The Week ahead

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

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

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

Tues:
massage
90' base recovery ride

Wed:
4500m swim
weights
chiro appointment

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

Fri:
4500m swim

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

Last Day of Camp

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dano

Makin Simon Work on the Bike

Mt Lemmon Results

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mt Lemmon TTT Preview

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

Kyle Jones
James Loaring
Daniel Wells

Simon Whitfield
David-James Tache
Nick Hastie

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

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

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

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

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

Sun-Mon

Sunday:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Great Day for a ride

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

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

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

Fri

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

Thurs

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

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

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

B Day Party

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

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

Pics of Mt Lemmon Ride Part 2

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

Pics of Mt Lemmon Ride Part 1

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

Adventures on Mt Lemmon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Start of the Week

Tuesday was the start of three harder days of training

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

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

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

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

Recovery Day

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

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

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

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

Wacky Weather Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

Saturday

3.5hr ride

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

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

Commonwealth Games

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

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

Friday Afternoon = Rest and Bball

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

Happy St Paddy's Day

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

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