The Week ahead

Well...I'm back home and getting organized again. This week is a recovery week for me, as well as a week where I try to determine what is making my knee sore. I've got a massage scheduled for today, and a chiro appointment set-up for Wed. Hopefully I'll be able to determine something from those two visits and be back to running soon! I'm also back to helping out with the Newmarket Triathlon Team Swim program in the mornings.

I'm also looking forward to watching the Masters this weekend on TV....that is the official start of spring!!

Here's what the rest of the week looks like:

Tues:
massage
90' base recovery ride

Wed:
4500m swim
weights
chiro appointment

Thurs:
optional swim
2 hr ride with 10X10'' sprint in the middle of ride

Fri:
4500m swim

Sat:
3 hr ride with 15 X 2' Big Gear efforts
Weights

Last Day of Camp

Well...the time has come for the camp to come to an end. What an amazing 3 weeks it has been here in Tucson. Great coaches, great weather, great training mates, and a great place for riding. Now it's back to chilly Ontario....hopefully the weather warms up a bit there!!

Thanks to Triathlon Canada for funding the camp, and for inviting me to participate. I'd also like to thank the coaches (Craig, Adam, Alex, and Joel) for the outstanding coaching and support throughout the whole camp!

Today we swam 4000m in the morning with a main set of 6X400 on 6'. I was absolutely smashed from yesterday's tough ride, and I felt like a something that you'd pick up after a dog today. I felt horrible in the water. Nick did the whole set on 5:30, which was really impressive. Nick swam really solid 400's today, as did James Loaring who did the last 3 on 5:30 and got down to 4:45 for the 3rd swim, and 4:39 for the third pull.

We had a 90' recovery ride as a group (8 of us) which turned out to be really tough on the way home as we had a head-wind after we turned around. We spent part of the day cleaning up our condo, as most people leave tomorrow. I don't leave until Fri AM, so I will get another recovery ride in tomorrow, and Craig and I may head to the aviation museum that is here, looks pretty cool.

We are ending the day today with a base run (40-60') I'll see how the leg feels, I'll get 20' in at the most, hopefully not too much pain in the knee. It's always good to have an easy/recovery day (no hard efforts) the day before travelling, as you are exposed to many free radicals and air-borne viruses stuck on an airplane.

Kyle leaves tonite(and also the computer), so this will be the last update until I get home and have computer access again. I'll try to keep the blog going with updates on training, racing, etc.

Hope you have all enjoyed reading about my adventures in Tucson....

Dano

Makin Simon Work on the Bike

Mt Lemmon Results

Well....after Craig and Adam went up Mt Lemmon in the morning in the van, it was decided that the TTT would go to approx 19.5 miles, as the cloud coverage was around there, and it was really raining up there when they were there. We were informed that there was a prize for the winning team, T-shirts stating: "Mt Lemmon Champs" as modelled by the winners above.

Nick and I were the first of the team competition to go, and we rode with Charlene Waldner, and Kirsten Sweetland (who was going after the women's 11.35 mile record of 59'). Simon and the other three were going 5' after us. We worked well as a group to around 9.5 miles, when Kirsten decided to really floor it for her last 2 miles. She went around us, and powered towards her finish line. Kirsten ended up crushing the women's record going 56'.

Nick gapped me by about 25m or so around mile 11, and I had to work really really hard to bridge back onto his wheel, which I was able to do around mile 12. We rode controlled at that point, me just staying right on his wheel. Nick finally broke me for good around mile 13, opening up a sizable gap on me. We were still holding off the group behind us though...which was good.

At mile 15, the main support van came up beside me and started encouraging me to really push it...a little Eminem came blarring out of the speakers, and I tried to get out of the saddle and really give er. I took a looke behind and saw a yellow helmet (Simon) coming towards me. Simon caught me at 16 miles, where I was able to hang on to him. The van kept the encouragement high, and I even tried to break Simon a couple times, actually opening a gap between the two of us, until he would close it down. We rode together until mile 19, when Simon broke me with a controlled acceleration. We were coming close to the finish, so I threw it in the big ring, and closed the gap a lil bit, finishing 7 sec behind Simon (though he left 5' after me).

