PS

As you can see, I figured out today how to upload videos from my new underwater camera. Might be some quirks to work out still, it took a while.

Social Experiment

After thinking on the last post I realized why I was so intrigued by this headphone phenomena. It is as a result of a conversation I had just a couple of days ago with a friend. He was telling me about the nice resort restaurant that he works at and how they have to set up the dining room and move stuff around and he would sweat through his nice work shirt(in Maui and all). So he decided he would do his set up in a different shirt that was nice but not a white button up collar. He then noticed the other staff started to do the same and then everyone was wearing whatever they wanted. It then started to look poorly on the resort so my friend decided since he started the trend he would bring it back up. So he started wearing a nice collared shirt to set up again and then shortly after, the rest of the staff followed suit and got back on board.

SO, I guess that is why I found it so interesting today with the headphones on the run, as I only remember one or two at the start and only for certain runs, but then I guess social tendency (I made that up, not sure if that is right??) gets the better of us and we follow suit. Who knows, if I hadn't missed so many workouts, I could have been wearing headphones too!

Again,

Hmmmmmm, food for thought.

What happened to just running with the training group

After being off running and biking for almost a week waiting for my knee to get better and my virus to go away, I joined the training group for the warm up of their 4x8min interval workout.

As we started the warm up I looked around at all of my training partners (as it was fairly quiet and I was curious) I noticed that only myself and Kyle Jones were the only ones not having a cord dangling from our ear or ears hooked up to an ipod. (I like just the single one in as that is way cooler and I kinda felt like I was surrounded by secret service :) )

I am all for running with music but when you are training with a group I thought that was the purpose of having a group. Someone to chat to, joke with, draw energy from etc etc. I often wear my headphones when I am headed out for my 60-120min solo base runs but I almost never wear them when I am doing intervals and never when I am running with someone.

I figure if you need to have some sort of stimulus in order to get through the intervals or make it go by faster some other ways are A) focus internally B)focus on your external form C) use imagery of racing to do the same and then in the long run this will give you better tools to use while in a race.

Hmmm, food for thought.

Under water still series of Simon and myself during 200m beach start in and outs

Still series

Maui Open Water 400's finish

This is from our interval open water swim session that we do on Thursdays. Saturdays we swim point to point past that crater in the background of this video.

Hydration and Nutrition

This is my "paired down" nutrition. There is so much out there to supplement with. I have tried lots of different things and a couple of new ones starting this Maui camp.

Water Running

That sound you hear at the end are the whales off in the distance. They are all around Maui this time of year.

2009 season over and time to look forward

After a disappointing fall as the result of a 4 week knee bursitis I have left the 2009 season behind and looking to have a great 2010. I managed to get over the bursitis in enough time to race Clearwater 70.3 worlds but not soon enough to get in good enough shape. So I had a great swim 4th, held on for the bike at the front end and then slowly faded on the run and struggled in outside of the top 20. Missing the Dallas Open and a shot at being Xterra World Champion was a tough pill to swallow.

Going forward I am now in Maui with the Senior Canadian National team to do a 3 week fitness building camp. I had a good solid off season leaving me a little out of shape but plenty of time to build into the season like last year. As I get older I hopefully am getting wiser and have started taking more conservative starts to the season with the plan of finishing strong right through the ITU season ending in September.

This year looks similar to last starting with defending my New Orleans 70.3 title and hopefully improving on my course record. Then I will head full steam into the ITU World Championship series starting with WCS Seoul.

The season in a nutshell:

New Orleans 70.3
WCS Seoul
WCS Madrid
ITU Des Moines
WCS Hamburg
WCS London
WCS Kitzbuhel??
Natoinal Champs Kelowna
WCS Grand Final Budapest
WC Tongyeong??
Xterra World Champs Maui??
WC Hualtulco??
70.3 World Champs Clearwater

Last post explained

In regards to the last post, that was just a shout out to my good friend Aaron who hung out with me on Skype while I rode in my garage for three hours. Thanks Aaron you rock and made that ride much more manageable!

Cheers
Sent wirelessly from my BlackBerry device on the Bell network.
Envoyé sans fil par mon terminal mobile BlackBerry sur le réseau de Bell.

Hey Aaron

Having a good day?
Sent wirelessly from my BlackBerry device on the Bell network.
Envoyé sans fil par mon terminal mobile BlackBerry sur le réseau de Bell.

Transformation has begun!

