Monday, March 30, 2009

So much going on!

There just seems to be so many things happening all at once and I barely keep up! All good things though...
This weekend was definitely not an ordinary weekend...it started out with some great training with a hard swim with the team. The main set which was 4 times the following
400Fr @6:00 D1-4 4:57, 4:51, 4:45, 4:38
300BK @6:00
100FR Fast @3:00 1:03, 1:02, 1:03, 1:01
It was a great set and with a good warm up and cool down it was a solid 4500m logged. Later it was a 55minute run and some core.
Now finally I guess I can talk about Saturday night...I've been having to not saying anything about it because it was supposed to be a total surprise but Lea and I had known for a while that there was a bunch of people planning a Stag and Dow for us. Well it turned out amazing!! I can honestly say that it was probably the best party I've been to. Everyone there was great, everyone was laughing and having fun and the games were a blast! It was also nice to see some of Lea's family that came from out of town.
Sunday was a planned day off already which was probably a good thing. We spent the day though with Lea's parents and got a bunch of things organized for the wedding which is coming up in a month and a half.
Sunday was also the draw for the canoe raffle that the Walden Old Timers Hockey League was holding on my behave and the proceeds went to support me. I stopped by a few times throughout the weekend and was there Sunday for the draw to say a few words. The winner of the canoe just happened to be from Wawa and he had just finished his last game and had left only about an hour earlier. I'm not quite sure how they are going to get the canoe to him in Wawa. Also Lea's mom won a DVD player. Kind of funny because they already have a dvd player for their tv's and so do we so I'm not sure what she is going to do with it.
Today I had another awesome swim and after 1200m warm up it was 4x650 with 2minutes rest all at 1500m pace. I also had a weight and core workout this afternoon and I'm about to get on the bike for 1.5 hour ride of 4x15min. 90% intervals. Notice how I keep writing and putting the bike off...I'm going to do it though!
I also found out at work today that I'm going to be putting on a triathlon clinic every Monday night for a group of adults. It's going to run every Monday for 8 weeks and will include all kinds of different things gearing up for their first triathlon.
Also this weekend on Saturday Lea and I were in the Dollar Store picking up something for Lea's mom and all of a sudden we hear my name on the radio and it was like STOP...LISTEN! So I heard the commercial on EZ Rock about the Ford Fusion and they talked a little bit about me...it was so cool! It was my first time hearing it and since then I've heard it like 4-5 more times and everyone seems to be hearing it!
A big thank you to everyone who came out Saturday night and made it so much fun and to all that helped make it happen. I'll get some pictures up soon!

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Looking for a Fridge?

So I have this bar fridge that I bought about a year ago from Home Depot for $250 while I was living in my apartment. The thing is I only ever used it for 2 months and since we've been in our house it's been just sitting in the basement not being used. The bottom 2/3 is the fridge and the top 1/3 is a freezer. It works great, it's energy efficient and there isn't a scratch on it. My asking price is $175 so if you or anyone you know is looking for a really nice bar fridge let me know!

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Canoe Raffle

I got some very exciting news yesterday from one of my sponsors. Robin White, the owner of BioPed here in Sudbury who gets me all my running shoes and orthotics put me in contact with the Walden Oldtimers Hockey League. They are having their annual hockey tournament this weekend at the Lively Arena which runs Friday, Saturday and Sunday and will be having a raffle for a new canoe and all the proceeds will be donated to me for this upcoming race season which is fast approaching! This is great news and I really appreciate them doing this for me. I'm going to have some promotional material there as well so if you are in the area and you have some time stop by the Lively area and pick yourself up some tickets to win a new canoe!!
Yesterday was a little bit of everything day...started out with some core work and straight into the pool for a 45minute swim. There was no real main set to the swim, just some odd stuff. Then it was a 10km run, nothing to hard just a steady pace. 40minutes for the 10km and I was feeling good. Later lastnight I did 45minutes on the bike...the first 30 were just easy spinning and then the last 10 where some 1minute intervals at 350watts.
Today I headed over to LU for my swim which turned out to be long course and after a 1000m warm up it was 1x400 @5:00 2x200 @2:30 4x100 @1:15 8x50 @:40 all at 1500 pace. After that it was some more core and tonight I have a big bike with 4x15minutes at 90% efforts.
Lea's parents will be here on Friday and both of us have the day off. Time to get the house nice and clean though before they get here:)

Saturday, March 21, 2009

An old and new pic




Here's a picture of a few weeks ago(I know it's a little late) of when I went to the winter carnival and we set up the aerial for the kids. The other picture is just me with some of the SaltStick stuff they sent me. Thanks guys! Yesterday I had a good run...after a good warm up it was 2km hard, 3km easy, 3km hard and then a cool down. Solid 15km in total and was holding 3:30 pace for the hard. Today is my day off and Lea and I are heading into town to do some stuff then over to Drew and Josee's house for supper. Tomorrow I have a hard bike in morning then heading into the pool for a main set of 4x450 @6:00 all at 1500 pace. Should be a good time!

