Monday, August 31, 2009

Getting Better!

So my shoulder has been getting better and better each day and I'm able to do more and more each day. I've started swimming again which is great news. Each time I increase the amount that I do by a little bit. I haven't tried swimming hard yet and I think that will just come with time when I feel like I'm ready to start pushing it again in the water without hurting myself. Now that I know I can swim next weekend at the race it won't be a matter of can I get through the swim but being surrounded by my competitors and not letting that get the best of me at the start in the swim. I know I'm going to have to hold back...how much though, that I don't know yet. I've been doing a lot of biking though over the past weekend and a half and I've had Brent to push the hell out of me so it's been great. I'm really looking forward to racing next weekend and seeing what I can do on the bike and run.
Lea's parents were here just for the night on Friday on their way up north to visit their relatives. We had a great supper with them and Molly and Sig came over. We celebrated Lea's mom's birthday with my favorite...a strawberry frozen yogurt cake. Not too much else is new...I'm working quite a bit over the next two weeks so I will really have to find time to get my training in before the race. We are just waiting to hear back this week if Lea got this new job that she applied for. Today I did a long run while I was waiting for my car to be done at the dealers as it went in for it's semi annual today. I just got back from the lake where I did a little swim and now I'm biking into town to meet up with Lea and then going out for dinner.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

My mind is made up!

I'm going to race Muskoka 70.3! I decided today on my way into work that I'm going to be stubborn and no matter what even if it means swimming one arm I'm going to race on September 13. The doctor told me yesterday to go ahead and try swimming a little bit so today I got in the pool and I could definitely feel it but I must admit it was a little bit better than I expected. As I was getting changed I could see myself not getting across the pool and getting out really pissed but I managed to swim 400m non stop and then got out. I proved to myself that I can do it and I will take that and build on it.
My biking and running has started to come back though and I went out for a 2 hour bike ride on Saturday with Pro triathlete Brent Poulsen who is in town for a few days. We had a good ride minus my flat tire down Long Lake.
Sunday was the day I was supposed to race in Kelowna BC at Nationals so I decided to get my racing fix anyways and race in the Beaton Classic with my sister. We decided or should I say my shoulder decided that she would do the swim and canoe and I would do the bike and run. The swim was first and Molly came out of the water first with a really good swim. On the bike my legs were feeling it from my ride the day before after not training for over a week but I was still able to have the fastest bike split over a couple of strong cyclist from the cycling club who were on other teams. Also to make it even more interesting was that there was a huge black bear in the middle of the road on my second bike lap! Molly had just over a minute lead heading out into the canoe but there was a strong cross wind and paddling is not something she does everyday. Actually probably the last time she did was at last years Beaton. She did good though but the second place team had a really strong paddler and there runner had at least a 5 minute lead heading out onto the run. I ran hard but it's a hilly course and each hill just hit me like a ton of bricks and felt like I was coming to a dead stop. As I got to the top though and started going down hill or on a straight I felt really good which seemed wired. Usually when you feel like that on the hills the rest isn't all that much better. At the turn around I could tell I had made up some good time but there was still a couple minutes lead between me and the lead runner. I pushed hard the second 2.5km and it wasn't until the last km that I could start to see her up ahead. I decided that I had to go for it and I finally passed the leader with about 40m to go before the finish. It was great to be pushed like that and me and my sister had another great day racing and it felt good to get that in.
It will be a big bike and run focus from now until Muskoka so that no matter how the swim goes I'm able to hammer the rest of it. The swimming will come along and I know I wont have the fastest overall swim split this year by 2 minutes but I will have a smile on my face race morning just because I'm there.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Northern Life Article

http://www.northernlife.ca/news/sports/2009/aug/triathletes200809.aspx

Here is a link to an article in the Northern Life about the kids that I coach and how good they did this past weekend!

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Recovery

It's been a week now since my crash and I'm on the road to recovery. I'm trying to stay positive about everything with everyone around me racing it's hard because you want to be out there with them. I'm waiting for the results from the tests on my shoulder to find out exactly what tears we're dealing with. For now I've started my own rehab on it and things are going alright i guess. I did a 45minute bike on the trainer yesterday and a 10minute run with Lea. The bike was done with one arm and the run was painful. I've also been in the pool twice now doing some arm movements and exercises. My goal right now is to just be able to be on the start line for Muskoka 70.3 on September 13 and have my shoulder feeling good enough to get through the race. I know my swimming will be really affected but if I'm even able to swim at that point I'll take it and if I can suck it up for the rest of the race and just get my spot for Clearwater I'll be happy and then I'll deal with things from there.

Friday, August 14, 2009

A little/big set back


Tuesday night I was at cycling practice and we were onto our second set of sprints and I was actually starting to feel good and I said to myself that it was a good confidence builder after being sick leading into Nationals. Then next thing I know the guy in front of me is going down and there was nothing I could do. I went right over top of him and landed on my head and shoulder. I laid there in shock and pain until the ambulance got there and took me to the hospital. Nothing is broken but there is a lot damage to my shoulder and I still have no movement in it. It's still very painful and I'm sure it will take another week or so to really determine how long this will affect me for. I've cancelled my trip to Nationals next week as there is really no way I can compete let a lone get through one stroke on the swim. My new helmet that is only about a month old got cracked in 3 places when I hit the ground. I guess that's what happens when you crash at around 55km/h. My next race after Nationals was Muskoka 70.3 so we will see if I am ready to race or even just go out and finish.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Getting Sick Sucks!

I'm finally starting to feel better and get back to some training after close to two weeks of almost no training. After the race in Bala I had some good workouts on Monday and then woke up Tuesday morning really sick. I tried everything to get ride of it but nothing seemed to work. It suck all the energy out of me and I decided that if I was going to get better I couldn't try and "train" until I was feeling better. Unfortunately it lasted much longer than I wanted and with less than two weeks left until Nationals I'm worried the damage might be done and only time will tell if I can get back to where I was before I got sick. I started training again on Friday and decided not to race this past weekend but yesterday I went over to the lake and did two of my own mini tri's back to back. 2x 500m swim, 10km bike, 1.5km run I felt pretty good but I was still coughing up parts of a lung from time to time.
Last weekend we went up to the cottage and had a great time! We had some not so bad weather for a change and were able to get outside and get lots done. We cut a couple tree's down, sauna, swimming, tubing, fires and just a great time with some great people.
This weekend we are going to Sundridge for a Triathlon. The main reason for going is because they have a kids race there and I'm taking a couple of the kids I coach. The kids race in the afternoon and they have an adults race in the morning that I'll be doing. We have a site at a campground booked and will be spending Saturday night in the tent as long as the weather holds up.