Daniel Wells

Yes, an update (of sorts)

2011-06-14T05:52:00.005-07:00

Seems I have had a request (A-Russ) to update the blog...a more detailed blog post will happen shortly (less than 4 weeks to Challenge Roth on July 10th), but I just had to post these pictures after Sunday and Monday night's games in the NBA and NHL.

Triathlon Canada Celebrates 25 Years of Excellence

2010-11-26T10:33:00.002-07:00

Later on today I'll be flying out to Quebec City for the weekend to partake in Tri Can's 25th anniversary banquet on Saturday evening.

The guest list of who will be in attendance is an all-star cast of triathlon in Canada to say the least:

The Puntous twins (Sylviane and Patricia)
Joanne Ritchie
Peter Reid
Lori Bowden
Dan Murray
Mark Bates
Andrew McMartin
Paul White
Sue Schlatter
Mike Stirling
Simon Cassidy
Sharon Donnelly
Carol Montgomery
Simon Whitfield
Colin Jenkins

and I'm probably missing many more

It should be an amazing weekend, I've never been to Quebec City, it has so much history, and with snow on the ground, it should be beautiful.

Here is a link to Triathlon Canada's press release on the event.

I'll update next week with pictures and stories from the weekend.

Guess Who's Back??

2010-11-12T08:36:00.002-07:00

Well...after 2 years + a day, I've decided to resurect the blog once again.

What will I blog about? A little of this, a little of that. It won't be as detailed on training anymore, as I'm not training at the same level, but I'm still swimming Masters, and have signed up to race another Ironman in 2011, this time as an age-grouper. More on that to come.

Dano

Lest We Forget

2008-11-11T07:23:00.001-07:00

IM Florida Update Coming Soon

2008-11-09T19:43:00.000-07:00

Home from Florida now, and back to Internet access.

I'll get a race report up this week.

Florida Bound

2008-10-26T18:10:00.002-07:00

Well...It's been a while since I posted on the blog, and I am not sick anymore.

Tomorrow we pack the car up with three bikes, four people, and head down to Panama City Beach for Ironman. I'm looking forward to it, as the course is one of my favourites. Race day is Saturday, 650am CST. I'm #24, you can track me on ironman.com

If things work out, I'll hopefully lead out of the water. The weather looks great for race day, so we'll see how things go! Hopefully I'll be able to post again before race day.

SICK

2008-09-25T13:13:00.002-07:00

The last two days have turned out to be a write off.

I woke up yesterday with a sore throat. I decided to take the day off, pound the Vitamin C and echinicea, and hope to kick the sore throat.

Awoke this morning, and it didn't work. First cold of the year. Stuffed up this morning, still got the sore throat, and a mild headache to boot. Taking the cold medication now, in addition to the Vit C and Ech.

Hopefully I can kick this quick, so I can still get a good weekend of training in.

Over the Weekend

2008-09-22T21:05:00.002-07:00

A good weekend of training in the books.

Saturday started out with 4.5hr of riding. Up the Malahat, down to Shawnigan Lake, two loops around the lake, and back home. 30 min run off the bike.

Sunday was a 90 min run. In the afternoon, the snowbirds were performing over the Juan de Fuca Straight and there were roughly 20-30,000 people out on the shores to watch the show. A nice sunny day, perfect for watching the air show. The sights and sounds were amazing!!

Monday brought a 4km swim in the morning, along with a 3hr ride with Jasper, Steveo and Mike. I'm trying to pack up most of my stuff, and get it off to Greyhound to be shipped home. I fly back to Ontario in a week.

Sooke 1/2 Iron Update

2008-09-17T09:36:00.003-07:00

I had my final race tune-up before IM Florida this past Sunday. The Sooke 1/2 Ironman was the final race in the West Coast series, and it was a good way to get in another race simulation.

I decided to use the day as a good training weekend, not bothering to rest too much going into the race. To top it off, the course was tough (toughest bike of the year, and the run beats you up as well).

I led out of the water by 4 minutes, and started out on the bike. I've been trying to get comfortable in my new front end set-up for Florida, so this was a good opportunity to test it out for 86km of riding. The course was basically 4 laps of a 20km loop, plus a lil extra to get to T2 (which was 5km down the road). I was riding along nice and steady until just after the climb on the third loop, when all of a sudden a guy went flying by. I had no idea who it was, and he just pulled away from me, despite my efforts to try and match him. I ended up coming off the bike 4 min down on him.

I started out the run fairly strong, trying to cut the gap down, but it wasn't possible. I was 6 min down at 10km, and knew that I was going to be stuck with 2nd. It turns out after the race that the guy was Chris Boudreaux, who used to train up here in Victoria with the crew before I got out here. He is a strong athlete. He just missed out on Jasper Blake's course record.

All in all, a solid day, some good race prep, and after a couple easy days, it'll be back to some miles, with a couple good days of some riding planned this week. I'll switch over from my current events focus to more of my training in the future

Results can be found here

Never Forget

2008-09-11T09:29:00.003-07:00

It's hard to believe that it's been 7 years already since the attacks happened on Sept 11th, 2001.

That is a day I will never forget. That Tuesday morning was looking to be a great day, blue skies, sunny, not a cloud in the sky. Soon things changed forever. Watching the smoke billow out of the World Trade Center from campus was surreal. A roommate of mine at the time was stuck on the NYC subway when the events happened. She had to literally walk out of Manhattan across the bridge back into Brooklyn.

The aftermath at Ground Zero

It's great to see a couple of memorials finally unveiled (Pentagon, as well as Logan airport).

Unveiling one of the many benches in the Pentagon Memorial

Never Forget.

Week One Bills Rap

2008-09-05T11:31:00.005-07:00

Taken from Buffalo Flagship station WGR550

Bills host the Seahawks this weekend. I think it's gonna be a good year for the Bills, and that they'll have a shot at the post season!! The best part of the weekend is that I get the game on TV out here in Victoria, since the Bills are playing Seattle.

Hanna, Ike, and Josephine

2008-09-02T15:58:00.002-07:00

If you're a weather geek like me, it's gotta be pretty cool to have 3 named Tropical Storms at the same time. I've never seen that before.

Back to organized training here in Victoria. I'll start blogging that soon, I just find the weather a much more interesting topic right now!!

Oh yeah...there will also be football in the blog...NFL starts Thursday Night!!

Gustav..."The storm of the Century"

2008-08-31T01:11:00.005-07:00

The first "major" hurricane is making its way towards Louisiana again.

Gustav looks like it should hit sometime on Monday morning/afternoon

"Hurricane Gustav, which already killed more than 80 people in the Caribbean, strengthened quickly into a Category 4 and was poised to become a Category 5 storm, packing winds in excess of 156 mph. It slammed Cuba's tobacco-growing western tip before moving away from the island country into the Gulf of Mexico.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin used stark language to urge residents to get out of the city, calling Gustav the "storm of the century." "

Looks like I'm going to have to get CNN cued up and watch Anderson Cooper reporting on the hurricane!!

Getting out of Town

As much as I love hurricane season, you've got to hope that New Orleans gets spared. It's been 3 years since Katrina devastated New Orleans, and a direct hit from Gustav would cripple the city.

It's Time!

2008-08-28T10:55:00.002-07:00

Football is Back!!

the College season kicks off tonite, and the NFL season starts next week.

The Buckeyes are poised for a good season...with a massive game on Sept 13th against USC.

Airport Reception

2008-08-26T11:09:00.005-07:00

There was a large group of people who waited patiently at the Victoria airport yesterday. Patiently, because the original flight from Beijing to Vancouver was delayed 2 hrs, and thus people missed their scheduled connector flights to Victoria.

As it was, the Olympic athletes were coming back to Vic in a couple of waves, with the triathletes (Simon, Colin, Lauren, Carolyn) being on the 5:25 arrival. Joel was stuck in Vancouver for bit longer, arriving 2hrs later I think.

Colin got me a sweet Beijing Hat, as well as a T-shirt! I was pumped!

Waiting for people to emerge

Ryan Cochrane

Carolyn Murray and Simon Whitfield

Simon gets to see PK

Colin signs autographs

Silken Laumann was at the airport, to greet the rowers I'm guessing

A shot of the crowd, about 15 min after people came off the flight

Simon and PK

Colin doing a TV interview

One of the Rowers, no clue who though

Various Pics from Kelowna

2008-08-24T13:00:00.004-07:00

Here are some various photos from Nationals in Kelowna.

In other news, tomorrow I am bringing my bike in to Fort St Cycles to get the front end swapped out to my IM Florida set-up. I'll post a pre and post comparison.

If you are near the Victoria airport tomorrow, there are a lot of Olympic athletes flying back into town between 2:00 - 3:00 pm. Included in the group of rowers, triathletes, swimmers, and divers are members of Canada's Gold Medal Men's 8 rowing crew, Olympic Silver medalist Simon Whitfield, and Bronze medalist Ryan Cochrane. I'll be up there to give Colin a lift back to his place, so I'll make sure to bring the camera along.

Also, a big congrats to Colin, who got engaged while in Beijing!

Brent and I

Our lead group of 4 (Brent, myself, Sean, and Kalen)

working to stay on up Knox Mtn

Lead group of 15 or so onto the run

End of Lap 1

Lap 3 I believe

Cool Video

2008-08-20T12:15:00.000-07:00

Here's a cool youtube clip of the race

More Olympic Musings

2008-08-19T15:09:00.003-07:00

Timothy Carlson (formerly of Triathlete Magainze) wrote a preview piece for Slowtwitch handicapping the Mens race. Granted, trying to handicap a race such as yesterdays is a tough one.

It was great to see Simon basically make Tim eat his words yesterday.

Here's what Carlson wrote about Whitfield.

"While Simon Whitfield gave us the textbook example of Dave Wottle-style impossible come from behind stretch runs at Sydney in 2000, Simon sadly is now well into his 30s and does not have the old snap."

"Sad to say, while exuberant, funny, joyful Simon has improved his swim and bike to the first rank eight years after his stirring 2000 Olympic victory, his run is no longer his invincible ace in the hole. Just ask Matt Reed, who out-sprinted Whitfield to the line at Vancouver."

HA. Take that.

Here is a video interview of Simon as he went to Canada House over in Beijing

Click Here

"CBC drew its biggest television audience of the Beijing Games on Monday nigh with coverage of Canadian Simon Whitfield winning a silver medal in the men's triathlon. A peak audience of 2.57 million viewers tuned in at 11:49 p.m. ET as Whitfield, of Kingston, Ont., took the lead in the final 100 metres of the 10-kilometre run before finishing second, five seconds behind hard-charging German Jan Frodeno.

An average of 1.59 million viewers watched CBC's Olympic Prime show (6 p.m. to midnight ET). Pacific Prime saw its largest average audience yet of the Games by attracting 746,000 viewers.

Story link Here.

What a Run!! (Updated with pics)

2008-08-18T21:42:00.009-07:00

I don't think I've ever seen a run like that. Guts and determination to get back on to that group of 3 in the last km. Wow!

Congrats to all of Team Canada!!

Pics to come as I find them

2008 Men’s Olympic Triathlon
Ming Tomb Reservoir, Beijing, China
Monday, August 18, 2008

Results
1. Jan Frodeno (GER) 1:48:53
2. Simon Whitfield (CAN) 1:48:58
3. Bevan Docherty (NZL) 1:49:05
4. Javier Gomez (ESP) 1:49:13
5. Ivan Rana (ESP) 1:49:21
6. Daniel Unger (GER) 1:49:43
7. Hunter Kemper (USA) 1:49:58
8. Rasmus Henning (DEN) 1:49:57
9. Igor Sysoev (RUS) 1:49:59
10. Frederic Belaubre (FRA) 1:50:00

Jenkins doing his job

Race Day!

2008-08-18T12:17:00.003-07:00

It's almost time for the Men's race in Beijing. I am pumped to watch three guys race who I've had the pleasure and honour to train with for the better part of the last two years. The guys are going to kick some ass, and leave everything out on the race course, that much is for sure! Here are a couple pics that I took from Joel's flickr account.

I was up in Kelowna on the weekend for Nationals. It was my last short course race of the season. I had a pretty good race, getting into a small group of 4 at the start of the bike, and we stayed away until getting caught on the 5th of 6 laps by a group of 10-12 athletes. The bike was pretty taxing on the legs, luckily the pace wasn't killer on the climbs.
Onto the run, I couldn't get the legs turning over in the first kilometer, but they came around soon after, and then I was able to pick off a couple of Canadians in front of me, and finished 11th overall, and 6th Canadian. I was able to pick up some decent prize money for 6th place, which was an added bonus.

Results

I was able to watch the womens race last night in Kelowna, and it was awesome to see Kathy have a wicked swim, and be in contention in that lead group on the bike. Lauren was involved in a crash on the bike, (breaking her wrist or arm and wasn't able to finish, while Carolyn ran well from the 2nd chase group to finish up as the top Canadian.

LET'S GO BOYS!!!

Quick Update

2008-08-14T19:38:00.002-07:00

It's a bit lonely here in Victoria now, as everyone has left to get the job done in Beijing.

I am dog sitting for Joel, so I have been spending the week at his place downtown. I get to watch the Olympics in HD on his TV!!

Saturday morning I am heading up to Kelowna for Nationals the next day. This will be my last short course race this year, as I'll be shifting focus to IM Florida afterwards. Should be a good race, it's always been a tough course in Kelowna, and they've now made us go up Knox Mtn 6 times instead of 4. Should be interesting.

In other news, Warner Bros. has delayed the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince from November until July 17th now! Booooooo!!! I guess they want to have ensure a summer time blockbuster.

Let the Games Begin

2008-08-08T10:41:00.005-07:00

I caught a bit of the opening ceremonies this morning on CBC before heading off to swimming. What a display. I read that the cost of the opening and closing ceremonies topped $100 million!

I was lucky enough to see the Canadians march in, the order was determined by a sequence based on the number of strokes it takes to write their names in Chinese. Greece, birthplace of the Olympics, was an exception, given its traditional place at the start, while the 639-member Chinese team lined up last.

Not all of the Canadian athletes are over in Beijing yet. Some are at training camps in Asia, while others like the triathlon team are still prepping in Canada. There is a opening ceremonies party tonight at Fort St Cycles here in Victoria to celebrate the team members who are in town (Simon, Colin and Lauren). We'll be watching a taped version of the opening ceremonies from this morning, and having some chinese food!