David-James was the next to come across the line, followed closely by Kyle and James. Apparently, Simon had broken from them around mile 9, and continued his solo assault on the group.

When all was said and done, Team Simon out-climbed us by 6 minutes, for an overall winning margin of 4 minutes. A great, epic ride by everyone today. That was the toughest climb I have done, coming close to puking at the top.

We all hitched rides down the mountain, and spun back to the condos from the bottom of the mountain.

Results: (31.75km)
Simon 1:30:57
David-James 1:32:45
Kyle 1:33:15
Nick 1:34:54
James 1:35:15
Dano 1:36:04

Mt Lemmon TTT Preview

Today is the big Mt Lemmon time trial.
We are competing in teams of three:

Kyle Jones
James Loaring
Daniel Wells

Simon Whitfield
David-James Tache
Nick Hastie

Nick and I are leaving 2' before the other four guys, and the combined Team Time will determine the team winner at the end.

At the swim this morning we had an option of gaining time for the climb today. We had a set of 12X100 on 1:25, 200 easy, then another 12X100 pull w. paddles on 1:25 with the following Time Bonuses:

If you went 12 on 1:20, you get 30'' bonus
If you went 12 on 1:15, you get 60'' bonus

Each member had to declare before each round of 12 what interval they were going on.
For the first round of 12, Team Kyle all went on 1:20, while Team Simon all went on 1:25. Team Kyle built up a 1:30 advantage after round 1.
For the 12X100 pull, Team Kyle sent James and Dano on 1:15, with Kyle on 1:20. Team Simon countered with Simon and Nick on 1:15, with Daivd-James on 1:20. It looked as if Team Kyle was going to have a 1:30 lead going into the climb, but it was ruled by the officials on the pool deck that David-James dropped his pull bouy for the last 2 X 100's thus he did not get the 30' bonus.

Heading into the climb, Team Kyle has a 2' advantage on Team Simon...should prove to be an epic 24 mile battle on Mt Lemmon. To top it off, the high for the top of Mt Lemmon is 44 today, and we might run into some inclement weather during the climb.

Sun-Mon

Sunday:

Tried running again today, made it about 10' before I had to stop, my right knee was hurting me again. Decided to just shut er down.
11am: 2hr base ride
66.74km (2hr 10')
nice base ride as a group (8 of us)..headed south out of Tucson, down and around the airport area, then back up towards our condo. The legs felt pretty good by the end of the ride.
We ended the day off with a 4300 yard swim.

The main set was
10X100 on 1:20
300 pull paddles on 4'
8X100 on 1:15
300 pull paddles on 4'
6X100 on 1:10

I cruised the first 18X100's, then for the last 6 I held all under 1', with a couple 56's and a 55. Felt a bit out of it on the last 6, the stroke was a bit choppier than normal.

MON:
A legs off day, just a couple of swims today.

3500m Swim:
About 1300m warm-up, then a main set of 12 X 150m as follows:
# 1-3 band only (around ankles)
#4-7 band and pull bouy low (at ankles)
#8-12 band and pull bouy high w. paddles.

A tough muscular strength set, the band around the ankles makes it difficult to swim, forces you to work on the technique.

We are also swimming again at 3pm today, with 3500m scheduled and the main set(1800m) as

2X (12 X 50 as 2 fast, 1 slow + 3X100 desc. 1-3)

We have a group mini-golf outing tonight, with pride and bragging rights on the line.
Tomorrow is a 4000m swim in the morning, and then the race of truth and BIG bragging rights, the 24 mile Mt Lemmon TT. It'll be interesting to see how that one unfolds. May have played my hand a bit too early on Saturday...