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Salt Stick Goodies

Yesterday I got a nice package full of all kinds of goodies from Salt Stick. It's really great to be sponsored by them this year and be part of their Team. Their Salt Capsules are by far the best out there providing your body with minimized muscle cramping, heat stress and fatigue due to unbalanced electrolyte blood levels.
Training has been going great! I've been having a great week so far and my legs are really feeling the burn. Yesterday I did a good swim with a main set of 20x100Pull on 1:20 holding under 1:10. Later on the day it was some core work then 1hour on the bike with 2x15 minutes at 90% and then a 10km run off the bike with 3x1km at 90%. The other 7km was just nice and easy and relaxed and I still came in under 40minutes for the 10km which included my warm up and cool down.
Today was a 2hour strength and core session in the gym at Boreal with Coach. Those stairs burned!! After that it was some stretching and I have an easy swim later today and that will be about it. Tomorrow I have another big day!
So today is the 4 year anniversary of my dad's death. It one way it seems so long ago but in another it seems like just yesterday I got the call from my sister that dad had been in an accident. A lot has happened in those 4 years and I still really miss him. From time to time I think about the guy who was driving the other car and caused the accident who is only 1 year older than me and what goes through his mind and how it's affected his life. I know my dad is very proud of me though for everything that I've done since then and that he watches over me all the time. Dad we love and miss you so very much.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Awesome weather

This weekend we had some great weather and it was so nice to spend the weekend outside. Unfortunately I couldn't take advantage of the weather with my training as I hurt toe pretty good and was kind of forced to take two full days off. It's feeling better now and that's what's important and in the end the two days off was probably good for me. I didn't just sit around though all weekend...I was still outside for much of it. One of our huge trees in our yard over the winter much of shifted to one side and caused one of it's big branches to lean on our fence which caused our fence door not to shut properly. So yesterday I got out the chainsaw and took down the branch that was leaning on the fence. To give you an idea of how big this tree is...the branch was so big around I could just barely rap my arms around the branch and have my hands touch. I cut it up into a few 12inch sections and then split them for fire wood. I did a few other things outside so I was definitely still active enough though I didn't do any training.
People have been asking us what we would want as a wedding present and we haven't been able to come up with much because we pretty much have everything we want already for our house. So we haven't done any kind of gift registry and the two things we've thought of we know people have already kind of taken care of. Then my sister Molly was over on Friday night and was telling us that my mom wasn't sure either what to get us. So Lea and I started thinking...the one thing we've talked about since we've moved in is our garage. It's been the one thing about the house that wasn't in very good shape. We can't store anything big in it because the garage door doesn't work so if it doesn't fit through the side door we can't put it in there. So we started thinking what it would cost to replace it but with something a little smaller. We don't want to use it for a car so we thought of maybe having double doors that open for bigger things. So this weekend we took some measurements and got kind of an idea of what we would want. So we went to a few different places to get some quotes. Rona was the most expensive, Home Depot was second and not that bad $2800 for everything but then the lumber store in Lively could get us everything we would want to build it, all the wood, shingles, siding, doors, window...everything for $1550 plus tax. That seems like such a good price for a 16x12 shed! It was pretty exciting.
This week will be a big base week with lots of hours and then next week I have a few Time Trials planed. Lots of fun:) Today I did a swim this morning, nothing crazy just 3000m. Later I have 30minutes of core, 6km run followed by another 3000m in the pool and then 75minute bike tonight on the trainer.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Time seems to fly when you're busy!

Yesterday I had an awesome swim and hit some great times in practice. After a big warm up my main focus was on 3x400Free @5:00 Numbers 1 and 3 I had to be at 90% of 1500 pace and number 2 was just make pace time. Number 1 hit 4:35 and was feeling great. Number 2, I came in at 4:57 so just enough time to turn around and GO for the last one. I was even able to negative split it and came in at 4:34. I was really pumped afterwards and with come core and an easy run it was a good day.
Today was an hour of weights and then a total of 670 different sit ups. I've been doing a lot of core and strength training these last few weeks and I'm finding a big difference just in my posture when I run and my core strength in the water. So with some stretching it was a solid 2 hours in the gym. Tonight I have a workout on the bike to do with some high cadence and power. 90%-70%-90% all over 100rpm.
Last night Dr. Stauber did a presentation to a group of women about what he does and what exactly an Upper Cervical Doctor is. I was able to be there and got the chance to share some of my experiences receiving care from an Upper Cervical Doctor and what it's meant to me. I've added his website on the side with the other websites. Check out the testimonial page and it has a couple of pictures of me on there.
Tomorrow I have a meeting with Jody Narozanski the manager of Belanger Ford who is getting me my new wheels. I can't wait to see my new Hybrid Fusion!!
It looks like Kiwami Triathlon is going to be my race suit sponsor for this year. Olivier Mouyau over at Euro Multisports Distribution in Ottawa has set me up with their top suit, the Amphibian. It feels great and I can't wait for Olivier to get it printed with sponsor logos and everything. It's going to look sharp on the new car!
Lea has been busy with the planning of the wedding which is coming up fast. It will be only two months next week! It seems like the majority of the work takes place within those last two months though. She just read off a list of things to do over the next little while and it seemed like quite the list...it is going good though and we seem to be on track with everything.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