Training has been going pretty well this week. I've joined in with Colin and Lauren to do heat training with them up at the MET trailer at Pac Sport. The trailer is pretty awesome. Wendy (CSC Pacific physiologist) is able to monitor the temperature/humidity in the trailer, and we basically ride in there for 90 min. Wendy is able to monitor our internal temperatures, as well as determine our sweat rates afterwards. I've done 3 sessions this week so far, and manage to sweat out about 3L in each 90 min session. Colin sweats out 4.5 L

36 C and 72% humidity. That gives a humidex of 54 C

Wendy reading Colin's internal temperature

More Hurricanes!

2008-08-07T08:15:00.003-07:00

Strong Start Increases NOAA’s Confidence for Above-Normal Atlantic Hurricane Season

"In the August update to the Atlantic hurricane season outlook, NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center has increased the likelihood of an above-normal hurricane season and has raised the total number of named storms and hurricanes that may form.

NOAA now projects an 85 percent probability of an above-normal season – up from 65 percent in May. The updated outlook includes a 67 percent chance of 14 to 18 named storms, of which seven to 10 are expected to become hurricanes, including three to six major hurricanes of Category 3 strength or higher on the Saffir-Simpson Scale."

Read the whole story here.

Training update to come later this evening.

Hard Training

2008-08-03T20:26:00.004-07:00

This one will be short, as I'm tired!

Couple of hard days of training over the weekend

Saturday was a 3 hr ride, with a solid chunk of moto-pacing in the middle. I kept yo-yoing off the back on the climbs, until I Joel finally told me to ride back easy.
40 min run with some pick-ups through out.

Sunday was a long hard day. Ride out to Theits Lake (40 min). Open water swim, with a few solid efforts. We rode as a group to the "Beijing Loop", which I have come to despise. It is a 50 min (or so) loop with lots of rollers, and a couple decent climbs. I always get popped on the climb. Ditto for today. 40-45 min of solo tempo riding for me. Ride back home afterwards. Total bike time 3hrs.

Track workout at Oak Bay track. 20 x 400 on 2:00. Holding 75-76 per 400.
Legs are smashed right now. Refueled for dinner at Da Tandoor for some Indian food. Chicken Tikka with a Medium Hot curry and rice. Had a great sweat going, might pay for it tomorrow though!

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

2008-07-31T20:20:00.001-07:00

The new Harry Potter trailer is out.
Can't wait until November 21st

Back to Back Blogs!

2008-07-30T19:11:00.003-07:00

Hopefully I can keep this up!

We started out the morning with an open water swim at Thetis. I didn't feel quite on today, the stroke wasn't there. A small island loop for warm-up, some short intervals, out to the small island and back, short intervals, out to small island and back, and ended with some short intervals.

This afternoon, Jordan, Lauren, Kirsten and myself headed to Lochside for some km repeats.
Joel said that we were going to do "n" intervals. N could be any number, but we wouldn't know until we were at n-1. It keeps it more interesting that way, and you just keep going.

N turned out to be 10. So the workout was 10 x 1km on 5:00. Joel wanted us to run them at 10km race pace. I was aiming for 3:20-3:25 per km. The odd intervals were a slight downhill, while the even ones are slight uphill, hence the difference in times.

3:24, 3:27, 3:22, 3:27, 3:22, 3:30, 3:23, 3:29, 3:21, 3:26

Jordan was rocking the workout today, smoking me by about 10 seconds on every interval!

I headed down to Hernandez in the evening with Colin and Jordan for the most amazing burritos! some mini pork taco's and a pork burrito....MMMmmm

An easy 60' to loosen the legs out finished off the night.

Here's a great story on Micheal Phelps and his quest for 8 Gold Medals

Also, here's a link to the 2008 Beijing Medal Challenge, which has a grand prize of a trip to the Bahamas. The premise of the challenge is to choose 1 country per 30 different sporting events at the Olympics. You may only use each country once. For example, if you select the United States as the country for the aquatics category, you cannot select the United States again throughout the duration of the Contest Entry Period.

OK, I am still here...

2008-07-29T19:33:00.005-07:00

Wow, three weeks since I last updated the blog.

A lot has happened since I last updated, I traveled back to Ontario to race (bad) and spend a bit of time at home (good). Back out to Vic now, and we're down to the final 2 weeks or so until the guys depart for Beijing on the 12th of August. I can't believe how close we are to the games starting. I can't wait to watch the Olympics knowing that I have trained with the men's team for the better part of two years now.

The Geneva continental cup was a tough race. I had a good swim, coming out of the water in 3rd or so, in a small lead group of 6 or so. Brian Fleischmann and Cameron Dye got away quickly at the beginning of the bike, ad we never saw them the rest of the day. They ended up with a 2:00 lead off the bike, while our group got swallowed up by the groups behind, forming a group of roughly 15-18 athletes. I has goose bumps on the bike despite it being 90 F out, and once on the run, I had nothing, zero. I pulled the plug at 5km, after hoping that the legs might come around.

Our group of 6 out of the water, losing time to Fleischmann and Dye

After the race, I went camping that night down in Watkins Glen with my sister and her boyfriend which was awesome. A juicy steak over the fire, a few rum and cokes, and some smores!

My time at home flew by, and soon I was back out to Victoria. Our group is all back together now, with Simon, Colin, Jordan back from NYC Triathlon, and Kyle is back from his European World Cup adventures. We've been getting some solid training in right now, highlighted by a motor-pacing workout today in pouring rain. Tomorrow calls for a swim at Thetis Lake, and some km repeats on Lochside.

I'm two weeks out from Nationals in Kelowna on Aug 17th, after which I'll be watching the Women's Olympic race at 7pm PST, flying back to Vic the next morning, and getting pumped to watch the men's race Monday night at 7pm. I can't wait!

After that, it'll be time to do a little change-over on my bike, and to start putting in some longer miles getting ready for Ironman Florida at the beginning of November.

Happy 4th of July!

2008-07-03T22:41:00.005-07:00

Happy Independence Day to Rappstar and all my American readers!

The 4th of July brings about one of my favorite events, the Nathan's Hot Dog eating contest.

This year promises to be another good one, as Takeru Kobayashi and Joey Chestnut go head to head again this year. Chestnut broke Kobayashi's World Record last year, eating 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes! Kobayashi only ate 63.

Training has been going well the last couple of days. Wednesday was a 2.5 hr base ride, with a 60' hilly run off the bike, while today we had an easy swim in the morning, and then 4 X single lap TT efforts up at the Waddling Dog, descending efforts. Managed to descend through the workout, as my legs came around a bit as we went through the workout. 14:00, 13:45, 13:30, 13:05. The boys who are racing Lifetime and NYC were tricked out on their TT bikes today, and boy were they moving!!

The biggest news out of the US Swim Trials was the fact that Brendan Hanson didn't even make the team in the 200 BR. Instead, two guys that are his training partners beat him out for the spots to the Olympics. Hanson is a former WR holder, and the 2nd fastest man ever in the 200 BR, but won't have a shot at a medal in Beijing.

Sidney Days 5km

2008-07-01T22:21:00.003-07:00

Jordan and I headed up to Sidney this morning for their annual Canada day 5km race. We both raced it last year, and it's a fun, fast course.

Jordan has written a great race report at his blog, and I'll go over it a bit as well.

Jordan took the pace out pretty strong through the first km to rid ourselves of any others. We were through 1km in 2:59, and soon shed the one remaining guy soon after. At this point, I moved to the front to help Jordan. We made a left hand turn, and instead of staying on the left hand side of the road, we went to the right side following the lead bike (my fault). We ended up having to cross back to the other side again at the turnaround, which probably cost us a few extra seconds.

We went through 2km in 6:12, and 3km in 9:32. At this point we knew we had to run pretty strong on the back half to crack 16:00. We were swapping off the lead, which helped both of us keep the effort high. We went through 4km at 12:53, meaning we'd have to dig deep to hit 16:00. Jordan turned it on at this point, and I just wasn't able to respond. Jordan ran away from me for the overall win in 16:06, and I came across the line 2nd in 16:19. Not quite the time I was hoping to run, but it's all that I could muster today.

Results can be found here.

After a quick breakfast, we headed over to Durrance Lake for the swim workout. 4km or so, with 2 rounds of 3 x 300 solid efforts (without a wetsuit). The lake was quite busy today, which was to be expected, and we had to make sure not to swim into any fishing hooks!

An ez spin later on in the day, finished off the day of training.

Updating US Swim Trials, 2 more WR's fell tonite. Aaron Piersol lowered the Men's 100 Bk WR to 52.89, and the Women's 100 Bk WR was broken for the 3rd time, with Natalie Coughlin breaking 59.00 (58.97). That brings us to 6 WR's broken (4 events)

Hagman, Finger, and Cujo??

2008-07-01T16:14:00.002-07:00

Really??

That's the best the Leafs can do on the Opening Day of Free Agency?

Niklas Hagman 4 yrs, $12 million
Jeff Finger 4 yrs, $14 million
Curtis Joseph 1 yr, $700,000

Who is Jeff Finger anyways? $14 million over 4 years?? Just brutal.

Here's hoping the Leafs get John Tavares in the draft next summer.

Happy Canada Day!

2008-06-30T20:16:00.002-07:00

Happy Canada Day to everyone! Canada Day finds Jordan and I heading up to Sidney for the Sidney Days 5km. We both ran there last year (Dano 15:55, Jordan 16:20), and the goal this year is for both of us to be under 16:00. We'll see how the legs are after the race last weekend, and a good weekend of training.

Updating my WR predictions at the US Swim Trials, the women's 100 Bk WR was broken not once, but twice this morning in prelims. The semi-finals were slower, but it should be an interesting final on Tuesday night (as will the Mens 200 Fr). So that's 4 WR's broken (3 events).

Good Weather, Good Training

2008-06-29T19:59:00.006-07:00

Wow, summer has arrived!!

Fri, Sat and Sunday have been amazing days here in Victoria. It's actually felt like I was back in Ontario! Yesterday the temp was 30 C, with a humidex of 34 C. It's nice to wake up in the morning, and only have to put bike shorts and a jersey on to ride. Making sure you get enough liquid in is the key though.

Monday thru Thursday were basically recovery days following the race on the weekend. Some 3km swims in the morning, and some ez spins and shuffles to get the legs going again.

Friday morning we had a great set in the pool. Main set of 30 x 100 as 6 rounds of (1:35, 1:30, 1:25, 1:20, 1:15). Jenkins and I pushed each other the whole set, holding under 1:13's for most of them. We had a 2 hr base ride with 8 rounds of 2' on/2' off, followed by a 40' easy run.

Saturday was a glorious day, and we met up downtown at the coffee shop for our ride. A solid three hour ride, with 60' of hard riding, then straight off the bike into a fartlek run of 20 x 1' on/ 1' off. The run was a rough one with the heat, and we all made a stop at the corner store on the ride home for some cold cokes!

Sunday morning we headed out to Thetis Lake for our 90' long run. Two loops around the lake (10km) and then the last 45' or so running flat along the Goose. My legs were pretty trashed from yesterday, so 10km of hills was all that I could take. We had a 4km swim at Thetis following the run, and the combo of the awesome weather and the water warming up, allowed us to swim without wetsuits for the first time today. A 60' ez spin finished the day off.

Today was the first day of the US Olympic Swim trials, which run until Sun July 6th. Michael Phelps started the meet off with a new WR in the first event (Mens 400 IM). Actually, both Phelps and Ryan Lochte both broke Phelps' old record.

Phelps battling with Lochte in the final

I meant to post this before the trials started, but I figure that there will be 8-10 World Records set during the US Trials. We've already got 2 WR's on the first night (Mens 400 IM, Womens 400IM).

The other WR's that I think are in trouble are: M100Br, W100Bk, M200Fr, M100Bk, W400Fr, W200Fr, M200Br, M200IM, W800Fr

I don't think Phelps will break his WR's in the 100 or 200 Fly, as I don't think he will have enough competition pushing him, coupled with his ultimate goal of winning 7 golds in Beijing.

Also, the LZR suit for the USA team was unveiled at the Trials, and it looks pretty sweet!

New Balance Half Ironman Race Report

2008-06-24T10:21:00.007-07:00

Race #2 in the Subaru West Coast series, and I was looking to move up 1 spot and get on the podium, as Jordan Rapp wasn't racing this one. Prize money went 3 deep ($1000, $500, $250) so that was extra motivation as well.

The course:
1 big rectangular loop in Elk Lake (1.9km)
2 loops throughout saanich, plus an out and back section from transition area (87km)
2 x 10km loop around Elk and Beaver Lake (20km)

Race Day:
Up at 4:30 for a quick breakfast, and hit the road at 5:15 for the short drive over to Elk Lake. Through body marking, pump up the tires, short run warm-up, and then get the wetsuit on and a short swim warm-up. The was a bit of a breeze from the south which made the first 800m stretch of the swim a bit choppy, which was music to my ears! It would help in my plan to be out of sight, out of mind.

For the second race in a row, I wasn't ready for the start of the race, which again happened with a blast from the howitzer from the local army branch. I quickly put my head down, and aimed for the first turn buoy 800m out. I ended up coming out of the water in 23:10 with almost a 4:00 lead. Quickly through transition and onto the bike.

I had ridden the course a couple weeks ago in training, and knew that it was going to be a tough bike course. I tried to ride controlled and effectively on the first loop, spinning up some of the hills, so as not to fry the legs too early. I managed to hold off both Trevor Wurtele and Andriy Yastrebov until roughly 65-70km or so on the bike. I was able to key off of them once they went by, but they pulled away in the last 8km or so, and I just tried to limit my losses at that point.

I was roughly 1:00 down on Andriy off the bike, and about :30 down on Trevor. I had no idea where Steve Kilshaw was. I knew I was going to have my work cut out for me to catch Trevor, as he had run 1:20 at Boise 70.3 a few weeks ago. Off I went onto the run, trying to spot Trevor up ahead. I was able to run pretty well throughout the first loop (37:15) but fell off a bit on the second loop (39:50). Andriy ran really well off the front for the win, while Trevor ran really well for second. I hung on for 3rd place, and a little bit of money.

I thanked Jasper after the race for opting not to race (he's battling shingles right now) and allowing me to sneak onto the podium! Also thanks again to Jordan Rapp for allowing me the use of his extra Zipp disc!