Great Day for a ride

Wow....another glorious day for a ride here in Tucson. 3.5hr was scheduled for today. We headed out along Spanish Trail for an hour with the support van, where we turned around and headed back towards to Mt Lemmon. Somehow we decided that we'd climb part of Mt Lemmon during the ride today. We got to the base of Mt Lemmon and started to climb. Simon and Kyle were going to climb to around 12 miles, with others turning around earlier. I figured I'd try to hang in as long as possible today. There were 6 of us on the front, until about 5' in, when James decided to pick the pace up, and we lost Kirsten. We kept on climbing, with the pace pretty intense for me. My HR monitor was beeping every so often as the pace picked up (HR over 180) but I was feeling good. When James picked the pace up, I heard Kyle yell "shit", and I was cursing James as well. Soon after that we lost David-James and it was Simon, Kyle, James and myself. James dropped off soon after, and I was praying that Simon and Kyle didn't have any tricks up their sleeves for me. I just concentrated on following a wheel in frotn of me. On we climbed, with Simon and Kyle occasionally getting out of the saddle and dropping a couple gears, and I did everything I could to hang on. David-James caught back up to us, and the van soon came up. Joel (head coach) told David-James and I to climb to just over 7 miles and then to head back to town....which was fine with me. Kyle and Simon continued on to around 11 miles or so.

I ended up climbing the 7 miles today 4.5 minutes faster than on Wed when we went the whole way...hopefully I can carry todays ride into the Mt Lemmon TT on Tuesday, when we go in reverse order based on our climbs from last Wednesday.

A nice hot tub and epsom salt followed the ride, and we are heading to downtown Tucson to sight-see this afternoon, and a team dinner later tonite. I think we might even break out a lil Texas Hold Em tourney tonite!!

Fri

We had a nice easy swim in the morning, we swam 3.5km, some technical work, and drill. Chilled out til later in the day, when we headed over for a 2nd swim/water run. Tara and I water ran, while Kyle, Nick and Jordan swam a second time. I also had another massage last night, had some real good work done on my right leg, seems it is a combo of tight hamstring/calf muscles, and not ITB which is encouraging news!!
Kyle and I fell asleep while trying to watch the end of the U Conn/Washington NCAA game.

Thurs

5km Swim
I was definately hurting a bit today, but I guess that is allowed after a big day yesterday and my birthday night. Two part main set today, 8X100 with a band around the ankles, really makes you work on body roll while swimming, and then the main main set as follows:

100 swim, 100, 200 pull, 100 200 300 swim, 100 200 300 400 pull, 100 200 300 swim, 100 200 pull, 100 swim, all on a base interval of 1:25 (3000m total set)

A nice 90' recovery ride happened at 11am, (44.6km) really windy out today, in our face most of the way out, cruising coming home which was nice!! We have a tempo run later tonite (5pm) which we are heading down to the Wash to run. I'm lookin to just run steady today, see how the knee feels. Tomorrow is a bit of a recovery day, with a long ride scheduled for Saturday.
March Madness is back tonite, Kyle and I will be watching. We've adopted the Wichita St. Shockers as our favourite team!

B Day Party

Here are some pics from the BBQ we had here last night for my b-day. Simon and Kirsten posing for the camera; Kathy,David-James and Tara; getting my nipples twisted by Simon and Kyle; Coach Craig playing the guitar for us.

Unknown to me, Craig Mel and Simon organized a BBQ for last night. We cooked up a bunch of chicken breasts, made a bunch of salads, and they even got me a birthday cake! It was a great night, thanks to everyone!

Pics of Mt Lemmon Ride Part 2

Kyle after we got back to the bottom;
looking back down at Tucson;
part of the climb;
myself descending;
group descending

Pics of Mt Lemmon Ride Part 1

Simon and Jordan at the top; Simon descending; view of a neighbouring mountain top; the cookie shop at the top (notice the snow); the view from the truck as we descend (the water on the road is from the snow melting)

Adventures on Mt Lemmon

Wow...what a ride. A long day in the saddle, just over 4hrs of total riding today.
We rode over to the base of Mt Lemmon in two groups, most of the girls went at 10:30, and the guys and Mel McQuiad went at 11:00. This would make it easier for the coaches to provide support high up on the mountain.