The man on the bike...

I've had a good week of training. Friday was a swim, weights and a bike. Saturday I did a big swim with 15x100FR as the main set with the first 5@ 1:15, second 5@ 1:20 and the last 5@ 1:15 again. Today was a good 14km run and I had the chance to meet some guy on his bike while running down the highway from Sudbury towards Lively. I could hear someone behind me so I looked back and he was just there! First thing he says to me is "you must be an athlete". Turns out he ended up riding right beside me for almost 20minutes chatting away. I learned that he had biked from Sudbury and was going out to Naughton to the reserve to buy smokes. I asked him why he just didn't get them in town and he said that it's a good was to kill time and they are much cheaper. It was also kind of sad when he told me all he has is his bike.
I had a very exciting meeting on Friday with EZ Rock and the New Sudbury Shopping Centre. Everything is a go now for the GREEN MACHINE. I'm going to be getting a Ford Hybrid Fusion from Belanger and EZ Rock and the New Sudbury Centre are going to be the other two big sponsors. I'm really excited about this opportunity to drive this car and has my picture on it. It's going to bring lots of awareness and I think many good things are going to come of it. The car is order but wont be ready to go for about another month and we are going to have the big unveiling at the New Sudbury Shopping Centre and I'll keep everyone posted with what date and time.
Today was our clubs swim a thon and it was great to see some of the kids in my level who are only 10-12 years old swimming almost 3km non-stop. They've come along way since the beginning of the year as most of them this is their first year swimming and were just learning the basics of the strokes at the beginning of the year. It was really great to see them just want to keep going and going.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Training is the name of the game

This week has been a big week for training. Yesterday was a 2hour workout of all core and weights! Coach kicked my butt and I was pretty tired by the end. Later on in the day I had a 5km TT to do. Wasn't sure how it was going to go since I was doing it on the Loaches trail between LU and Loaches Road which is snow packed and it was dark out when I was doing it so with no lights it made it a little tricky. Each way is exactly 1km so I had to do 5 laps. I felt pretty comfortable and was happy overall with the run. I had an average 173bpm heart rate and each km was split almost exactly the same with only a 2-3 second difference. I finished with a 17:55 for the 5km. Not to bad for this time of year and in the middle of a hard training week.
Today was a 45minutes swim this morning. Some core work and then a 3km run-1hour bike-3km run. The first run is at 80% then hope on the bike for an hour with 2x15minutes at 80% and then the run off the bike is 70%.
Today Lea and I went to court as Lea was told to be there as a witness for the accident she was involved in during the summer. The girl who was charge had the charge dropped and was only charged $180 for causing Lea to be in the hospital and then 4 months of physio and $2000 damage to her car and $7000 damage to another car. I just can't understand how this court system of ours works. It's like lets let everyone who does something wrong off and then they can do it again. Lea or the driver of the other car didn't even get a chance to speak and the facts that this girls lawyer presented weren't even close to be correct. I guess I should be all that surprised at what I saw with the court case and how the guy who killed my dad basically got off with nothing....very frustrating!!

Monday, March 2, 2009

Rolling right along

Things have been coming right along the last little while. I've been feeling really strong and healthy which is great.
Things went as good as could be expected last week at the funeral in Blind River. I got out for a good run Thursday morning before breakfast on a nice back road with some rolling hills. It's always so much more exciting biking or running somewhere you've never been before. We got back Thursday night right before the big storm...what's one more big snow fall this winter.
Lea's parents stayed with us Friday night and we got some stuff done for the wedding. I did get some bad news though about the wedding...I got a letter from my grandma this weekend that her doctor said she's not well enough to travel so she wont be able to come. I really wanted her to be able to make it so it was some disappointing news!
I also had a meeting with Matt Mooney at ShotCrete Plus last week and he has made another donation this year to help me out with cost. I also received a letter and cheque in the mail from a complete stranger last week. I was very surprised but very happy and very thankful!!
Tonight I have a big workout with a 3km run, hope on the bike for 1hour had hard and then another 3km run off the bike. With a little swim, core and some stretching it should be a good day!