All in all, I'm happy with the way the race unfolded. I've still got a few things to work on for the long course races, as I had quad cramps/spasms in the left leg again. It might be a case of not enough sodium intake, or perhaps a muscle imbalance.

Andriy Yastrebov 3:57:14 27:06 2:16:41 1:12:06
Trevor Wurtele 4:00:57 27:15 2;16:32 1:15:40
Daniel Wells 4:02:58 23:10 2:21:34 1:17:09
Stephen Kilshaw 4:05:37 27:06 2:20:29 1:17:01

Full results can be found here

New Balance Half Ironman Pre-Race

2008-06-21T08:46:00.005-07:00

The race goes tomorrow morning, bright and early at 6:45am.

We had the VIP reception last night, and it looks like there will be a good battle for the podium on Sunday. Jasper and Andriy are back to race, as well as Stephen Kilshaw (racing his first half), and Trevor Wurtele (who was 9th at Boise 70.3). Hopefully I can get out of sight and out of mind on the swim. Should be a good one.

For those of you with nothing better to do on a Sunday morning, there will be live timing updates on the race found here. The splits will be updated after the swim, bike, and then at the finish.

There is also the Des Moines World Cup happening tomorrow. It's a $700,000 prize purse there, yet there are only 31 women and 39 men on the start list. Prize money goes 15 deep on each side, with the winner bringing home $200,000 and a lexus I believe. In addition, there is a swim prime of $5,000 to the first male and female out of the water. Live coverage can be found here, with the women racing at 1:30 CST, and the men racing at 4:30 CST.

Des Moines Prize Money:
Place Amount
1. $200,000.00 + Lexus
2. $40,000.00
3. $25,000.00
4. $15,000.00
5. $12,500.00
6. $10,000.00
7. $9,000.00
8. $7,000.00
9. $6,000.00
10. $5,500.00
11. $5,000.00
12. $4,500.00
13. $4,000.00
14. $3,500.00
15. $3,000.00

2008-06-16T12:44:00.005-07:00

It's been a busy past couple of weeks. All the excitement of Worlds in Vancouver has come and gone, and it's back to business on all fronts. I had a good week of training, as the weather has finally co-operated a little bit! Good open water swim yesterday at Thetis, and a solid ride with Simon, Colin, and Jordan who managed to spit me out the back on some of the climbs. Fun fun.

This weekend brings about my second race of the year, the New Balance Half Ironman at Elk Lake in Victoria. It's a sold out field of over 600 athletes, going off in two different waves. I rode two loops of the bike course last week, and it's a tough one! This won't be an easy half Ironman by any means. The run is two laps around Elk lake for a total of 20km. It's nice having the race in your backyard, as we do lots of runs on the trail at Elk Lake, and ride regularly on parts of the bike course.

Stelmach and I, having a brew after his race.

In Vancouver, I was able to hook up with a couple people I hadn't seen in a long time. Mike Stelmach and I used to swim and race tri's against each other back in the day (I think it was a Wednesday) and Kurt Hartmier and I used to run with the same track coach in high school. Kurt was there working for Racer Mate (computrainer) and Mike was there racing the Sprint race.

I also got a photo with 2004 and 2008 Estonian Olympian Marco Albert. I'm still working on getting my Estonian citizenship, so I will have dual Canadian-Estonian citizenship which will make for easy traveling through Europe.

Marco and I

Hurricane Season

2008-06-02T13:38:00.002-07:00

Sunday June 1st marked the beginning of this years Hurricane Season (which I look forward to).

"NOAA's Climate Prediction Center today announced that projected climate conditions point to a near normal or above normal hurricane season in the Atlantic Basin this year.

The Climate Prediction Center outlook calls for considerable activity with a 65 percent probability of an above normal season and a 25 percent probability of a near normal season. This means there is a 90 percent chance of a near or above normal season.

The climate patterns expected during this year’s hurricane season have in past seasons produced a wide range of activity and have been associated with both near-normal and above-normal seasons. For 2008, the outlook indicates a 60 to 70 percent chance of 12 to 16 named storms, including 6 to 9 hurricanes and 2 to 5 major hurricanes (Category 3, 4 or 5 on the Saffir-Simpson Scale).

An average season has 11 named storms, including six hurricanes for which two reach major status."

No Hurricane Daniel this year...but there is a Hurricane Kyle (Jones) in the forecast!

Read the whole article here:

The week ahead

2008-06-02T11:46:00.002-07:00

This past week was all about recovery from Shawnigan Lake.
Mostly regenerative, easy training through the week, with some harder effort coming once we got to the weekend.

Saturday we met up at the Oak Bay track for 5 x 1 km on 6:00 (1-5)

I ran with Kirsten, giving her someone to key off of, and it was a good workout.

3:16, 3:11, 3:08, 3:05, 3:04

The boys were flying at the front, with a couple of insane km's at the end of the workout. Everyone is looking really good for next weekend.

Next weekend is Vancouver Worlds. We're heading over on Friday after swimming, with the U23 and Elite races going on Sunday. There are 4 days of racing, Juniors on Thursday, AG Sprint on Friday, AG Olympic on Saturday, and the U23/Elite on Sunday. Vancouver will be a busy place this week!

Shawnigan Lake Race Report

2008-05-27T06:34:00.005-07:00

The Shawnigan Lake Half Ironman was the first race of the 4 race Subaru West Coast Series, put on by Lifesport. It also doubled as the men's championship race, with prize money going 3 deep ($2000, $1000, $500).

Pre-race:

The elites were treated to a VIP meet and greet on Friday evening up near Shawnigan Lake, complete with free drinks and snacks. Outdoors on the patio w. a couple glasses of wine, looking out over the water. Awesome. They ran a mini meet and greet for the top men's contenders, calling up the 4 main contenders to say a few words. They included: Jordan Rapp (5th 2007 IM Canada, 3rd 2008 IM Arizona), Andriy Yastrebov (4th 2007 IM Canada, 4th 2006 IM Lake Placid, 1st 2005 IM Wisconsin), Jasper Blake (1st 2006 IM Canada, 4th 2007 IM Couer D'Alene) and Chris Brown (3rd 2007 IM Canada). I was told I wasn't going to be called up, as I was considered the dark-horse, which was fine by me. I had no credentials behind me like the other guys, and I was just looking to see what I could do on race day.

I'm fortunate to have not only an awesome coach and training group out here, but also some generous buddies as well. Simon hooked me up with an extra aero helmet of his, and Jordan pimped my ride by giving me an extra Zipp 404 front wheel as well as an extra Zipp disc that he had. I was all tricked out now, no excuses.

Jordan and I headed up on Saturday to take part in the "Ride w. the Pro's" ride that went on prior to bike check-in. It was cool to ride a loop of the course with about 20 other athletes who chose to take part in the event. On the way back I was saying to Jordan that I was hoping to go 4:15 on race day (2:25 bike, 1:25 run, and then 25:00 swim plus transitions). Jordan said he thought that I'd go 4:10

The course:

2 loop swim in Shawnigan Lake (temp around 16 C - wetsuit legal)
4 x 22km rolling loop around Shawnigan
T shaped out and back run along the Cowichan Trail

Race Day:

Up at 3:30am to eat, and scooter down to Jordan's place. We left Jordan's at 4:45am as the race was starting at 7am. Set up transition, short bike to make sure things were working, easy run, quick trip to the bathroom, and soon it was time to start.

The race started w. a cannon blast from the local military base. Quite the way to start. I quickly moved to the front on the first lap, easily getting clear from the group along w. Andrew McCartney and Brent McMahon (who was doing a relay as he has Worlds in 2 weeks). I led through the first loop, before Andrew came around me on the second loop to lead us out of the water in 22:10. This gave me a 2:30 gap to Jasper, and roughly a 4:00 gap to Andriy and Jordan.

Out onto the bike course, I quickly dropped Andrew, and settled into my pace on the bike, not wanting to blow up too early. Jordan and I had a friendly wager to see who would be first through lap 1 of the bike (that was my goal point to hold off Jordan). I was still in the lead through loop 1, and continued riding strong on loop 2. Riding with the disc was awesome, as was riding and feeling the aero helmet touching your back as you're down in the aero position.

I managed to hold Jordan off until almost 50km (into the 3rd loop), where he came by me, gave me a few words of encouragement, and was soon gone up the road. I kept riding my own pace, making sure to get my nutrition in. I managed to hold off Jasper and Andriy until about 3 km from the end of the ride. The three of us came off the bike together, roughly 4:00 back of Jordan.

At this point I was in the running (both literally and figuratively) for some money, but I knew I would have my work cut out for me, as both Jazz and Andriy are noted runners. I think I got a little caught up in moment, or perhaps I wanted to try and run w. a shot at the money for a while, as I ran the first mile with the two of them, before I had to back off as my quads started to cramp up on me. I was stuck in no man's land, and just tried to settle into my pre-race goal pace of roughly 4:00 km's (1:25 pace). I was on pace until 10km or so, until things started to catch up to me. I think I paid a bit for the slightly faster bike split on the second half of the run, as well as the fact that the second half of the run was a bit harder (looser footing, combined with false flats)

I managed to limit my losses pretty well, only losing 4:30 to Jordan on the run, and 4:00 to Jasper. I crossed the line in 4:10:40 good for 4th place on the day, about 4:00 out of the money. Jordan made the front page of the Sport section on Monday which was pretty cool.

Jordan Rapp 4:01:35
Andriy Yastrebov 4:05:42
Jasper Blake 4:06:40
Daniel Wells 4:10:40
Chris Brown 4:21:16

Full Results w. splits are here.

I'm pleased with my first foray into the long-course race scene, and am looking to race the next race in the series - New Balance Victoria Half Ironman, in 4 weeks. After that, I'll race a few ITU draft legal events (including Nationals in Kelowna) before venturing down to Panama City Beach Florida to race Ironman Florida in November along with my dad and sister.

Finally some decent weather!!!

2008-05-18T20:34:00.003-07:00

We were finally blessed with a few days over 15 C here in Vic. Fri and Sat the temperature climbed up to the mid 20's which made it great for training. Today turned out to be a good day weather wise as well, but the next couple days look cool and wet again. But...there is hope on the horizon as later this week looks to be warm again.

Now on to the training. Thursday morning was an ez 3000m swim in the morning, a 90' run on the rolling trail around Thetis lake, and an hour ez spin.

Friday morning was our usual swim to bike workout, but we were short one windtrainer this morning, so I was the odd man out, and just did the swim workout and then an hour ride on my own later in the day (along with a 50' run). The main set was 50 x 50 on 45" every 5th fast, followed up with a 500 hard (5:45). Colin and I had an epic battle, where I opened up about 5 meters on him in the first 100, but he eventually battled back and we ended up sprinting the last 25 trying to out-touch the other. I think I won :)

Saturday morning we met up down at Bubby Rose coffee shop pre-ride, before heading out for a 2:30 base ride. With the warm weather we had, it was nice to ride in just a jersey and shorts!!

Getting ready to ride from Bubby Rose

Later in the day we met up at Thetis Lake for our first open water swim of the year. The water the week before was 13.5 C, so I'm guessing it was about 14-15 or so this weekend. It was chilly the first little bit, but then you got used to it. We swam 2 loops of the big island (1300m per loop) and it was nice to get in the water and try out my new 2XU Velocity wetsuit.

Colin and I seem to be taking our time getting into the water

Joel took some awesome pics while we were swimming

Sunday we headed down to Beacon Hill for a solid run workout. 20' warm-up, then 6 x 1 mile (or so) loop on the road. I felt good running today, and ran some solid times running solo each time.

5:14, 5:16, 5:12, 5:15, 5:09, 5:19

I fell off a bit there at the end. for comparison's sake, Paul/Kyle/Brent ran between 4:36-4:45 for each one. Simon was just a bit quicker than that.

I'm looking forward to this weekend when I get to put my fitness to use in my first race of the year. I'm racing the Shawnigan Lake Half-Ironman on Sunday, and there looks to be some solid competition, so it should be a good day of racing.

Highlights of the last 10 days or so...

2008-05-15T11:12:00.005-07:00

I've neglected blogging for too long, and rather than bore you with 10 days worth of workouts, I'll highlight some of our more "key" workouts from the last 10 days or so

Last Tuesday we hit up Commonwealth for a good treadmill workout. 20' warm-up, then 4 rounds of the following:

3' @ 11.1 mph, 1' ez, 3 x (1' @ 11.4 mph, 1' ez)

I was dripping wet getting off the treadmill, always a sign of a good workout.

Wednesday we did some steady state riding on the Old West Saanich loop, with a 2km hard run off the bike, and a 3hr base ride on Thursday. Friday morning was swim to bike workout at the pool again..

Saturday we met up down at Beacon Hill to run the Harder than Hamish Loop (2km w. a hill in the middle). After warming up, the workout was 5 x HtH loop w. 2:30 recovery. I was able to build through the workout, without falling off pace at the end, which seems to happen.

Loop times were: 6:53, 6:51, 6:45, 6:40, 6:43

Team BAMF before the workout

Starting round #2

Sunday we were up at the Waddling Dog for our usual Sunday hard bike efforts, but Joel had a surprise for us today. Rather than our usual Motor pacing, today we were going to be doing team time trial (TTT) efforts. 4 x single loop. Round 1 we went in three groups of 3 w. 20" in between the groups. Groups were Dano, Connor, Kirsten - Colin, Jordan, Andrew - Simon, Paul, Kyle. The groups ended up coming together on the back side of the interval. Round 2, the groups were the same except for Jordan and Paul who switched groups. We were able to hold off group two a bit longer, with Simon's group catching us all right at the end on the line.

For the third and 4th rounds, we ended up going off in two groups (Dano,Connor, Kirsten, Andrew - Simon, Colin, Jordan, Paul, Kyle). With the amount of horsepower in the second group, Joel gave us a 60" buffer, and we were able to hold them off by 10" or so at the end. The 4th round we ended up with a 50" buffer, and our group was caught right at the end..with Paul catching the draft off a car to zoom by for the line. We finished the day off with our usual Sunday evening swim.

Tuesday was another treadmill workout, this one being a fairly long one!