Our group consisted of Simon, Kyle, Jordan,Nick, James, Mel, David-James, and myself. I knew I wasn't going to be able to climb with all these guys, so I basically let them go, and rode my own ride with the I-Pod for 2hrs. I rode just off the back of the main group until 3 miles, when Simon et all pulled away. Once we rode through 5000 ft (started at roughly 3000 ft) it was noticeably cooler. There was snow on the ground at 5000 ft, and as we went further up, there was a LOT of snow on the ground. You could not see grass or dirt on the sides of the road at all. There were a lot of cars pulled over with people out playing in the snow, I guess that's what you do when you don't get snow down low.
I caught back up to Mel at about 13 miles or so, other than that, I didnt see any one until the cookie shop at the top.

At around 20 miles, there was a 3 min descent which was absolutely freezing!! At that point we were over 7000 ft elevation, I was tired, needing water, and cold. The remaining couple of miles of climbing warmed me up a bit, but the hot chocolate and big cookie waiting at the top was even better. Thanks to Craig and Joel and TriCan for getting all of us the cookies and hot chocolate.

Climb Stats:
Start Elevation: approx 2900 ft
Top Elevation: just over 8000 ft
Total Distance: just over 24 miles
Climb Time: 2 hr 3 min

From what I hear, it was quite the ride at the front of the group. Simon has written a great report of the ride here. Simon and Kyle were 1 hr 48 min, with James about a min back, while Jordan had a monster climb as well cresting in 1hr 53 min. Looks like I got some climbing work to do!! Next Wed is the epic end to the camp, a TT up Mt Lemmon. Hopefully I'll be able to hang in on that climb for a while.

After the rest at the top, we all doned our warm gear (Hat, gloves, leg warmers, booties, jackets) for the 24 mile descent back to Tucson. The descent was a lot more enjoyable than the climb!! Craig and Joel met us at the bottom to take all of our warm gear back. We then spun back to the condos, where I had a nice long hot tub.

All in all, the day had a 3.5km swim in the morning, 116.5 km ride (4hr 16') and most of the group did 40-60' run later after the ride, but I stayed off the knee today.

Start of the Week

Tuesday was the start of three harder days of training

Swim
Main Set this morning was 2km Steady State swimming. Simon, David-James and I went thorugh 1000m in 12:45, at which point I picked it up a bit, finishing in 25:15. David-James was 25:25, and Simon 25:30. James Loaring came out of nowhere (leaving 2nd in a lane) and went 25:00 (finishing at the same time as me)
I felt a lot better this week in the pool, and most people swam faster this week than last week

2hr ride with 10X (2' HC, 2' ez)
Good group ride, nice steady pace, high cadence. 60km in just under 2hrs.

40-60' run
We headed over to Saguardo Nat. Park for the run. I did the 15' warm-up with the group, as well as drills, and then when they did steady state running, I just ran an additional 25' in which my leg felt better, but still pain in the knee.

Today (Wed) is the big climb of Mount Lemmon, straight to the top (40km) Today is also my birthday, so what a way to celebrate. I hear there is a killer pie shop at the top!! We should probably see a bunch of snow at the top as well....Forecast for Tucson is 69 today, at the top of Mt Lemmon it is forecast for about 50, so it will be chilly, especially on the way down!!

Recovery Day

Another scheduled recovery day, before we start 3 hard days in a row.

3500 m swim
Nice easy, relaxed swim this morning, main set of 2X1200m, working on body position in the water. Today was Alex Serano's last day here (Kathy and David-James' coach) as he heads back to Montreal tomorrow morning. I'm going to miss having him around the camp; he's a funny guy, and a great coach, especially around the pool.

The rest of the day was off the feet, relaxing. Half hour massage at 11:30 today, Kyle and I's almost daily trip to Walgreens' followed by a hot tub, and an epsom salt bath. All in all a great day.

On tap for Tuesday:
2000m Steady State Swim Main Set (even or negative split)
2hr bike w. 10 X (2' High cadence, 2' ez)
40-60' run

Wacky Weather Day

Weather Channel called for rain this morning as Kyle and I woke up. We figured no way could it rain today, it was bright sun at 7:30 as we got set to run. Well, the weather was great for the run (bright sun) but later on in the day, just as we started our ride, it started to pour rain.

60-90' Run
The group did the above run, which I cut back as today was my first time running on the road in 5 days after my ITB flare up. I managed to get 30' relatively pain free in, which was a good sign today! Still going to keep on icing, and taking my ibuprofen daily.

