Into the Gain Column

Long time since the last post. Lots to say...

Training is going great. Big gains in fitness and technique im seeing in both the swim and run. Especially swimming, i feel higher in the water and able to catch more water with each pull. My stroke rate is getting quicker too which is due in most part to the tempo trainers the coaches have me on. A tempo trainer is a little beeper about the size of a looney which you slide under you google strap or cap. The setting is adjustable. You set a stroke rate and then swim to that beep. Each hand entering with the beep. Unfortunatley after an hour with this thing in you've got the beep in the back of your head till you go to bed.

The bike is not a focus right now but i have gotten some rides in. Some good weather some crap weather. Highlighted with a ride up to Durance lake. Small lake know for its fishing. Coming back down i hit 70km/hr which is nice to feel. Always feels good when you can go over the speed limit on a bike.

This past weekend my friend marty come over to victoria with a couple a french guys who are in Canada visiting and ski instructing up at Whistler. Marty met them last winter while instructing over in Verbier Switzerland. Quite the characters these two. Both were called Seb, but to distinguish them you said Big Seb or little Seb. Big seb was BIG. We took them up to Sooke on Saturday for a look around and they both went swimming in the ocean. Both ski raced quite competitively in their teens and early 20's and you can see it. Especially BIG Seb, legs like tree trunks man, massive. Now what they do is Ski DErby's. Now this sounds cool. Basically its 50 elite Skiers having a chinese downhill down huge vertical drops all over Europe. Usually on the order of 6000 feet these guys ski it in under 6 minutes sometimes!!!!! They should us a video of one of the derby's and it was crazy! Pick any line and GO!

Saturday night we went out on the town for some drinks. Brett, my neighbour, and friend from highschool was being a wuss and wouldn't come out. However i persuaded him to come out by prominsing that i would wear Marty's Cowprint Hat along with holding a Banana in my left hand at all times. He came out and we all had a good time, with the Sebs going swimming once again to cap off the night, but this time in the Vic Harbour. Eeeew. What you don't know can't hurt you i guess

Sunday i Ran an 8km race at Hatley Castle which is on the Royal Roads University Campus. Hatley Castle is where they filmed X-Men. Its actually the Xavier School for Gifted Children in the movie. THe Run was very technical and hilly. One downhill section got me going probably the fastest i've ever ran. I ran well. Results are at www.raceday.ca under Hatley Castle 8km. Right before the start i tried having some Maple Syrup for an energy boost. I think it worked. Just a couple of glugs did it. I think i'll try it again at our next run race. Its a flat 5km near Sidney.

I'll end on an interesting note: Last night i was walking up to the Grocery Store for some of the essentials when i heard a girl scream right in front of me. AS i looked up a Man had just ran past her and tried to snatch her purse. It took a second to see but i realized that he had been unsuccessfull and was now fleeing the scene. Asked if she was alright and she said ya. That got me thinking...maybe all this training im doing isn't just for the races. If he had grabbed her purse i could have used all the training i've done in a practical sense. It got me thinking even more about how i would do it too. I concluded that what i would do would be to run after him but not catch him right away. Instead just ran behind him and follow for maybe a couple minutes as he fatigues himself. Then just come up behind and lunge at his legs. That oughta do it. So to the purse snatchers out there, beware of where you snatch. You never know when a seasoned triathlete could be in the parking lot.....


Tomorrow I am heading up to Nanamio to meet some of racers I was coaching in REvelstoke. It is the K2 provincials at Mt.Washington. What a great weekend of racing it should be and it will be great to some the kids and parents again.

i'll post after the weekend, hopefully.....