20' warm-up
3 x 3' @ 11.2 w. 2' ez IBT
3 x 2' @ 11.5 w. 2' ez IBT
3 x 1' @ 12.0 w. 1' ez IBT
5' ez
Repeat
15' warm-down

This one was a killer for me...I had to grasp onto the treadmill for a few stretches throughout the second round through on the 3' and 2' intervals...

Yesterday we had another hard ride (Broadmead loop - 4km) with a short hard run off the bike.
We went three rounds of 2 laps hard, then straight into a 3km loop of the Bog at effort, and a 2nd loop ez warm-down.

The Singing Revolution

2008-05-04T14:49:00.002-07:00

On Saturday afternoon, I went down to the U Vic movie theatre to watch a movie called The Singing Revolution.

My parents had gone to see it in Toronto, and as it turns out, it was the last day it was showing here in Victoria. I headed down after the run and ride, and caught the 2:45pm matinee. Here's a short preview of the movie.

It turned out to be a really interesting movie, chronicling the struggles that Estonia faced while under Soviet, German, and again Soviet rule. I had heard stories from my mom of what the conditions were like when her parents left Estonia for Sweden then onto Canada, but to see it in the movie put it into perspective.

"First occupied by the Soviets in 1939, then by the Nazis, and then by the Soviets again, Estonia lived through decades of terror. By the end of World War II, more than one-quarter of the population had been deported to Siberia, been executed, or had fled the country. Music sustained the Estonian people during those years, and was such a crucial part of their struggle for freedom that their successful bid for independence is known as the Singing Revolution.

"The Singing Revolution" is the first film to tell this historically vital tale. "This is a story that has not been told outside Estonia," said filmmaker James Tusty, who is of Estonian descent. "We felt it was time the rest of the world knew of the amazing events that happened here.""

Check out the website and see if it's playing in your area. I heard that it has been held over in Toronto. It's definitely worth seeing.

Catching up on training

2008-05-04T14:29:00.002-07:00

Thursday morning we met down at Dr Rob Hasagawa's house for a 45' ez run where we warmed up for a lil bit and then he guided us through some specific running drills. We did a lot of key drills with strides, and then we also did some plyometric type exercises down at the water-front, and finished off with uphill bounding (running, trying to maximize hang time in the air). I thought this was a very good run session, as all we focused on was these key drills.

We followed up the run with a 3000m easy swim at Crystal. We were joined by Paul Tichelaar, who is in Victoria until Worlds in early June.

I headed over to the treadmill in the afternoon for the 20/20/20 workout. Right off the bat start out at 9.0 mph for 20 min, then 20' at 9.6 mph, and finally 20' at 10.2 mph (w. treadmill set at 2% incline the whole workout). I was feeling pretty good through-out, until the power went off at Commonwealth 11 mins into my final 20' piece. So I had an un-scheduled 15 break or so there, then finished off the workout once the power came back on.

Friday morning was out swim/bike interval workout again. A short warm-up and then into a tough swim set, total of 15 x 300 as follows:

5 Pull on 4:30
5 swim on 4:15 (3:45's)
5 swim on 4:00 (3:32-35's)

We then went straight onto the bikes for 3' hard, and then 12 x (45" hard, 15" easy). A 50' easy run finished off the day.

Saturday we headed over to Thetis Lake for our first run workout there this year. One loop of Thetis Lake for the warm-up (5km), and then we ran a hard 5km tempo loop (17:47). We jogged down to the Galloping Goose Trail, where we finished off the workout w. 12 rounds of (60" hard, 30" ez). Finished off the day, w. a 2hr ride in some light rain.

This morning we did our motor-pacing up at the Waddling Dog. The workout was single loop, double loop, single loop. The last single loop was a tough one...as Joel really upped the speed on the scooter going up the highway. All in all, a really good workout today. Now it's almost time for our favourite workout of the week....Sunday afternoon swim!!

Back to training....and photos from the TC 10km

2008-04-30T17:18:00.004-07:00

Monday and Tuesday were easier days, let the legs recover from the hard pounding of the 10km on Sunday. Monday was an easy swim in the morning, and a 90' spin in the afternoon.

Tuesday we had a good swim in the morning. 400, 200 kick, 2 x 100 IM warm-up, followed by 16x50 on 45" (every 4th fast). 1500 Neg Split pull, 100 ez, 800 Pull on 11:00 then 8 x 100 on 1:20 (1:12's) to finish up.

I rode another 90' ez, and hit the treadmill for an easy easy run. The quads were still tight from Sunday, but the easy run on the tready and some rolling around on the foam roller at night seemed to help them loosen up, as they felt better Wednesday morning.

Wednesday morning's swim was another good one.

800 mix, 800 Pull, 8 x 100 on 1:30 (1:12's)
400 mix, 400 Pull, 4 x 100 on 1:25 (1:09's)
300 mix, 300 Pull, 3 x 100 on 1:20 (1:08's)
100 ez

Wednesday afternoon was a good hill workout on the bike. We rode up and over the Durrance Lake climb (and back) which was a lot tougher climbing up the backside, followed by a jaunt up the climb to the dump, and finished off with 2 reps up the observatory (2km).

The start of the race...I'm somewhere hidden on the right hand side

Running solo, somewhere around 5km

Times Colonist 10km

2008-04-27T20:45:00.002-07:00

Today was the Times Colonist 10km here in Victoria.

The weather co-operated (the rain held off until late morning) and it turned out to be a good day to race... overcast, 9 C and not a lot of wind. Not too sure of the total numbers for the events (10km run, 1.5km Kids race, and a 10km walk) but there were just short of 9000 in the 10km run.

The course itself can be found here. The first K is fairly flat, the 2nd K starts out flat then drops a bit, and the 3rd and 4th K are net downhill (more so on KM 4). KM 5 is uphill, with KM 6 a slight uphill as well. KM 7 is slight downhill, with the remaining three km being fairly flat.

I was in the second row at the start line, off to the left hand side. I wanted to keep the first KM under control and not go out super crazy. A lead group of 10 or so formed at the front, and I settled into the second group, about 12 of us or so. I felt comfortable running in the back of this group, and we were moving along at a good pace (9:30 through 3km). At the bottom of Dallas Rd, we hit the turn around at 4km (12:41) and this is where the race got a bit ugly for me. I lost contact with my group of 10 or so, and was stuck running in no-man's land. I ended up running the remaining 6km basically solo, with a couple guys running through me in the last KM.

Looking back, I most likely went out through 5km a bit quicker than I would have liked to (16:10) but I wanted to hang in with the group and get pulled along. The official results have me listed at 34:00.....but I'm gonna go with the 33:59 that I had on my watch! It's a PB, so can't complain.

Splits:

3:14
6:22 (3:08)
9:30 (3:08)
12:41 (3:11)
16:10 (3:29)
19:49 (3:39)
23:28 (3:39)
26:58 (3:30)
30:33 (3:35)
33:59 (3:26)

Hopefully I'll be able to find a picture or two from the race.

Mid Week Training....

2008-04-24T21:05:00.002-07:00

Wednesday morning's swim was a tough one.

10 x 200 w. 15" rest as the warm-up with #'s 4 and 8 being fast ones.
28 x 100 as 7 x (1:30, 1:25, 1:20, 1:15). The 1:15 interval was a tough one for the first five times through, until I finally came around a bit and swam a bit faster on the last two rounds.

A run was the other workout for the day, 50' on the treadmill, with the main effort being 10 x 1' "on" 1' "off". The legs were a tad stiff today, most likely from the long ride yesterday.

Thursday morning was an ez 3km swim, 1000 SKIDS, 100 Pull, 1000 SKIDS.
I rode the waterfront loop plus a bit more for my 2hr ride, and had a 40' ez run to finish off the day.

The tail end of this week is a bit easier workout wise, as I'm going to be racing the Times Colonist 10km on Sunday. I'm looking forward to running, hopefully it's not as windy as it was today!!

Winning The Vote (Is that a good thing?)

2008-04-23T21:40:00.005-07:00

Joel posted a photo that was taken at the start of our run workout on Saturday morning, and posted it on his blog here. Seems I am winning the "dorkiest outfit award". In my defense though, it was cold that morning and I was prepared to run in the snowy conditions up at Lochside. That works, right?

I'll make sure I'm more fashion conscious next time.

Tuesday Training...and my new ride

2008-04-22T20:22:00.002-07:00

5000m this morning in the pool, an aerobic endurance morning.

600 warm-up
1500 Pull Neg Split
5 x 100 alt swim on 1:30, IM on 1:45
5 x 400 Pull (1-5) on 5:30 (5:10, 5:03, 4:58, 4:52, 4:38)
warm-down

This afternoon, Colin and I headed out for a 3.5 hr ride. Colin took me up the Malahat towards Shawnigan Lake. A fairly steady climb up the Malahat, then descend down to Shawnigan Lake. A rolling loop around the lake (22km) then climb back out of the valley, and then down the Malahat. I got a flat just as we got going on the descent back towards Vic, so I ended up riding the last hour solo. A good ride today (105 km).

I've got a new ride out here in Victoria. I got it Monday night. It's a great bike...accelerates well, and cruises nicely at 55-60km/hr. Anyways, here a pic of my new ride.

It's a 2006 Yamaha BWS

Weekend Activities

2008-04-21T21:26:00.002-07:00

Well...we got some of the white stuff on Saturday....we met for the run workout at Lochside, and it was really crappy footing, and still snowing a bit, so we headed down to Beacon Hill instead, where it wasn't snowing to run. We did a 4km tempo piece (2 loops of the harder than Hamish loop) and then 4 x 1 mile on the road loop. Decent run today considering the weather. An easy spin later on in the day finished things off.

Sunday was motor-pacing day at up the waddling Dog. 2 x single loop, and then I had a TT piece heading back to home (22 min effort). A total of 75km of riding. We finished off the day with our favourite workout of the week....Sunday afternoon swimming. A solid workout, with the main set 12 x 200 (2 on 2:30, 1 ez on 3:00) SCM. First three rounds were pull, and then final round swim. Got down to 2:13, 2:13 on the two fast ones during the swim round.

Monday was a recovery effort day...3000m swim this morning, and a 50 min run in the afternoon.

Is it Winter?

2008-04-18T21:06:00.006-07:00

It certainly felt like it today. It was cool, and windy, and with a high of only 8 C today, it felt cold! We had off and on rain today, as well as a fair amount of hail. Check out the photo.

The forecast for Friday Night through Saturday isn't that promising either. Our daily highs should be around 14-15 C right now...not 8!

"Greater Victoria. Tonight..Flurries or rain showers. Risk of small hail and a thundershower this evening. Local snowfall amount 2 cm. Windy. Low plus 2. Saturday..Flurries or rain showers. Risk of a thundershower in the afternoon. Local snowfall amount 2 cm. Becoming windy late in the morning. High 6. Saturday night..Cloudy with 60 percent chance of flurries or rain showers. Risk of a thundershower early in the evening. Windy. Low plus 2."

KM repeats tomorrow on Lochside trail...should be a good one!

Back together

2008-04-16T19:44:00.003-07:00

The group is back together now...Colin and Simon have returned from the Ishigaki World Cup. Good results for both of them there (Simon won, Colin was 23rd) as they were at the front in the swim and managed to get into a break-away on the bike. Simon ran like he usually does (fast) and got the win over Rasmus Henning.

Training the last couple of days has gone pretty well. Monday was a recovery day, with no morning swim for me! I had a 90' ride, with 6 x 15" sprints throughout the ride. I started out riding outdoors, but the skies soon opened up, and I scurried back to ride the trainer indoors.

Tuesday we had a standard 5000m swim in the pool in the morning.

600 warm-up
20 x 50 on 45" (every 4th fast) 100 ez
5 x 300 Pull (1-3, then hold 4,5) on 4:30 100 ez
15 x 100 on 1:35/1:25/1:15 (5 times through)
200 ez cool down

Early afternoon, Kyle, Kirsten, Andrew and I headed out for a 3hr base ride. We rode up through lands end up towards the ferry terminal in Sidney. Then back down to the waterfront downtown, and back home. 3hr 10min (93km). A 40' run finished off the day.

Which brings us to today's workouts. 5000m again in the water, as follows

400 mix, 200 kick
16 x 50 on 45" (every 4th fast)
12 x 50 on 50" (every 3rd fast)
8 x 50 on 55" (every other fast)
4 x 50 on 60" (all fast)
400 ez

8 x 200 alt fast(3:10), ez (3:30)
Didn't quite feel as "on" as yesterday in the water....but still managed to hang on to it.

We met later at the U Vic track for a bike and run workout. We ended up doing 4 x 5' hard on the bike, and then Kyle, Kirsten and I got changed and hit the track for some 400's. Felt good riding today, though the legs were a bit heavy from the 3hrs yesterday.

The track workout turned out to be fairly windy on the home stretch of the 400's. After a 10' warm-up, we ran 20 x 400 on 2:00. The first one was a bit off (getting the running legs back) but then I settled into 75's the whole rest of the way. I was happy with the run today, being able to hang on through to the end of 20. Kyle was rocking today...holding 68's basically the whole way through.

Randy Starkman (Toronto Star) has been in town here for the last few days, doing some interviews (including Simon and Kirsten) and such for The Star. He and his photographer were at the pool this morning, and also followed along in the car on the bike. I'm guessing there might be a story on Simon/Kirsten sometime in the near future. Keep your eyes peeled.

Yes...I am alive

2008-04-12T17:50:00.002-07:00

I am still here, just a bit of a break from blogging.

I've been up in Victoria now for almost 3 weeks now. The first week back was just some easy regenerative training, and we've had two solid weeks of training since.

I won't go into specifics for each day of the last 2 weeks, just some highlights of training.

We've gotten right into motor-pacing again now, with 1 workout a week up at the Waddling Dog on our 12km loop up there. It's a great workout, zipping along the road at 45-50km/hr. We had a good motor-pace workout this morning actually. Running wise, we've been running Sunday mornings down at Beacon Hill, running our Figure 8 loop. It's just shy of 3km, along wood chip trails. We've also visited Elk Lake for a good 20km neg split run there around the lake (10km loop) and this past thursday we hit the Tim Don special on the track again.

The weather is getting a bit nicer here now..today we got up to 17 C which was a nice change from our usual highs so far of 10-12 C. It'll be a bit of a late night tonite, as the Ishigaki World Cup goes at 11:45pm PST for the men. Looks like I'll be going to bed around 2am. Simon and Colin are racing there. Tomorrow, Rappstar (Jordan Rapp) is racing Ironman Arizona...watch that guy ride a bike!!

