In Ottawa

It was a good drive this afternoon to Ottawa with Drew, it was uneventful which can be a good thing. I've been feeling a little sick the past few days and as soon as I got here I had a nap. Drew went over to the race site tonight while I had my nap to check in and said that course is almost dangerous fast. Should be interesting to watch as I've never been to a ski race with top skiers from around the World. The hotel we are staying at has set aside one of their conference rooms for all the skiers for waxing for the weekend so that's where Drew has been for the past hour. I don't think I would have the patience to put on coat after coat of wax on my ski's...Drew said he's spent like 10 hours in the past two weeks waxing his ski's getting them ready for this race! Crazy!!
Tomorrow we will be up early as his 53km race starts at 9am. In the afternoon I'm going to go and visit my grandma who lives here in Ottawa. It's been awhile since I've seen her and when I called her earlier this week she was so excited that I was coming! Sunday Drew is back at it with another 53km's. Tomorrow's is a classic ski and Sunday is the skate ski. It will be different this weekend because I'm so used to being the one racing and other people watching me and now I'm going to be the one cheering and doing whatever I can to help Drew's races go smooth. I think it will be fun.
Happy Valentines Day tomorrow to everyone and especially to my fiancee Lea who is back home in Sudbury. Love you

And I'm home....

Another swim meet has come and gone. There has been many over the last 16 years but I'm still putting up some good results even though my swimming is only a 1/3 of what it used to be. Tonight I have the 200Free and 2:00.75 and was good enough for 1st place. Ten minutes after that I was up again and swimming the 100Fly. I can see my sprinting skills haven't improved any over the years and was only able to go 1:02.18 and 3rd place. Overall it was a really good weekend though and I'm really happy that I went. I had some very positive swims and even walked away with a 1st in the 200Fr, 400Fr, 1500Fr, 200Fly and a 3rd in the 100Fly.
We made it home safe and sound and tomorrow it's back to work at 8am and back to training! This week will be a busy week...even though every weeks seems like a busy week! I will be getting my new shoes, getting the results of the blood test on Tuesday, meeting with a possible new sponsor, getting ready for this weekend in Ottawa and trying to fit some kind of a valentines in before I leave. Should be lots of fun with all the other usual stuff. That's all for now since I better get my butt in bed and get some rest.

Another Good Day

Today I had the 200Fly and 400Free. This morning in prelims I felt alright, a little tight. This afternoon I just relaxed in the hotel room and had a little nap to get ready for finals. The 200Fly was first and I knew it was going to the race that was closest as there's a couple guys who really wanted to beat me! I was really focused going into the race and I went in with the same game plan as I did in Guelph back in December. I had another good 200Fly with the same time as Guelph, 2:14. The 400Fr I knew there was a pretty big gap between me and the next guy and a 4:17 was alright. So far 3 races down and 3 first places. Tomorrow is more of some sprinting races with the 200Fr and 100Fly. I've never been able to sprint to save my life and there's a couple fast guys so we'll see how it goes. Give me a 1500m any day over a 50 or 100m!

Good Start To Weekend

Tonight I swam my first race of the weekend the 1500m Free. I felt really good and unfortunately I had nobody to push me as the next closest person was 2minutes behind. A 16:30 is a good time and I'm very happy with it for this point in the season with coming off some really hard training. Tomorrow I'm swimming the 200Fly and the 400Free.

Swim Meet Time

This week has been a rather interesting week. It started off on Monday with a 1.5 hour hard swim in the morning with the team. Then in the afternoon I did a 3hour work out at LU with my coach and another girl he is trainer who is one of the top ranked sprinters in Canada. There was a lot of core and weights done with some speed work on the track that almost killed me. Well it killed my hamstrings anyways because I've been suffering since then. Tuesday, Wednesday and today have been more of recovery and taper days as I get ready for my swim meet that starts tomorrow in the Sault.
Tuesday I had a meeting with Robin at PioPed and he is ordering me my new shoes that will be in next week with new orthotics.
I also had a meeting with Natalie on Tuesday to get my blood work that I had done today. It was just so much fun...the nurse seemed to think it was quite funny that I was afraid of needles and that I wanted the butterfly so it wouldn't hurt as much. I got to see Natalie's new office downtown which is going to be really nice once she is all unpacked and she is even going to have a stop on one of the walls just for me and whatever I want to put up.
Yesterday I got some more good news as someone has offered to pay for another 3months of training with my coach. So now that makes 6months already paid for. A BIG thank you to Helen Bobiwash who is also a local triathlete here in Sudbury. A Big thank you also to Dr. Stauber for the first 3months.
Next week on Tuesday I have a meeting with another possible sponsor that may be willing to help me out financially this year with all the travelling and what not.
So this weekend it's off to the Sault for my swim meet. Tomorrow night I'm swimming the 1500m Fr and then there will be 5 other races throughout the weekend. Next weekend it looks like I'm going to be going to Ottawa with Drew so that Josee and the kids can stay home and I can keep Drew company. Drew is racing in a World Cup cross country ski race where he has to ski 50km's on Saturday and then if that wasn't long enough Sunday he has to ski another 50km's. Crazy guy!
Well that's all for now, hope this weekend goes good and I'll try and report on my races throughout the weekend.

Here is a couple pictures of Dr. Stauber and I. Dr. Stauber is my Upper Cervical Doctor who has been helping me out so much! He's really a great guy and great doctor and I owe a lot to him.

Busy week done and another coming

So the biggest news of the week is that I am now working with a coach! I was working with one last year for a couple months around this time but he lived in Ottawa and it was the whole long distance e-mail thing and it just didn't work for me. I'm really pumped though now because he lives in Sudbury and it will be great working one on one with someone who really knows what their doing. He's worked with some really big name athletes and even some Olympians. We started this week and I'm already dead. The other big thing also was that I found someone has paid for my first 3months worth of training with my new coach. I was so happy when I found that out because it was really the only thing holding me back. I'm going to be trying to see if I can find other companies or people who will maybe pay for a month or two once I'm done these first three.
Thursday I did a whole bunch of strength training test that just killed me. After that it was an easy run on treadmill and an easy swim.
Friday morning was a 1.5 hour swim with the team and then a hard bike later on in the day. 10min warm up, 15min. at 90%, 15min. at 70%, 15min. at 90%, 15min at 95% and a 5min. cool down!
Saturday was some circuit training and then a hard swim with 4x250mFr as the main set. 2:50, 2:48, 2:48, 2:46.
Today was just an active recovery day with an easy 40min. run outside except that even though it was warm out the wind was almost pushing me backwards.
This coming weekend I'll be in the Sault racing. Hopefully I wont be too tired and I'll be able to put up some good times. Today we are having my sister Molly and Sig over for supper for Sig's birthday and I'm sure the Super Bowl will be on.
Last night Lea and I went to the ORN thank you party and they had some draw prices. I got some movie passes and a $50 gift card to a sea food restaurant in town. Then at the end of the night it was time for the big draw for some really nice patio/lawn chairs that were worth $400 and Lea's name got pulled!!! We couldn't believe it! It was pretty cool.