After a brief 5 day recovery after the ITU Grand final I started my transformation from all out speed to strength/speed for the fall races. Coach Watson started the process with a 4.5hr ride on the TT bike and a 2hr run. This was followed by more long rides, hill overgear work, mountain bike work, tempo runs off the bike, more base runs and less swimming. The first 9 days came to 550km's riding, 107km running and not a whole lotta swimmin!

The best and most challenging workout of the block was the 3hr trainer session with building wattage intervals and then a 1:05 run off with 5x8min fartlek at sub 1:10 half marathon pace.

I feel good coming out of this block and ready for the next 7 day block before heading to Dallas on the 9th for the final Lifetime Fitness triathlon.

I'll let you know if I crack!

Post Grand Final

Now that my ITU season is done for the season I have been back on the time trial and mtn bikes this last week. I have logged up almost 100km of running as well to get ready for the last three races of the season. Dallas Open lifetime fitness triathlon, Maui Xterra World Champs and Clearwater 70.3 World Champs. I am eager to train surprisingly having logged a busy season already. I guess the lure of trying to become a world champion and the fact the racing is different and fun helps a bit.

As for the Grand Final two weekends ago on the Gold Coast of Australia, it was a fast and furious race. I really prepared well for the event mentally and physically. I was rested and mentally excited to challenge myself and put everything I had on the course. I spent quite a bit of time on the course learning the turns, hills, finish stretches and so forth to make sure I could see it all in my mind. I then spent the days leading up to the race going over the course in my head and getting an idea of the intensity and the feeling I wanted to have on the course.

Come race start I was relaxed and confident and focused on a fast start. It was a beach run in which I like and got me off to a good start and I was well up in the group coming to the first turn. Once arriving at the turn it was a complete gongshow and to make sure this race was like all the others this season I had my goggles kicked off once again. (Although for this race I had them strapped on so tight I had a headache and my eyeballs almost got sucked out of the sockets when they came off) Regardless, I crawled my way around the first turn (it isn't swimming when your feet are below your shoulders and you are on top of people) and once I made it out the other side I adjusted my goggles and focused on getting back up in the group. At the first exit I think I was almost dead last 51st I think and I could see the long line ahead of me. The second lap I smashed it as I wasn't going to settle for being in the second pack. Entering transition I was top thirty and 15sec down and by 2km into the bike I was leading the pack.

The bike was fairly uneventful with several unsuccessful attacks and then one that stuck and one that got a away with two laps to go with Paul Tichelaar and Matt Reed in it. I thought about going with the last attack but hesitated too long and thinking 2 laps to go was too late. Hind sight it might have worked but you never know.

Coming into transition for the run was very intense with a pack of 50 guys flying into a 90 degree turn at 50km/hr. After surviving the bottle neck and making through the last three turns I got in and out of transition near the front but not right there. I thought I could make it up in the first 1km or so but the pace was unbelievable. It felt like I was sprinting and I was still losing steps to the leaders. I focused on the group that was forming ahead and tried everything to get to it but the pace was just more then I could close. I held ground for the first lap or two and then I started to pick off some of the guys dropping off pace. I felt really strong and smooth on the hill and had a good rhythm on the downhill and false flats. It one of the fastest courses terrain and turn wise of the season. Add the fact that everyone was in top shape and putting it all on the line means that even though I ran 30:34 I came up 18th 1:30 back from the win and 55sec off the podium.

I was stoked with my fast run but know that I still have a lot of work to do to get on that podium. With an injury free season under my belt and all the right training I can take this fitness and speed and easily build on it next year.

Thanks for the support from everyone over the season and into this last ITU race. I will keep updating on my progression through the next three races and hopefully a world championship!

Killing Time

The skill of killing time when you have a 3:15pm is quite key or else you will likely go insane. Luckily there is the internet albeit a little behind the times here in Australia. Simon and I have both repeatedly threatened to throw our computers off the 25th floor balcony as the connection is at best intermittent. I digress, after a week here on the Gold Coast killing time and doing the last prep workouts it is finally the day where we get to race.

My season has gone well so far and I am excited to race one last ITU race for the season. My run speed has hit a new level this year and I am eager to see if I can bring it up one more notch for the Grand Final.

I look forward to having a beer and a body surf after the race to round out the ITU season.

Having fun at nationals

After a solid training day at nationals and coming 4th missing the sprint for 2nd I am focused on ITU grand final in three weeks. Good job Kyle and Paul respectively 2nd and 3rd. Looking forward to training in Vic.

Quebecer,s rule
Sent wirelessly from my BlackBerry device on the Bell network.
Envoyé sans fil par mon terminal mobile BlackBerry sur le réseau de Bell.