Alrighty, that's all for now, I'll get back to blogging every other day (or better)

:)

Spring Time

2008-03-28T09:34:00.002-07:00

More on the LZR suit

2008-03-27T17:26:00.002-07:00

Some more headlines that the suit is generating:

"The NCAA has decided that the competitors will not be allowed to use the suit at this weekend's men's Division I Swimming and Diving Championships because of accessibility issues."

Swim News.com

2 more World Records set today in Australia..

Here are the new World Records since the middle of February. I'm sure many more will continue to fall through the spring and early summer in the lead-up to Beijing. The US Olympic Trials are the first week of July, not sure whether they will allow the suit or not. I'm thinking they will.

16/02/08: 200m backstroke - Kirsty Coventry (ZIM) 2:06.39
17/02/08: 50m freestyle - Eamon Sullivan (AUS) 21.56
17/02/08: 100m backstroke - Natalie Coughlin (USA) 59.21
08/03/08: 50m backstroke - Hayley McGregory (USA) 28.00
18/03/08: 4x100m freestyle - (NED) 3:33.62
(Dekker, 53.77; Kromowidjojo, 53.61; Heemskerk, 53.62, and Veldhuis, 52.62)
21/03/08: 100m freestyle - Alain Bernard (FRA) 47.60
22/03/08: 400m medley - Stephanie Rice (AUS) 4:31.46
22/03/08: 50m backstroke - Emily Seebohm (AUS) 27.95
22/03/08: 100m freestyle - Alain Bernard (FRA) 47.50.
23/03/08: 50m backstroke - Sophie Edington (AUS) 27.67
23/03/08: 50m freestyle - Alain Bernard (FRA) 21.50
24/03/08: 50m freestyle - Marleen Veldhuis (NED) 24.09
24/03/08: 400m freestyle - Federica Pellegrini (ITA) 4:01.53
25/03/08: 200m medley - Stephanie Rice (AUS) 2:08.92
27/03/08: 50m freestyle - Eamon Sullivan (AUS) 21.41
27/03/08: 100m freestyle - Libby Trickett (nee Lenton) (AUS) 52.88

Canadian Trials begin on Monday in Montreal, and no one there will be allowed to wear the LZR, as the supply of the suit is short, so not every competitor will have access to the suit. My old club (Newmarket Stingrays) are sending 8 members to Trials.

Swimming World Records

2008-03-26T19:39:00.004-07:00

Some interesting news out of the pool in the last month or so. Speedo has unveiled their new suit (LZR Racer) in advance of the Beijing Olympics. Based on the last 4 weeks (13 World Records), there are going to be a LOT of World Records being broken in Beijing. The suit claims a 5% reduction in drag...which is massive in the pool. I can't wait to see what Michael Phelps will do in this suit!!

The Science of Sport Blog has a couple of interesting posts on the new swim suit.

"For those who've missed the story, in the last 39 days, 14 world records have been set in the pool, and 13 of them have been in the newly designed swimsuit by Speedo. Claims of 5% less drag, water repellant fabric, an "internal core stabilizer" which helps the swimmer maintain form towards the end of the race, and what are called "low-drag" panels where the flow of water is greatest have been made to explain what must be one of the more remarkable periods of record setting in the sport."

Read the whole article here

Last Day in Flag, and the Drive North

2008-03-26T19:06:00.004-07:00

Saturday was our last day in Flag and also my 28th birthday. We did the group ride in the morning again, followed by a 30' run off of the bike. Maybe because it was my birthday, I rode my best ride of the camp, hanging into the group and the way back, and feeling strong. Figures on the last day I'd feel that way.

Runnin off the bike

Later that night we went out for dinner at Picazzo's pizzeria, which was a good way to end the camp. From there it was on to the Pay N Take downtown, where we met up with Paul Brinkmann for beers. Paul was nice enough to cover all our beers....Thanks again Paul! Let me tell you, their beer selection there is second to none! Over 100 different beers.

Simon and Paul

The beer fridge at Pay N Take...MMmmm

Sunday morning I hopped in the truck to begin the drive back up to Vic. On the road at 630am, and I made it into Oregon before calling it a night after driving 16 hrs (1750km). I slept like a log that night, and up and back on the road at 5am Monday to try and catch the Port Angeles ferry at 2pm later that day. Ended up I wasn't going to make the ferry, so I continued up through Seattle to the border and decided to take the ferry from Vancouver (every hour departures). Had a 60' wait to get across the border, which wasn't too bad. Got back into Vic at 6:30pm, unloaded the van and then dropped Kyle and Colin off at the airport for Mooloolaba.

The Peace Monument at the border

This week is just some easy recovery workouts until Friday morning, when we'll start back with structured workouts.

Video from Friday's Swim/Bike Workout

2008-03-22T07:59:00.001-07:00

Hair Cuts

2008-03-21T22:04:00.004-07:00

Well, today was hair cut day for most of the guys. Colin and I hadn't shaved since the start of the camp (32 days for me). Enjoy the photos.

Tich sporting the nice mohawk

PK is scared of Colin

Pre Hair Cut

Shave #1

Shave #2

Shave #3 (and final look)

Photos and Today's Training

2008-03-21T18:11:00.003-07:00

Another typical Friday workout this morning at the pool. Swim and then onto the bike for some intervals. The swim was 1400 warm-up, and then into the main set.

First round was 2 x 100 fast on 2:00 (1:08's) followed by 4 x 200 on 2:40 threshold (2:25 down to 2:18). The second round we went 5 x 200 on 3:00 (1-5). Descended down from 2:28 to 2:13 by the end. From there it was straight onto the bike for 5' hard, 2' ez, 5' hard, followed by a cool-down.

Later in the day I headed out for an ez 90' spin along Lake Mary Rd.

Here are a few photo's from the track workout yesterday.

Tomorrow is our last day here in Flagstaff. We've got the group ride in the morning, with a run off the bike, and a swim later in the day. I've also gotta pack the van up for the drive back to Vic on Sunday morning. Oh yeah, it's also my birthday, so I may have a beer or three later at the Pay N Take.

It's Madness! (Updated)

2008-03-20T10:43:00.003-07:00

It's the best time of the year.....March Madness!!!

Unfortunately, St John's didn't make the tournament again this year....and neither did The Ohio State University. Hopefully SJU gets back soon. I've got UCLA over Kansas in the final. I'll try to figure out a way to post my bracket on here.

Training wise the last few days have gone well. The workload is a bit lighter this week, as Colin, Kyle and Paul are prepping for the first World Cup of the year in Mooloolaba Australia.

Tuesday we swam 5000m in the morning, with a bunch of resistance work for our first set (swimming with an 8 inch parachute behind you = really hard). The 2nd set was 3 x 800 Pull (1-3) where I was able to get down to 9:30 on the last one. We had an hour base run along the Urban Trail, and a 90' spin to finish off the day.

Wednesday we swam 4000m in the morning, and in the afternoon we did some specific prep work for the guys going to Mooloolaba. There is a great hill here that simulates the Mooloolaba course pretty accurately, so we did 5 loops (up and over, and back up and over X 5) to simulate the bike course, followed by a quick transition to 10' hard running back up the hill and 10' easy.
My heart rate was sky high over the tops of the climbs (high 170's) but felt good running off of the bike.

Today we swam 3km easy in the morning, and we've got a track workout in the afternoon. I'm spending the time in between watching some of the Madness. We left the hotel at 12:45 to jog over to the track for our workout. The main set was 15 x 400 on 2:00 as (2 at triathlon race pace, 1 faster). There was a pretty decent wind for the homestretch of each 400. I held 79's for the race pace efforts (3:18 km pace) and hit 71-72's for the fast ones (3:00 pace). I'll take that at altitude. Here's another video from sqwracing. Check it out.

The Weekend of Training

2008-03-18T11:25:00.005-07:00

Here's the last 4 days of training...

Friday:
We started out with another swim/bike morning at the pool. Onto the bikes after the main set, for 5' hard, 2' ez, then 10 rounds of 30" hard/30" ez. The bike went well today, however I felt like ass in the water. Couldn't swim at all. The main set was 2 rounds of (2 x 100 on 2:00 FAST, then 8 x 100 on 1:40 best avg) I was struggling to move through the water, barely able to hold onto 1:18's the 2nd round, which is about 8 seconds slower than where I should have been.
We had an ez 90' spin later in the day, which I did on the trainer.

Saturday:
The Flagstaff group ride again. A fairly large group today, despite the nasty weather that greeted us. A storm was starting to blow through, so we had some strong sustained winds during our ride (40-50km/hr). This made for a lot of fun on the ride!! I had a couple of solid efforts on the way out to the lake, but on the way home my legs were fried from the week, and I just ended up cruising home with Paul from Pay N Take. We ran 30' nice and ez off the bike once we got back to the hotel.

Getting some food in

Sunday:
We headed over to the gym in the morning for the treadmills as it was COLD outside due to the storm. We ended up getting a couple of inches of snow over the day into Monday.
We warmed up for 20' and then had our main set which was 4 rounds of 3-2-1 with 2' ez in between each. The speeds got quicker as the intervals got shorter. We shot another video of the training which Colin edited and posted on his blog. The video is pretty cool, check it out.

We finished off the day with 5000m in the pool. A 2000m set focusing on strength swimming with the paddles on, followed by a pull set to finish off.

As you can see, we were in a rush to get in the pool

Monday:
A nice recovery day. 3000m ez in the morning at NAU, and that was it for the day. A legs off day, which I think I needed!

For more photo's check out Joel's Flickr Page

Horton Hears A Who

2008-03-14T12:42:00.001-07:00

I can't wait to see this movie...my parents used to read me Dr Seuss books all the time when I was young!

Catching Up on the Week That Was....

2008-03-13T19:45:00.003-07:00

It's been a busy week thus far...the hours are certainly adding up, and it should be a good solid week of training.

Monday was a recovery day from the weekend. We swam early in the morning; jumping in at 7:30 to swim 4000m (I can't remember what we did though). We ran through some core work afterwards, then headed over to do a hot/cold session. The rest of the day was spent doing some laundry, and squeezing in a 90' easy spin.

Tuesday morning I headed over to the gym to get in a 50' easy run before swimming. We swam later on in the morning (11:15am) as the Japanese teams had the pool booked beforehand. Swimming later in the morning like that is a bit different, as it makes the rest of the day seem rushed a bit, as we don't return from the pool until 1pm or so. This morning was 4000m again (which was a nice surprise) with 1000m warm-up and then 30 x 100 aerobic on 1:35 just rolling through.

Later in the afternoon we headed out for a 2hr base ride. Colin, Kyle and Paul headed out to climb up Snowbowl, while Jordan and I opted for a flatter route along Lake Mary (62km). We followed up the base ride with a 30' easy run off of the bike. We headed out along the Urban Trail, as it's now run-able the whole way (the spots in the shade are melting now).

The highlight of the day was dinner at Olive Garden. Colin, Kirsten and I headed over for some good food (and unlimited bread and salad :) ). It was a great meal, and once the bill came, Colin said that his mom was picking up the tab, which was awesome! Thanks again Mrs Jenkins!

Wednesday was our long run day for the week. I hit up the treadmill for 90'. The first 45' were easy, building into a steady pace for the final 45'. I threw in 4 x 5' with an increased elevation (4.5% as apposed to 1%) over the final 45' to simulate some hills. Total distance 11 miles.

We headed over to the pool for an endurance themed workout....500 warm-up, 3 x 500 Pull (1-3) 5 x 300 (1-5) on 4:30, 15 x 100 on 1:30. I finished off the day with a 90' ride along Lake Mary road (47km). It was pretty windy for the ride, with a nice headwind coming back into town.

And it finally brings us to Thursday's workouts. Another morning at the treadmill, this time 50' easy again on the treadmill (10km). The swim workout today was a 800m warm-up, followed by some strength based sets. 8 x 50 w. paddles or using resistance, followed by 100 fast, 400 ez. We rolled through that 3 times. An aerobic 1000m pull set finished off the workout.

It was a quick turn-around today, as we had 45 min to eat and get ready for riding once we got back to the hotel. Today's ride was hill reps, with a new hill off of Lake Mary Rd. Once up easy to get a feel for the road, and then 4 times at effort. Afterwards, we met up with Joel to collect our run stuff as we headed out for 50' run right off the bike, with 40' of fartlek and 10' of easy running. We ran along the Sinclair Wash, a lil bit of mud and a few streams to run through made for a fun run!!

No new photos this week...I haven't had my camera out for workouts...

The Weekend of Training

2008-03-09T14:17:00.002-07:00

A typical weekend here in Flagstaff.

Saturday started out with the local group ride again. We rode out towards Morman Lake, which is the usual route. A good ride, I tried to throw a couple of accelerations in before the large group sprints, and we stopped at the general store roughly halfway through for nourishment. The ride back I ended up in a group of 4, and had a chance to get some solid riding in for a stretch of 20-25km or so. A bunch of pulls on the front into the wind kept the legs burning, though it would have been better to try to hang on to the front group. Still a good solid stretch of riding for myself. A total ride of 100km or so, in roughly 3hrs.

We finished off the day with a tip over to the gym for a 60' easy run on the treadmill. The legs were a bit stiff for the first 30', but they came around in the back half of the run.

Sunday morning we headed over to the gym to run, as it was a bit chilly outside at 8am.
After a 10' warm-up, we ran a building hour long set, starting at 8.0 mph, building every 10 minutes to 9.5 mph. I was glad when that hour was over, my HR was at 185 for the last couple minutes at 9.5 mph. A total of 10.5 miles today on the tready.

We've got a swim later today at NAU, most likely a pull set.

20 Questions with Dano

2008-03-07T13:25:00.001-07:00

This is stolen from Simon's blog....the interview was earlier this week

Wed, Thurs & Fri

2008-03-07T12:26:00.003-07:00

A busy three days, but a solid three days of training.

Wednesday a bit of a cold front moved through, with the high for the day 4 C, but there were some decent winds making it a bit cooler. We started out in the morning with an aerobic workout in the pool. The main set consisted of 9 x 400 (1-3). #1-6 were pull, and the last 3 were swim. Later in the day, we headed over to the Lowell Observatory to do some hill reps. 45' of warm-up and one journey up to the observatory to see what we were climbing and then it was time to start the main part of the workout - 5 reps up and down the hill. It was approx. a 1km climb to the parking lot at the top, with the steepest sections right at the beginning.

