really slowed down. I was only able to pass one of those people back again. I finally crossed the line and was so happy to be done. Having Lea and my family there was really good to see me finish my first Half Ironman. Everyone was congratulating me and kept telling me not to worry about my overall time that if I was on normal course it would of been at least 30minutes faster just because of how HARD this course was.
I was feeling pretty drained and week and it felt good to get some food in my stomach. I won my age group and was 29th overall. A couple of spots back of were I could of been if I didn't have to make that bathroom stop. So overall though not a bad first ever half ironman and the fastest swim split of the day by almost 2minutes over the best from all over the World. We stuck around for the awards and I got a really nice trophy. When I got home last night I went on trhe computer to check my e-mails and I have this email from Xterra Wetsuits. I thought it was just some promotional junk mail but I opened it anyways and it was this guy from Xterra Wetsuits saying congrates and my race and an amazing swim and if I don't already have a wetsuit sponsor that they would like to sponsor me. I couldn't believe it!! I don't even know how he got my email address and yes I had the fastest swim but he could of picked any of those guys like the winner and World Champion at that distance from Australia Craig Alexander.
Well overall it was an amazing experience and I can't wait to do it again and next time I will be racing as a Pro now that I know that I can at the Half Ironman distance. I'm just at work now but I'll get some pictures up later tonight when I get home.

Monday, September 8, 2008

Productive Weekend

It was great not to be on call this weekend and be able to get a whole bunch of things done. Saturday I picked up Drew and Jesse and went to Moores and we got measured for our suits for the wedding. While we were doing that Lea took Molly and Josee to a dress store to pick out their brides maids dresses. It all seems to be getting more real now that everyone in the wedding party has what they are wearing except for Sig who doesn't know yet and I'm surprising him after work today when I take him to go get sized.
After that Lea and I went to Rona and after shopping around we finally found the flooring we wanted for the basement and Lea's parents bought it for us as our Christmas present so we are supper excited. After that we went out for Sushi with Drew, Josee and the kids and then we hurried to get home so I could get a short bike in before it got dark.
Sunday was a busy day again with a hilly 10km run in the am and then it was out for the day again for Lea and I. I found a new pillow at Sears, got some groceries, picked up the second half of the flooring and stopped at Staples to get some pricing on invites for the wedding. After all that it was off to the pool for a 1 hour swim. Busy, busy weekend!
This week will be spent just getting myself ready for this weekends 1/2 ironman in Muskoka. I will be tapering a little bit, figuring out what I'm going to be taking with me on the bike for nutrition and a visit to the chiropractors to see if we can figure out this lower back pain that I only seem to get after about 2hours on the bike.
Swimming starts this week also, so I will be coaching with the swim club now as well. Other than all that it should be a pretty normal week...looking forward to tonight with Sig though!

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Another Weekend On Call

So this past weekend was my last weekend on call for the summer for the fire department and it's to bad it had to be this weekend because without a doubt it was the nicest weekend of the whole summer! I don't think I saw a cloud all weekend and it was in the high 20's. Even though I was on call I was able to get some good training in, work around the house and catch up with an old friend.
Friday I did a swim at LU with the main set of 6x300 @4:00 holding under 3:30. My swimming in the pool is feeling awesome and I can't wait to race this winter in the pool at a couple of meets. I really want to get a best time in the 1500 before since the last time I went 16:20 was when I was 15 and other than that the closest I ever came was in University when I went 16:22 at OU's so this year I know I can do it. After my swim I did a 40minute run outside then straight onto the treadmill for 5x1minute at 12mph with one minute recovery and then a cool down for for a good 60minutes in total. Later that evening I went out on the bike for a 75minute spin. Overall a great day of training with about 3.5hours. Saturday I took the whole day off and got some work done around the house.
We bought a pressure washer that was 50% off at Crappy Tire and we pressure washed the deck. After we were done that we went to Home Hardware and picked out a stain to put on the deck. It's a dark color that they "Twig" but yesterday I got half the deck done and i think it looks pretty good.
Sunday I did a 1.5 hour ride on my little loop around the fire hall that never puts me more than 2km from the hall in case I got a call I could get there fast enough. When I got home Lea was ready with her bike to pace me while I did a run off the bike. I did just over 10km but it was HOT out and I was glad that she had a water bottle. Later in the evening I did my usual 2km run up to Meat Bird Lake for a swim and then 2km run back home. It works out good because I can use the run there as a warm, get in a good swim and then I run Hard on the way home while Lea drives in her car with my pager...just in case. Another good day of training logged.
Monday was another just over 10km run with one of my clients who is training for a 1/2 marathon at the end of October. Then I did another 1.5hours on the bike of hill work. I've found a good spot again not too far from the fire hall with a good climb, flattens out for about 30 seconds and then you go down the other side, turn around and repeat...and repeat. So after doing that a few times I was feeling the burn in my legs which was a good sign. I've doing all my riding lately on my new bike and I just love it. It's so smooth and it absorbs all the bumps I feel like I'm riding in a car.
Last night my best friend from high school Jesse and hid girlfriend came over for supper. The four of us had a really good time and spent a few hours just talking and getting caught up. They brought this fruit cake dessert that was really good also that I'm going to have to get the recipe for.
So eventhough I was on call this weekend, a lot got accomplished and it was a really good weekend overall.