11am recovery ride
Just as we were heading out the door, the skies opened and it started to rain steady. This was only the second day in last past 90 or so that they have had rain, and I've been here for both of them! The ride was cold, and my hands were frozen by 20' into the ride. Craig came by at 40' or so, and Jordan and I decided to call it a day as we were absolutely frozen, and hopped into the van. Of the 7 of us that rode outdoors today (others rode the trainer instead) only two got the full ride in. Craig picked up three of us, and Alex picked up his atheletes (Kathy Tremblay and David-James Tache). Riding in those conditions just wasn't worth it in this weather.

We ended the day with a 4000 yard swim at the pool. Coaches decided to keep it yards, so we wouldn't have to stand out in the cold, possibly rainy weather to change the pool around. Anytime we can swim yards here is great for me....I just love yards. Everyone else hates it, so I'm always trying to push for us to swim yards...bit of a running joke with Craig.

Round 2 of March Madness is over, and I already lost one of my final four teams (Pittsburgh). Geez, this has been a bit of a tough bracket to pick this year.

Tomorrow is a easy, easy swim in the morning, and then nothing the rest of the day. I have a 30' massage scheduled for 12:30, which will be good as I can get some treatment on my right ITB.

Saturday

3.5hr ride

A bit chilly this morning, with some wind, as we headed out for our ride. Out along Spanish Trail, to Colossal Caves, which we rode through. We did another little out and back, where Craig was with the van, and we dropped some of our warm clothing, and got some new bottles and coke.
A bit of a killer cross wind on the way home, as I rode with Jess Kirkwood on the way home, as we were off the back a bit on the way home, so we cruised it in, keeping the HR in our aerobic zone (which was the goal of the long ride)

We went out as a group for dinner to this place called sweet tomotoes, which is a salad bar buffet type of place with a hot bar as well. It was pretty good food, and a good price as well! 8 of us followed up dinner with an intense game of mini-golf under the lights, in which I cleaned up, winning $3!

Commonwealth Games

Fri nite was the Mens and Womens Commonwealth Games triathlon. We were following it here on the internet, and we ran a pool for the men's race, with each person having to pick their top 5 in order, $2 entry fee, winner take all. We had 8 people enter, with Adam Campbell taking all the money. He nailed 1st, 2nd and 5th smack on.
Kyle Jones (my roommate) after talking smack on how he was going to win, came dead last in the pool!

Both the men and women raced well...with Paul Tichelaar having the best result of the day, leading out of the water, and finishing 8th overall. All three men (Paul, Colin Jenkins, and Brent McMahon) were in the lead pack off the bike. Full results can be found on the commonwealth games page.

Friday Afternoon = Rest and Bball

Well...at least that's what the afternoon was supposed to be. Instead, I decided to spill my lunch (pasta with meat sauce) on the white carpet in our room. After using up the carpet cleaner we had here, I made a hasty trek to Walgreens to get more. After scrubbing the hell out of the carpet, you can hardly notice that I spilt tomato sauce!!

Happy St Paddy's Day

4km aerobic swim this morning....long warm-up, then a pull,swim,kick set followed by 10' of water polo!
I got dropped off to do some water running, while a few people went to do weights at bally's. I am now finished for the day, which is a great feeling! Staying off the legs for the rest of the day, gonna grab the USA Today, and just lie around and watch lots of NCAA March Madness!

3.5hr ride on tap for tomorrow, then we are heading downtown to walk around, sight see (hopefully catch the White Sox spring training game) and then we are going out for a group dinner somewhere.

Start of Madness

Well...the madness begins today!! It's 8pm here, and already there have been some upsets, and some near upsets.

5000m Swim
1500m warm-up (500 mix, 4X100 IM, 300 kick, 3X100 descend)
25 X 100 as follows:
5 on 1:25, 5 on 1:20, 5 on 1:15, 5 on 1:20, 5 on 1:25
600 kick, and Warm down.

Felt good after the warm-up, we had 9 of us going on the above interval, others went 5 sec slower per hundred. I think I finally got my swim feeling back today, was rocking in the water. Held 1:08's on the 1:15 interval, and under 1:15 on the final 10X100's. Everyone swam well today, Simon and I making all the 1:15's and others just missing the last couple by a second or so.