The legs didn't seem to want to co-operate today, and I struggled up the climb 5 times. After the hill reps, we met up with Joel to get our run stuff for a 40' building run. This run was tough....as Joel decided we'd run up and down a hill for the 30' of effort, and then we had 10' easy at the end of the flats, before bundling up again to ride home. We headed out for dinner afterwards, but first we had to endure a cold shower, as the hotel's hot water wasn't working!!

Thursday was a bit of an easy day...save for a tough run workout on the track.
We started out the day with a 40' easy run on the treadmill....and then headed over to the pool for a recovery swim. 3000m with some pull and fun with some toys.

Next up for the day was the Tim Don special. 32 x 200 on the track - 3 on 60" 1 on 90". It turned out to be a good workout, I didn't fall apart as in previous attempts, and held 36-38's depending on the wind. I'll take holding a 3:08-3:10 km at altitude right now.

Today's workouts are almost over. We had early pool time this morning (7:30 instead of our usual 9:30 here in Flag). We brought our bikes to the pool, as we were doing 2 x 10' hard effort right off the end of the main set in the pool. 3 rounds of (3 x 100 on 1:40 hard, 3 x 300 on 4:30 threshold). I was finally able to put together a good full set this morning, and felt pretty good on the bike as well. Afterwards, we headed over to get some hot/cold in again. All that's left for today is a 90' easy spin.

Joel has posted some photo's from the hill reps and the Tim Don special.....I just can't figure out how to add them to my blog today...it's not working.

GO HERE TO SEE THEM.

Catching Up....

2008-03-04T20:50:00.004-07:00

Sunday was Colin's birthday....so after the day of training, we headed out to the Outback for some Steak!!

We started out the morning with a 80' base run at the gym on the treadmill. 11 miles on the treadmill, at an avg HR of 154. It was then back to have some food, and get ready for Colin's Birthday swim later on in the day.

The birthday swim turned out to be 25 x 200 (as Colin turned 25).

Outback was very tasty....Ceasar Salad, an 11 oz piece of sirloin, and some yam fries. Oh yeah, it was washed down with a tasty Australian beer! A quick stop to Coldstone's for some ice cream on the way home made for a fitting end to the day.

Monday was a recovery day. 3500 in the pool, with a bunch of mixed activities, followed by some contrast bathing in the NAU training room. Contrast bathing involves getting in a cold tub (usually around 50 F or cooler) then jumping into a hot tub (90F or so). It's great for flushing the legs out. An hour easy spin ended the day.

Here are a couple photo's of the four of us that went to do some Hot / Cold. We're in the cold tub for the photos.

Tuesday was a monster day of training. Just over 5hrs of training, but a lot of high intensity in there. We started out the day with an ez 40' run on the treadmill (8km). It was home for breakfast, then off to the pool for what turned out to be 6000m. the main set was as follows:

8x100 on 1:30, 100 ez
7x100 on 1:30, 100 ez
6x100 on 1:30, 100 ez
5x100 on 1:30, 100 ez
4x100 on 1:30, 100 ez
3x100 on 1:30, 100 ez
2x100 on 1:30, 200 ez

We've done this set before, but I don't believe we've done it at altitude. The altitude was a killer after about 4 100's as you started really sucking for air! Everyone swam well today though!

Later in the afternoon, we headed out for a 2hr 30' ride on Lake Mary Rd. There was a bit of a cross wind today, which made things interesting. The first hour was ez, followed by 30' of Steady state effort, 5' ez, 20' TT, 5' ez, and a final 10' TT. We spun the rest of the way back to the hotel (85km) and finished the day off with an easy easy 30' shuffle around the university.

The rest of the week looks like some solid training sessions.....should be fun!

Fri and Sat training....can I have some humble pie?

2008-03-02T07:56:00.007-07:00

We've been enjoying some awesome weather here in Flagstaff...the snow that is here is melting with these days of warmth and sunshine we've been having.

Friday we brought our bikes to the pool for a swim to bike workout. We went through our normal swim workout, and immediately after the main set hopped out and jumped straight on the bikes for 4 x 5' threshold with 2' ez in between.

The main set in the pool was 3 rounds of (4 x 50 on 50", 100 on 1:25, 200 on 2:50, 400 on 5:40) with 2oo ez in between rounds. Round one was really painful, and forced me to take the drag suit off for round two. We also pulled round two as most of us were suffering in the pool. Round three was back to swim, and then straight onto the bikes for 20 hard minutes of suffering. That was the first transition work of the year, and I could certainly notice.

We finished off the day with a 90' ez spin up towards the snowbowl (44km).

Saturday was a tough one. We rode downtown to join up for the Saturday morning group ride from the Pay N Take. Usually the ride goes out around Mormon Lake, but today we rode north out of town and towards the Wupatki National Monument.

It was 30km to reach the entrance to the park, and then a 35km descent to the bottom, with about a 2500 ft or so elevation change. The pace was high on the way out, mainly due to the fact that we had a 40km/hr tailwind behind us. After refueling at the bottom at the visitor center, it was time to start climbing back to the top. There was a fierce headwind as we started climbing, and the group slowly started to splinter. I hung in to the 30' mark of the climb, where I had to drop back. My HR was at 175, and the legs were screaming. It was at this point where the fun began. I had another hour of climbing left into the headwind, followed by another 70' ride back to the hotel room. After reaching the highway and starting the 30km trek back to the hotel, I was forced to stop for a big Pepsi, otherwise I don't think I would've made it home. The wind definitely kicked my ass today.

Total ride time for me today was 4:26, covering 129km.
Avg HR for the 90' of climbing out of the Park was 153

Hanging into the group would have been much easier, though they got a little feisty towards the end of the climb, as Colin and another local rider broke away with 10km to go or so to the top. They made it back to the hotel about 25 min before I did..

We finished off the day with a 40' trot on the treadmills over at Summit Health Center where we have memberships for the month.

I'd like to end the blog here Sunday morning with a 20 Questions video of the birthday boy Colin Jenkins

Into the Swing of Things

2008-02-29T08:16:00.002-07:00

Well, our first couple days of adapting to the altitude seems to be over. Wednesday was a tough day of training.

We started out with 5km in the pool in the morning, with the main set being three rounds of 3 x 100 on 1:30, 3 x 300 on 4:30. I wasn't feeling that great in the water, and just held 1:6's for the 100's and 3:55 or so for the 300's.

After lunch, we met up for a 2.5 hr ride followed immediately by a 40 min run. We rode out Lake Mary road easy for 90 min, then turned around and headed back for 60 min of tempo/steady riding. We had the wind at our back coming home, and the group was flying! I yo-yoed out of the paceline twice, before finally falling out with 15 min to go. We met up with Joel who had all of our running gear, and following a brief road-side change, we started our run which was 10' steady, 10' easy, 10' steady, 10' ez. The legs were quite stiff starting out (first transition run of the year) but felt better as we went along.
We covered 91km in 2:40, so a solid ride all in all.

Thursday I woke up pretty stiff and sore from Wednesday. I had an ez 40' run in the morning before swimming, so I headed out and did a loop through the university, and then home for breakfast. Swimming was a bit of recovery today, with 3500m being covered in the pool. We headed out in the afternoon for our 2nd run of the day. 30' warm-up, followed by 30' tempo, and finally a 10' cool-down. The weather was great (15 C) and made for a good run.

I headed over to the university later at night for the NAU men's basketball game. NAU was playing for 2nd place in their conference against Weber St. It was a good game, with NAU winning by 3 at the end.

First Couple of Days at Altitude

2008-02-26T20:15:00.002-07:00

We're settled in now nicely here in Flagstaff. Everyone (except for Joel) is in the Hampton Inn & Suites. Joel is across the street at another hotel, as pets aren't allowed at the Hampton. I'm rooming with Colin, and we get along great. The rooms here are very spacious, and they have the most comfortable beds and pillows ever!! We get free continental breakfast downstairs every morning, along with copies of USA Today. I'll try to get some photos up in the next few days.

Monday we headed over to the pool in the morning for a swim. We are swimming a bit later this week than we'd normally swim (9:30 rather than 7:30) as the pool is booked solid at 7:30 this week. We ended up swimming 4000m, with a warm-up of 400 swim, 200 kick, 2x100 IM. The main set was an aerobic set consisting of 10 x 300 (swim, pull, mix)

After some running around getting things for our room and some groceries, we had a 90' easy ride to flush the legs out, and get used to the altitude.

Today's workout we were back in the pool this morning with another main aerobic set of 30 x 100 on 1:30 just rolling through them all. Colin and I headed out for a 40' run once we got back to the hotel, and we finished the day off with 2 hrs on the trainer watching some old episodes of American Gladiators.

Victoria to Phoenix to Flagstaff

2008-02-25T20:20:00.003-07:00

I flew out to Victoria on Wednesday, and stayed that night at Joel’s. After swimming the next morning, we went to pick up the rental van that I’d be driving down to Phoenix, and ultimately up to Flagstaff. Thursday afternoon was spent driving around collecting cross bikes and extra luggage from everyone, and then the fun task of loading up the van and catching the 4pm ferry to Port Angeles, WA.

The van almost loaded, it's still missing a few bags, and a big heat tent that we brought down for heat specific training for the group going straight to the Mooloolaba World Cup from Flagstaff.

Andrew McCartney and I were in the ferry line at 2:30pm to ensure that we made it onto that ferry. We set sail at 4pm heading for the States. After clearing customs on the other side (6pm), it was time to start the long haul of almost 2600 kms to Phoenix Arizona.

The first stretch of driving is along a single lane highway, and it was dark at that time as well. By 815 or so, we had merged onto the I-5 which we would stay on until we reached Los Angeles CA. I drove until 2:30am which got me to about 50 miles north of Grant's Pass Oregon (750km total). I pulled over to sleep for a few hours, getting back on the road at 5:45am. I figure I had about 2 hrs of fractured sleep....I woke up at one point freezing cold, and had to start the van to get the heat going so it would warm up!

I entered northern California soon afterwards, where there is some higher elevation, and hence some snow. I drove through some snow flurries, even driving past a car that had flipped off the road. I made sure to be extra cautious, especially the downhills, as I wasn't familiar with the big rental van.

I ended up driving 1800km on the last day, which included driving through the outer limits of Los Angeles during rush hour on a Friday evening (6pm). Probably not the greatest thing, but that's how things worked out. Rush hour sucked, as you can see from the following photo.

Andrew was my driving partner, well....let me clarify. He drove with me, but I did all the driving, as he is technically too young to drive the rental van. Instead, he spent a fair amount of the drive in this position, while I was driving through the night and day.

I finally rolled into Phoenix, and arrived at our hotel in Fountain Hills at 2am local time. A total of 31 hours since we left the Port Angeles ferry terminal, and I covered 2575km. The last stretch of the drive on Friday night through the California desert was a bit rough...so I had a few caffeine pills, a couple cans of Pepsi, and had the window rolled down for fresh air. I was really looking forward to a cold beer after that long drive, but I couldn't find a gas station from the highway in to our hotel, so I was out of luck.

We raced the Desert Duathlon on Sunday, which on a whole went well for the group. Paul had a wicked race, coming away with the Win, followed by Jordan in 2nd place. Simon was also in the money (4th) while Kyle was the last guy to get a pay cheque in 7th place. Spending 31hrs in the car, without much sleep doesn't lend itself well to racing 27 hours later. Oh well. It done, and out of the way, and we're up in Flagstaff now ready for four solid weeks of training at altitude (7000ft).

I'll keep this quick...

2008-02-21T08:07:00.001-07:00

I'm in Victoria now, got in last night, heading to the pool to swim, then pick up our rental truck, load it up with a bunch of bikes, and I start driving down to Phoenix Arizona later today. Should roll into Phoenix late Friday night. We're racing the Desert Duathlon on Sunday, then we'll head up to Flagstaff for the next 4 weeks.

Next update in Phoenix after 25hrs of driving.

Recovery Week

2008-01-31T18:20:00.000-07:00

I'm back home now in Ontario....and it's a recovery week.

Just some short easy swims, bikes, and runs this week. It'll be a nice change for the body after three solid weeks down in Tucson.

Here are my totals for the 21 days in Tucson.

Swim: 75km
Bike: 850km
Run: 205km

The weather for the next 24 hrs looks pretty crappy...they are calling for 20-25cm of snow !!

End of Camp

2008-01-27T21:27:00.000-07:00

Today marked the last day of our three week training camp here in Tucson. Weather-wise, this was the crappiest day of our whole trip. It rained basically the whole day, though it held off for our run in the morning.

75' run in Sabino Canyon (16km). We started out with a 40' easy warm-up in and around the trails in the Canyon. We then met up at the same location as last week to run our hill intervals again. This week we went 8 times through the loop, last week was 6. An ez jog back to the condo finished off the run. The legs were a bit wrecked today, but it was still a good solid workout.

Since this is the last day, it also meant that it was clean-up day!! We spent a chunk of today cleaning the kitchen, vacuuming, and packing up. Soon it was time for the pool. It was raining still as we headed to the pool, which sucked for coach Joel!!

The workout turned out to be one of my best swim workouts of the camp (yards again!!)

400 swim, 200 kick, 2 x 100 IM
16 x 50 on 40" (every 4th fast)
12 x 50 on 45" (every 3rd fast) Hitting 27's for the fast ones...just behind the speedy Jenkins.
100 ez
3 x 800 Pull w. Paddles on 10' (9:00, 8:40, 8:24)
300 ez

Joel introduced a new concept for the workouts today - Mod, Med, Mad. The first one was to be moderate, the second medium, and the third one Mad (Hard/Fast). I attacked the 3rd interval, opening a 10 yd gap on Jenkins and Bechtel through the 400 yd mark (4:02). It was soon downhill fast for me, as I fell apart, with a massive blow up (coming back in 4:22).

We headed out for dinner and ice cream afterwards....some Mexican food, and Coldstone Ice Cream!! Yummy!

A rainy day at the pool...

Colin horsing around off the 10m dive tower

Move over Dr Jones

KaBoom!!

2008-01-26T21:19:00.000-07:00

I think the blog entry title says everything about my ride at the Shootout today.

After the usual easy warm-up to the start of the ride, the pace picked up. That's when I got into trouble. Instead of bing able to move up a bit, I was slowly going backwards. The legs were extremely heavy today, and didn't have anything in them when the pace started to pick up. I knew I was in for a long day. Joel came by in the van, and I just waved him away...there was no way I was going to be able to hang with the group even if Joel pulled me up.

I ended up riding with a small group, but then made a dumb mistake of taking some food in when the pace slowed, except I was still eating when a group started to hammer down the road. I was stuck in no man's land, trying to chase them down, but seeing them pull away. I ended up riding the last 45km of the ride solo. I didn't feel too bad for the last 45km....so at least that was one positive from the ride today!!

A 40' run in Sabino Canyon finished the day off.

Thurs and Friday training....

Thursday morning, we had our long run of the week....1hr 45 min in Sabino Canyon. We tacked a warm-up loop in bear Canyon on at the beginning, and then ran the reverse route of a week or so ago (up the Phoneline trail..and back along the road). This was a killer run....tons of uphill running...but it's good sport specific strength training. 21km (1:47)

We swam yards in the afternoon for our recovery swim. 4000 yards, with 1000 SKIDS for warm-up and then a mixture of pull and some stroke/swim combos.

Friday morning started out with I'd say our hardest set in the pool (effort wise at least).

400,200, 2 x 100 IM
8 x 50 (25/25)
24 x 100 on 1:30,1:25,1:20,1:15
3 x 400 (ez, pull, pull)
200 ez

We also headed out for a base ride with Simon's camp group that is in town right now. Simon has posted some great pics on his blog. We rode over to Mt Lemmon, and I climbed to mile 8, turned around, and headed back home. All of Simon's group rode to at least the 14 mile mark!!

A bit of slacking on the Blog Front....

2008-01-23T18:57:00.000-07:00

OK, I got an instant msg today, letting me know that it was Wednesday...and still no blog update!!

So, here it finally is, 4 days worth of activity to catch you up on.

Sunday we ran in Sabino Canyon in the morning, 70 min in total (16km), with a circuit of hill repeats thrown in as the main set. It was 6 times a loop that Joel had mapped out, 90" of hard uphill running followed by 90" or so or downhill recovery running, that we ran 6 times. A good strength workout.

We headed over to the U of A pool to swim in the afternoon. It was yards again (Yeah!) and we put in 5000 yards, a mixture of swim, pull, and some pace 100's.
600 swim, 600 Pull Neg Split, 6 x 100 on 1:15
400 swim, 400 Pull Neg Split, 4 x 100 on 1:15
300 swim, 300 Pull Neg Split, 3 x 100 on 1:15
300 swim, 300 Pull Neg Split, 3 x 100 on 1:15

The Texas women's team was still there, and swam after us today. I managed to snag a Texas swim cap from their coach....Hook Em Horns!

Monday we were back at the University, as Fort Lowell pool was closed because it was Martin Luther King Jr Day here in the US. 5000 yards this morning, though I can't quite remember what the workout was. I remember that we did a couple sets with the "Power Towers" which are basically a pulley system that you lift up a large pail of water as you swim (a good strength workout!!) We did a 2hr base ride in the afternoon, spinning the legs out. 60km in total, basically the same route as we did on Friday.

Ready to use the Power Towers

Power Towers in action, as we swim across the pool, we lift the buckets up

Tuesday was a full day of activity, starting with a trip back to the pool (this time at Fort Lowell, which means LCM).

400,200,2x100 IM
12 x 50 (alt build, ez)
2 x (3 x 200 on 3:00, 3 x 50 on 60, 250 ez)
Got down to 2:20 or so on the 200's....felt good in the water today
1500 aerobic pull, negative split
100 ez

We then headed out for a ride at noon, with the goal of 3hrs or so, including a climb up Mt Lemmon. Jordan and Kyle set the pace on the front, riding really well. I just put my I Pod on, and settled into my own rhythm, I wasn't going to get caught up trying to ride above my limits this early in the year. I stopped at mile 11 and rode back home with Kyle. I was 57.5 min this time, week 1 was 62 min. Most of the group rode to mile 14, with Sean, Paul and JonnyO riding to mile 18.
A 40 min easy run in Sabino Canyon with Kyle ended the day (9km)

Climbing Mt Lemmon

Looking down Mt Lemmon

And it finally brinigs me to today's training. 5000m this morning in the pool....an endurance set this morning.

300 swim, 200 kick, 300 swim, 200 kick
12 x 50 (every 3rd fast) on 50"
4 x 800 w. 30" rest (2 pull, 1 PB only, 1 swim)
200 easy

We headed over to the Wash at noon, for our weekly fartlek workout.

2 rounds of (2x90 secs w/ 90 secs, 2x60 secs w/ 60 secs, 2x30 secs, w/ 30 secs, 2x15 secs w/ 15 secs) It was a good opportunity to get the leg turnover going, which was really tough as I was feeling leg heavy from the climbing yesterday!! An hour easy spin later in the day brought the day to a close.

Our group here in Tucson....(L to R) Joel, Jordan, Simon, Colin, Sean, Dano, Kathy, Paul, JonnyO, Andrew, Kyle)

The Shootout ....and other fun stuff on Saturday

2008-01-19T20:08:00.000-07:00

Today was the shootout ride here in Tucson, which is a big group ride that starts downtown near the university. The group ranges in size depending on the time of the year, with numerous pro cyclists usually around for the ride. A write-up of today's ride can be found here.

Map of the Shootout ride, complete with a course profile.

The group ended up being over 125 riders I'd say. We rolled out of town around 7:35 am, with the mercury hovering right around the freezing mark. It was chilly for the first 30 mins, as the group slowly rolled through town, picking up riders as we went along. Once the sun came fully up, and the pace picked up, we all started to warm up.

The first 30 min or so is the warm-up, and then it is game on. Once the terrain starts to climb, the group starts to fracture. I was able to hang onto the tail end of the lead group until around 30km, at which I fell off the back as did others. Luckily for me, Joel was following behind, and pulled in front of me to give me a draft back up to the group. Thanks to his help, I was able to get back onto the small group of guys just off the back, but as my luck would have it, they had blown up as well...and we weren't able to get back on. Joel tried to give me another draft up to the group...but I was close to red-lining at this point, and ended up missing the pain train at the front. It turns out it was a good ride for our guys who were in the front group (Simon, Kyle, Colin, Paul, Sean, Jordan) with some contested hill sprints by Colin.

I settled into a group of 5 riders, and we started to work efficiently together, trying to limit our losses. We picked up a group of 6 or 7 riders up the road (all while still climbing a false flat) and had a nice group of 11 riders, who were all taking even pulls. We rode together from 30-50km or so, until we got down to Duval Mine Rd, where half our group took the route back into town (60 mile ride), while half went the longer way (100 mile ride) to tack on some more miles. I was on the back trying to eat a Clif Bar while we were flying down the road at 50km/hr. I had no idea which way to go, and made the wrong decision, and ended up on the long route. Another rider and I ended up turning around and getting back onto the course, but the group was gone. Once I got down to a set of lights, I stopped and saw a group coming up from behind. I joined in with them as they went by, and we had a nice group of 10 or so to work together coming back into town.

We ended up catching the front group just as we made it back into town, where I proceeded to blow my front tire about 2km from the end of the ride. Luckily Joel was behind us at this point (he had been following the lead group, and Kyle had just flatted and taken the spare wheel) so I called it a day and jumped into the van.

We covered 96km in 2hr 44 min. It turned out to be a really good ride, save for a few rough patches of road on the way out. Hopefully we'll ride again next weekend.

After a group breakfast/brunch downtown, we headed back to the condos. A quick shower, and Sean and I hit the road again to head back downtown to the University to catch the #4 ranked University of Arizona Women's Swim Team duel against #15 ranked Texas. Arizona really out swam Texas today, taking the top 2 or 3 spots in most events, but they swam a bunch of swimmers as exhibition, so the final score (134-120 Arizona) seemed a lot closer than the meet actually was. The Arizona Men's Team swam today as well, but just against each other. They swam some impressive times coming off Christmas training, and just swimming against each other.

After the meet, as Sean and I were heading back to the car, we wandered into the McKale Center, which is home to the Mens and Womens basketball teams. The women were playing against California, and it was cool to see the gym where so many NBA players played in college. The Men play against #5 Washington St on Thursday night, I'm hoping to get over and watch the game.

Simon, Jordan, Sean, and I ran for 40 min in Sabino Canyon later in the afternoon, the leg felt better today...a lil heat rub on it, then wrap in tensor bandage. Some stretching and ice on it afterwards, and we'll see how it is tomorrow.

Our house headed our for some pizza tonite, as Jasper Blake is in town. It was good to see Jazz again. Jazz got in late last night....but still headed out for a 6.5 hr ride today. He rode all the way to the top of Mt Lemmon today, and has another 5 hrs or so of riding scheduled for tomorrow.

Here's a couple photo's that Joel took from our group ride on Friday.

Thursday and Friday....

2008-01-18T21:29:00.000-07:00

Thursday

We headed out to Saguaro National Park for our long base run. We had a planned 95' run. I ended up running 75' (15.5km) as my leg was hurting me, so I cut it short. The trails we ran on in there were pretty awesome....a mixture of single tracks, sand, crossing river beds, and some short hills. Luckily Sean, Kathy and I had a map, our we might have gotten lost.

We finished the day off with a 3000m recovery swim over at Fort Lowell pool.

300 swim, 200 Kick, 300 swim, 200 Kick
400 swim, 4 x 100 (stroke/free)
300 swim, 3 x 100 (stroke/free)
200 swim, 2 x 100 (stroke/free)
200 Kick

Friday

A sleep in day!! We weren't in the pool until 10am, when we headed over to the U of A pool to swim today. And....it was yards again!! I think that pumped me up for the workout more than anything. Yards and I just go well together.

400 swim, 200 Kick, 2 x 100 IM
24 x 100 as 6 x (1:25,1:20,1:15,1:10)
200 ez
3 x 300 Pull (1-3) (3:40, 3:20, 3:07)
100 ez

I ended up getting down to 58-1:00 for the 4th 100 of each set, so the swimming is coming around finally, I think.

We ended the day with a 2hr base ride as a group. We headed out and rode through Bear Canyon, and then down Old Spanish trail. The pace was prolly a lil bit faster than a base ride, but done and done. 67km ride in 2 hrs.

Tomorrow morning is the Famous Tucson Shootout Ride. Should be interesting.

Tour de France...

2008-01-17T11:46:00.001-07:00

If you're looking for a team to cheer for this year when the Tour starts, take a look at Team Slipstream/Chipotle, an American team that is trying to change the way cycling is.

When the team was formed, it began participating in the Agency for Cycling Ethics (ACE) program with the aim of helping to eliminate doping in professional cycling. Participants are extensively tested, developing a bio-stable marker profile. Future tests check that these markers have not moved - if they have the rider is either ill or has taken performance enhancing drugs. If any change has been noted, the rider cannot participate in racing until the markers have returned to normal levels.

Click the picture below for an interesting article from ESPN about the team.

Hump Day

2008-01-16T18:33:00.001-07:00

Another busy day of training today, which started out like most mornings in the pool.

4200m for me this morning, and I'm happy that I am starting to feel better in the water, and should be back up to my normal self in a few days.

1000 SKIDS (swim, kick, IM, drill, swim)
16 x 50 on 45" (every 4th one fast)
12 x 50 on 50" (every 3rd one fast)
8 x 50 on 55" (every other fast)
4 x 50 on 60" (all fast)

5 x 200 (odds Pull w. paddles, evens 50 stroke/50 free)
200 warm-down

Home for some food, relax for the rest of the morning, and get prepped for a 70' fartlek run to start the afternoon off. We drove down to the dried up river (or wash as it called here). 35' warm-up, some stretching, drills and strides...then into the meat of the workout.

30",60", 2', 4', 4', 2', 60", 30" with half the previous interval rest time in between (ie, 15 " rest after the first 30" interval). My right upper quad was a bit tight today, so I backed off the efforts a bit today, don't want the leg to get out of control.

We finished off the day with an easy 60" group spin. The legs are a bit fatigued right now, but I've got some dinner in me now, and just relaxing and getting ready for tomorrow.

Tomorrow is a bit lighter compared to the last couple days....95' long run in the morning, followed by a 3000m recovery swim in the afternoon.

Monday and Tuesday Training...

2008-01-15T20:36:00.000-07:00

Bit slow with the blogging recently...So I've got two days of workouts here.

Monday was a bit of a rest day, as we swam in the morning, 4000m in total, though I can't really remember what we did. From there, we had an easy 90' base ride as a group. We headed out towards Bear Canyon, did a lil loop over there, and headed back. It was really windy out, which made for a fun ride, trying to hide from the wind.

And the best news of the day was the fact that we've now got internet service in our unit. After a couple of phone calls, I had to drive up north a bit to get our modem, which ended up being a 90' trip, but it was worth it!

Tuesday brought a morning group ride in downtown Tucson. The group was not that big (we made up half the group) but it was still a tough ride. 62km in total. It was the first hard effort of the season on the bike for me, and I definitely felt it when the pace picked up! We had a good ride, with everyone regrouping at the top of Gates Pass, which is pictured below.

Colin ended up getting a flat just as the pace picked up this morning, and it was no ordinary flat. Check out the gash in his tire below (he had to put a powergel inside his tire to get back to the van to grab the spare wheel).

I ran for 45 min in Sabino Canyon, and then we swam 4000m to finish off the day. Feeling a bit better in the pool, as the stroke is almost there. 800m warm-up, followed by 3 x 500 Pull, 100 ez, 5 x 300, and 100 ez.

Short Course Yards!!!

2008-01-14T09:47:00.000-07:00

The best day of training this week....we got to swim yards today in the pool!!
I'm the only one in the group who prefers to swim yards, everyone else prefers to swim Long Course Meters....so I was in heaven today when we went over to the University of Arizona to swim.

We started off the morning with a 90 min run in Sabino Canyon. We took the roadway all the way to the end, which meant that we ended up crossing the stream that flows through the canyon about 5-6 times. The first time we all took our shoes off, but then we said screw it and decided to just run across. From there we went up a 1 mile trail full of switchbacks up the side of the canyon to the top. We hopped on the Telephone Trail, and ran the last 3.7 miles back down and towards the start. The view from the trail cut into the side of the canyon was amazing!! I wish that I had my camera along with me. Total run was 16.5km, with some good hill running in there.