2.5hr Base Ride
group ride heading north from our condo unit into the Oro valley. Bit of a rough ride today, as we rode along the highway for most of the ride, we won't re-visit that route again. It was a nice ride, just busy. 77km ride (2:33) 30km/hr

3300 yds (2nd swim)
6 of us went for the second optional swim today (Kyle, Kirsten, Tara, Gen, Steve, myself) over at Udall pool. finally we got to swim short course yards!! Did a bunch of pull and bands work.

Tomorrow calls for 4km swim (aerobic, some pull and kick) and there is a double run scheduled. I will be doing a water run instead of running on the road tomorrow, the ITB band is still sore, so I don't want that to flare up at all.

Kyle the Guitar Great

my roommate Kyle, is a guitar star

Pics of the Climb

(L to R):
Mel McQuaid (X Terra World Champ), Gord Fraser (pro cyclist), David-James, Coach Craig, and Simon at the start of the climb.

Mt Lemmon

"Welcome to the Santa Catalina Mountains, one of southern Arizona's "sky islands", where pine covered mountains rise high above the desert floor. The trip up the Catalina Highway can be compared to a trip from Mexico to Canada, with vegetation ranging from the giant Saguaro cactus in the lowland deserts to pine, fir, and spruce at the highest elevations."

2.5 hr w. 4 X (12' Big Gear, 5' ez)
Wow...what a ride! We spun over from our place to the base of Mt Lemmon. Mt Lemmon is a 25 mile long climb that ranges in elevation from roughly 3000ft at the base to 7900 ft at the top.
The BG work was supposed to be seated, with low cadence, working the glutes, hamstrings, pushing and pulling up the hill. We had the animals up front (Simon, Kyle, Jordan, James) and then others strung out behind as we climbed. Adam wanted me to keep my HR below 160 as I climbed, so that is what I was focusing on for the workout today. I climbed in basically a 53X21 gearing for the big gears, with my heart rate in the upper 150's. I started out a bit tentative as I have had a bit of right knee pain in the last day, so I didn't want to push to hard right away on the knee.
I had the I-Pod going, and settled in to climb for the next 65 min. It was amazing to see the changes as you climb. There are both mile marker and elevation signs along the road as you climb. Once we were above 5000ft, you could see snow on the sides of the road in the shade. On and on the climb went, and I went through 10 miles in 55', and 12 miles in 65'. I caught up to Nick by the end, and we had climbed to just past the 13 mile mark when we saw the support van and picked up our warm clothing for the descent back to town. Simon's group climbed to 14 miles, before turning back for the descent.
The interesting thing about today's climb was that we basically went to half-way up the entire climb today. Should be a good ride next week when we climb the entire thing all the way to the top.

The coaches had the camera in the support van, I'll post some pics once I get the camera back.

There is a run scheduled for later today, however I'm going to skip the run today, and give my right knee a rest, ice it down, and do some stretching on it. Also, a grocery run is scheduled for later tonite.

Tuesday

Sorry for the delay in posting....got caught up with things yesterday, and then The Unit was on TV last night, so I watched that.

Recap of Tuesday's Training

7am swim: 4300m
total of 1500m warm-up, followed by a main set of 6X400 (descend 1-3) on 6' The first 3 were swim, the last 3 pull, 400 warm-down.
Swim: 5:25,5:07,4:47
Pull: 5:25,5:10,5:10
Everyone was swimming really well this morning, majority of us got down under 5:00 for the last 400, while Simon, James, Kyle (maybe a couple others) got under 5:00 for the last pull.
Sam McGlone is tapering down for Ralph's which is this weekend. She's ready to rock.