We then headed over to the university and swam 5000 yards. The Arizona campus is amazing. 20 lane outdoor pool, large tennis facility, the massive football stadium, the school has got it all.

600 swim, 600 pull, 6 x 100 on 1:25
400 swim, 400 pull, 4 x 100 on 1:25
300 swim, 300 pull, 3 x 100 on 1:25
200 swim, 200 pull, 2 x 100 on 1:25
100 swim, 100 pull, 1 x 100 on 1L25
200 easy

We all went out for some mexican food for dinner, where we were able to watch the end of the Giants/Cowboys game. Should be some good football games next week!!

Long ride, and some football

2008-01-12T17:23:00.000-07:00

Long group ride this morning. We rolled out of the condo unit at 830, dressed fairly warm as the temp was 38 F or so. Once the sun got higher in the sky, it warmed up. We ended up riding for just under 3 hrs, with a nice rolling ride out towards Colossal Caves, and back home. We were going to climb a bit of Mt Lemmon today, but we decided against it.

2hr 57 min
94.7km
32.1km/hr

After some lunch, it was time for the first football game of the day; on the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field, Seattle Vs. Green Bay. At the half, Simon, Paul, Sean and I headed out for a 40 min easy run up through Sabino Canyon (44 min, 9.1km). Now it's time for some food, and then the game I'm looking forward to, Jacksonville @ New England.

Snap!

2008-01-11T20:40:00.000-07:00

We were out for a ride today, rolling along in a group when we came to a red light. As it went green, I got out of the saddle to get up to speed, and next thing I hear is crraacckk. I looked down, and noticed a huge crack in my carbon handlebars. I guess the torque on the handlebars made them snap, as they snapped from the bottom. Good thing I wasn't moving faster, as it could have ended up ugly.
We were only 8km into the ride, so I left the group, and turned around to ride home. I obviously couldn't grasp the right handlebar, so I had to put my right hand on the stem, to ride home.

Simon gave me a ride to Sabino Cycles once he got back from the ride, and my bike is now back up and running. I'll get to test out the new handlebar set-up tomorrow, as we have a 2hr 30 min ride scheduled.

4000m in the pool this morning, some more aerobic stuff, with a little bit of activation at the end of the workout.

400 swim, 200 kick, 200 IM
3 x 800 Pull w. 45" rest in between.
200 ez
4 x 100 on 1:30 steady, 100 on 1:45
300 ez warm-down

Thursday

2008-01-10T18:18:00.000-07:00

Today we had the benefit of sleeping in an extra hour or so this morning.
We don't have pool time on Thursday mornings, instead we get it in the afternoon.

We headed out at 8am in the van, destined for Saguaro National Park for our long run. The run was 75 minutes for most of us, with Kyle and Jordan running 90 minutes. We ran in smaller groups, and I ended up running with Bechtel the whole way. We stuck to the paved road that looped through the park. It was a tough loop!! 8 hilly miles, we ran past the van, and went a little bit further to get our 75 minutes in. Some of those hills were pretty steep, it made for a good challenging loop. I think we may ride that loop on our bike a couple times.

75 minutes
15.5km

We finished off the day with a recovery swim at the pool at 3pm.
3000m as: 1000 SKIDS (swim, kick, IM, drill, swim), 2 x (300 pull, 3 x 100 non-free) 8 x 50 (2 breakout, 2 drill) and finished off with 200 kick, and 200 easy.

Some Photo's from Tucson

2008-01-10T12:33:00.000-07:00

Here is a link to photo's that Coach Joel took from day 1 of the camp.

Click here to see them.

Jumping Right In

2008-01-09T20:12:00.000-07:00

Well,

Day 2 of the camp has come and gone, and today we got right into the swing of things.

We started out in the pool, with another 5000m, highlighted with a main set of (5 x 300 Pull (1-5) followed by 5 x 300 swim (1-3). Back to back 5km days took it's toll on me today, as I was hurting towards the end of the workout. I figure this first week will be enough to get accustomed to the rigors of 5km workouts.

The main workout of the day was a 2hr 35 min ride (73.5km). We rode the 20km over to the base of Mt Lemmon, and it was decided that we would ride to the 11 mile mark of the 25 mile climb.

17.5 km
62 min total time climbing.

I'm sure we'll be venturing the whole way up pretty soon.

Here's a map of the whole climb

A 40 min run with Simon, Kyle and Jordan, finished off the day. For the run, I decided to test out my new Nike + I Pod attachment that I got for Christmas. It was cool to run, and be able to see how far we had gone, just by looking down at the screen of my I Pod.
We ended up running 36 min, and run an easy 7.5km.

I'll get an entry up in the next few days with some pictures, I promise!

Tucson Training Camp 2008

2008-01-08T18:23:00.000-07:00

I'm here in sunny Tucson Arizona for our three week base camp. This'll be a short blog entry, as I'm limited with the internet right now.

The whole group was together this morning ready to go on the pool deck. It was a balmy 45 F, as we converted the pool over from a 25 yard set up into a 50 meter setup, and then hopped in.
4800m later, we were finished, picked up some groceries, and headed home. We also got in a 60 min run in the Sabino Canyon on some wicked trails, and a 90 min easy group ride to end the day.

Tomorrow we're back in the pool at 7am, and I think we're riding later in the morning. We'll see what the day brings.

2008-01-05T05:55:00.000-07:00

In a couple of days, I will be getting away from weather like this:

and heading down to weather like this:

Monday, I'll be flying out of Buffalo bound for a 3 week training camp in Tucson Arizona. It'll be good to hook up with the group again, as they are all flying in the same day from Victoria and other areas. The camp will be a solid base camp, putting the time in. We'll be swimming most every morning, and riding and running on the numerous roads and trails around us. The picture above is the start of the 40km climb from Tucson up Mt Lemmon. I'm sure we'll be making the trek up once or twice.

The blog will be updated daily again come Monday. Stay tuned.

Where's Santa?

2007-12-24T03:36:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the folks at the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), you can track Santa this Christmas Eve.

Check it out here.

Merry Christmas to everyone!!

Dano

Chopper Ron's Night Before Christmas!

2007-12-23T15:14:00.000-07:00

Merry Christmas!

That's what I'm talking about!

2007-10-01T03:48:00.000-07:00

Finally, the Bills got one in the win column, with a 17-14 win over the NY Jets.
I really liked the way that Trent Edwards played....looks like he could be the real deal.

No work for me today, as I've got the joyful opportunity to go to the Newmarket court house today for Jury Selection. I'm guessing I'm going to be sitting around for a while, so I've got some reading material along with me. I'm really hoping that I don't get selected for a case...they don't pay you any money to be there (until after 10 days, and only $40 a day) so I won't be able to make money if I'm sitting on a jury. Guess we'll see how the day goes.

It's been a while...

2007-09-28T21:39:00.001-07:00

since I last blogged.

I've been working a lot right now, more of a down month for me, and once October rolls around, time to get back at it.

I've been doing a lot of painting recently, as well as working Fri and Sat nights at Magna golf club.

My Sunday's are dedicated to NFL right now, it's been a rough opening three weeks being a Buffalo Bills fan. I'm hoping we can pull out a win this weekend, so that we don't go into the Monday Nighter nest weekend 0-4. Oh yeah, I've got tickets to the Monday Nighter!!! It's gonna be a great time!!

Here is the Week 4 Buffalo Bills rap song, courtesy of WGR 550am.

Let's Go Bills...Week 2

2007-09-15T06:29:00.000-07:00

Let's Go Bills week 2 Rap

Ducks roll as Wolverines suffer worst loss since '68

2007-09-08T20:46:00.000-07:00

Being an Ohio St Buckeye fan, the above title is music to my ears.

Michigan coming off a loss to I-AA Appalachian St last weekend, continued to implode by losing to Oregon on Saturday. Now, Oregon is a good team, but UM is toast now. Open the season at#5, and become the first ranked team to lose to a I-AA team.

Sunday brings about the start of the greatest time of the year....NFL football!! (I know the season started on Thurs nite, but this is the true start)

Bills Vs. Broncos on Sunday....Let's Go Bills!!!

A Place In the Rockies....

2007-08-31T05:20:00.001-07:00

4340 km later...

2007-08-29T16:44:00.001-07:00

Halfway Home

2007-08-27T20:26:00.000-07:00

Currently in Grand Forks North Dakota. 2500km of driving is in the books.
We drove from Vancouver to Calgary on Sunday, and stayed at a friend of my mom's. 1050km in the books Sunday. Up early and on the road Monday morning, 1450km today.

Lots of driving today but we were able to make a lot of great time. It's pretty boring once we got past Calgary....until I was driving this morning somewhere west of Medicine Hat, and a large deer ran out in front of us on the highway while we were going 130km/hr. My super evasive driving skills managed to control the car, while avoiding the deer. My heart rate basically doubled, as I had a boost of adrenaline afterwards...kinda freaky...not knowing what the deer is gonna do. Luckily there were no cars behind me on the road.

The plan for Tuesday is to drive from Grand Forks ND, to Marquette MI. From there, that will leave us with a 10 hr drive or so on Wednesday back to Holland Landing. We'll cross back over into Canada at Sault Ste Marie MI, back into Sault Ste Marie Ont.

Crossing the border into North Dakota today was a bit of a hastle, the border cop asked us a ton of questions...and we thought he was gonna go through the whole car (which is packed to the brim) but luckily we got through without a search!!

The Week that was....and the Week Ahead

2007-08-24T22:18:00.001-07:00

I got back from Kelowna Sunday night, with an evening flight on WestJet. Monday and Tuesday were a couple of easy days for me, just getting back into the swing of things.

Wednesday was a hard swim with the group in the pool....which I stunk up the joint in. Guess I needed one more day...we did 2 rounds of 6 X 100 best average on 1:30. I was really hurting in the water...starting off at 1:09's and falling off to 1:12's by the 5th and 6th interval.

Simon and some of the others going to Worlds did a wicked run workout down at Beacon Hill. They did 4 intervals on the Harder than Hamish loop. Simon took down his own course record 3 times out of the intervals....a very BAMF effort.

Joel has been giving out BAMF caps we had made...for BAMF type performances in workouts. Jordan and Simon were the first to get caps (Jordan for a 200 km ride at high wattage, Simon for breakign the Harder than Hamish loop). Andrew got a cap last week when a group of us went 15:30 for the big loop in Thetis (w. a leadout from Kieren), Kirsten got a cap for a hard ass treadmill workout she did, and Kyle and Terenzo got caps for dipping under 6:00 for the Hamish Loop (Simon has the record at 5:45 now I think).

Joel offered me a BAMF cap for my hard efforts this year, but I told him this morning that I had to earn the cap. We warmed up with a small island in the wetsuit, followed by a small island loop at medium/strong effort in the wetsuit as well (10:20). The group finished with another small loop hard (A Mac leading them through in 9:45), but I took the wetsuit off and attempted to break Colin's non-wetsuit Big Island TT record of 15:51. I ended up going 15:44, earning my BAMF cap from Joel.

I finished off the day helping AP out with his final hard workout before his U23 race at Worlds next week - 6 X 1km on Lochside trail. I jogged the first 500m of so of each interval ahead of AP, and then picked him up at 500m as a pacer for the final half km each time. AP was an animal, having 5 of his 6 at 2:55 or under, and his slowest being 3:00 (the uphill interval).

I'm now all packed up, and heading back to Ontario this weekend for the fall. The majority of the group leaves Sunday and Monday to go to Hamburg World Champs, but I'll be driving from Victoria to Holland Landing. I'm picking up my mom in Vancouver on Saturday (she's gonna provide some company and we'll split the driving) and we'll hit the road Sunday morning for Ontario. Not looking forward to sitting in a car seat for 50hrs or so...but should be a cool trip non the less.

I'm gonna miss the whole group out here....but I'll be able to save $$ living at home, and I'll re-join the group in January somewhere.

I'll try to blog each night on the trip home....

Dano

A Long Awaited Race Report from Kelowna

2007-08-24T22:08:00.000-07:00

Race morning was about 17 C or so, and light rain. The roads were wet on the bike...lots of kick-up from wheels during the race. Usually, the interior of BC is dry, and hot...but not race day.

I was race # 15, and thus was a little before halfway in the field for choosing our start spot. I had a good quick start, getting to the first turn buoy right beside one of my training partners, Andrew McCartney. A Mac had the the inside line at the turn, so I tucked in on his feet at that point. We stayed that way throughout the rest of the swim. After the run up to transition, I was third onto the bike, behind Paul Tichelaar and A Mac. The three of us rode hard at the beginning, trying to get a break from the group. We were a group of three up the climb, before the group (8 guys) caught us on the flats up top. Our group turned out to be fairly strong, including Tichelaar, Wells, Bechtel, McCartney, and Evans (Canada), Messenheimer, Dahlz, Sexton, Collington, Chrabot (USA) and Richmond (New Zealand). Round 2 up the climb was fine, I was towards the front of the group, and we all rode tempo up the climb, no attacks, and I was fine.

Loop three was where I got popped. I wasn't able to get to the front of the group before the climb,without having to put in a large effort to ride to the front of the group before the climb. I took a chance that I would be alright for the climb (preparing to work hard to stay in). About a third of the way up, Tom Evans put in a surge, which spread the group out. I got strung out, and was 10-15m off the back over the top of climb. I put my head down and tried to close that gap...but I just wasn't able to, and soon the group pulled away (and my hopes of a good finish). I ended up riding the last 18km of the bike solo, losing 2:47 to the group. I was swallowed up by the chase group just as we entered T2.

I couldn't get any speed going at the start of the run....I figure it was from the hard 18km solo effort. Who knows. I negative split the run (17:55, 17:05) but that didn't do much, as I finished in 18th place.

Oh how I wish I could have hung in on that climb...I know it was a dumb mistake on my part...and I paid the price for it. If I would have been 3 or 4 bikes further up the group, I would have stayed in, and then I would have been running for a Top 10 finish. I guess that is racing though.

Race Photo's can be viewed here (I couldn't download any of the photos)

Hurricane Dean

2007-08-17T10:40:00.000-07:00

It won't be too long until we see Anderson Cooper on CNN broadcasting in the heart of the storm. Dean is expected to be a Category 4 storm (winds over 131 mph) by the time it hits Cancun on Tuesday.