2hr ride with 2 X (20' steady state, 5' ez)
Simon, Kyle and David-James rode a different, more hilly route for their SS, while the rest of us took a rolling road called Spainish Trail. I rode the group (Nick, Jordan,James,Dave Thomas,Kirsten, Kathy) for the first SS, but my HR was a lot higher than Adam and I want at this point of the season, so Kathy,Kirsten and I dropped off from the group for the second interval. My HR was a lot more controlled for the second interval which Kathy and I did with Jess Kirkwood, Tara Ross, and Gen Pellerin.
31.9km/hr (59.63km)

We then had a 40-60' run later in the day with some SS running. I didn't do the SS running, as I am just getting back into running after two weeks off. I ran 40', unfortunately I have been feeling some pain on the outside of the right knee, which I'm hoping is not the start of ITB problems. No running for the next couple days, lots of ice and stretching on it. Hopefully I can get some water running in instead.

Today's (Wed) workouts consist of a 3500m technical swim, followed by a 2.5hr ride over to and up Mt Lemmon and back. We'll only make it about half way up today, as the work-out calls for 4 X (12' big gear, 5' ez) climbing on Mt Lemmon. Should be a good strength workout today. I'll post the next blog after the ride. Hopefully I'll be able to get some pictures taken on the bike.

Recovery Day

Ah....a bit of a recovery day.

7am swim - 4500m
We woke up this morning with the air temperature a chilly 33F....luckily there was no wind, so it didn't feel any colder. The pool was steaming for the first hour of workout, until the sun came out a bit more.
Today's workout consisted of 1100m of warmup, followed by a main set of 2000 steady state swimming, which had to be either even-split or negative-split. Since we have the whole pool, there is lots of room for swimming, with only 2 people per lane. I swam with Kyle Jones, whose swimming has improved a lot since last year. With the sun shining in our faces, it made it tough to see who was where in the pool as we were swimming. I left 15 sec behind Kyle, and started to feel a bit looser as we got into the first 1000. I caught Kyle at 1000 and moved into the front, but hard as I tried, I couldn't drop him. Kyle and I did end up catching Nick and Simon in the other lane though. I ended up going around 25:50, with Kyle, Simon, and Nick a little bit behind. We ended the workout off with 4X (200 pull, 100 kick) and 200 easy.The coaches got us a big carafe of green tea to warm us up after the swim, which was heaven!

We basically have the rest of the day off, I had an epsom salt bath, and we are heading over to the local (and one of the best in the country) triathlon store called TriSports to get some stuff. We are heading over for a 30' water run this evening.

Tomorrow is a 4.5km swim, 2hr ride with 2X(20' steady state/5' easy), 40-60' run, and optional weights. The next three days are a bit of a step-up as we get into the camp routine.

Run and Swim Pics

Selection Sunday

Today is the day when the NCAA bball bracket gets announced....unfortunately we were out at the pool swimming when it happened, so I'm going to have to take a look at it tonite. March Madness will be eagerly followed down here...the first games on Thurs start at 10:00 am local time!

60-90' run
The coaches (Adam and Craig) drove us out to these amazing trails in the Saguaro National Park which is about a 20' drive from our condo. It was chilly this morning (40F and a wind chill of 34F) but it was a good morning for a run. I had planned on running 45' this morning, and ran with the group until I turned around to head back to finish my 45'. Unfortunately, every trail in the park looks the same, and although I thought I was following our group's footsteps on the way back, I ended up taking a wrong turn or two, and after a quick check of directions with a hiker on the trail, I made it back to the vans, only running an extra 10' for a total run of 55'. The leg has been feeling good so far, I think I'll be back onto the full camp running schedule now. Nick and Kirsten (who had planned on running 60') got a little lost in the trails, and ended up running for 1hr 50'!

2hr ride with 10X (2' high cadence, 1' easy)
A small group of 7 headed out for the ride after we got back from the run. A nice steady ride, the high cadence was nice to flush the legs out a bit from yesterday's long ride. 59.25km, (1:58) The weather was still windy and chilly for the ride (vest, hat, knee warmers, and toe covers) but it's supposed to get back into the 70's by Tuesday, and the wind is supposed to die down!!

We ended the day off with a 3200m swim workout at the pool. We were supposed to swim yards today, but we switched the pool to LCM for tomorrow's workout. Craig did promise me a yards work-out before the end of the camp! No kick race today...have to see if that happens before the camp ends.

"Winter Storm" Warning

Today is the start of a "winter storm" warning for the region. Snow warnings above 5000ft elevation (we are around 2700 ft). Not quite the winter storm warnings you would associate with in Ontario. We instead got lots of wind (25-30 mph) and a bit of intermitent showers. Temperatures all day were around 50 F but felt colder with the wind.

3.5 hr ride with 3X (20' steady state, 10' ez)
Full cold weather gear today, hat, jacket, vest, leg warmers, and toe covers!! We started out as a group for the first hour of warm-up, before breaking into groups for the steady state efforts. I ended up riding behind the first group of 5 or 6, as I didn't want to exert myself too much on my first long ride of the year. Nick Hastie and I ended up riding and working together in the wind (efforts into the wind were around 20km/hr) which definately helped!! I ended up flatting with 6' left in the 2nd interval, so I had to change the flat after that interval....that was one of about 6-7 flats for the day. There are numerous cacti thorns, other debris, as well as small pot holes that contributed to the flats. Nick and I missed a turn on the ride, so we ended up riding a little bit extra, before the support van came to tell us to turn around the pick up our road. We had to take a mountain pass (West Gates Pass) to get back to the Tucson side of the mountain range, it was cool to ride up a nice twisty pass...good prep for when we tackle Mount Lemmon in the coming days. Nick, Gen and I ended up getting picked up at the 3hr 30' mark, as we were still approx 45' out and we were scheduled for 3:30 of riding.
All in all we got in 93km in 3:18 of actual riding time.

A few of us headed over to Bally's Total Fitness later in the afternoon to do a weight session. All our sessions at Bally's are covered, we just show up and they let us in to use the entire facility!! We came back to the condo's had a group meeting to go over information and training schedule for the next couple of days, then 9 of us (Simon, Sam, Kyle, Adam, Lauren, Craig, Gen, Kirsten, and myself) headed out for some authentic mexican food in town. During dinner, Simon was talking about my stellar kicking speed for the work-out the other day, nd Sam proposed a 50m kick challenge tomorrow, her and I. She tells me she is a slow kicker, so we'll see who is slower tomorrow hopefully.

Tomorrow scheduled activities include:
7:30 long run (60-90') I'll most likely get in 45-60' depending on how my leg feels.
11:00 2hr base ride w. 10X (2min high cadence, 1' ez)
4:00 3km aerobic swim

Monday is a bit of a recovery day, before 3 solid days in the middle of the week. Monday is a morning swim, optional yoga, and then 30-45' base run or water run.

1st full day

Most of the camp is here now - Simon Whitfield, Sam McGlone, Kyle, Nick, Jordan, Jess Kirkwood, Mel McQuaid, Kirsten Sweetland, Lauren Groves, David-James Tache, Kathy Tremblay, and Dave Thomas, and Geneviève Pellerin

7am swim:
had to set up the pool from 25yds to 50m (which we'll do every day).
1000m warm-up, another 900 of a mini set, then the main set was 4X500 pull on 7'. Was feelin good at the beginning, but one whole week out of the water caught up to me, and i was hurting by the end. We ended off the workout with 8X50 kick, and everyone was amazed at my outstanding kicking speed!! (actually, they were amazed at how crappy a kicker I was!!)

by the time we got back, we had 40 min until our ride, which was 1hr 45' of aerobic riding. Stayed on the flats today, nice easy ride, covered around 50km or so. A 30' aerobic run ended off the day.

Travel Day

Well..yesterday was a travel day to Tucson.
6:35am flight from Toronto to Chicago, a quick walk to my connecting flight, then on my way to Tucson.
Adam Campbell (camp director) picked me up, and off we were to our condo unit here. The mountains around the town are outstanding...and the view is spectatular!!

There are 4 in my condo (Kyle Jones - top 10 U23 Worlds 2005), Nick Hastie, and Jordan Brydon. After putting together my bike, Kyle and I went out for a nice 1hr 45 min spin. We rode out towards Mt Lemmon which is a 24 mile climb, and climbed the first 3 miles, then descended and rode back to the condo. I also got a 20 min easy run in, just to test out my leg which has been sore.

I'll try to get some pictures up in the near future of the scenery around us here.