Monday, August 25, 2008

Crook goes for Triathlon Escape

Found this story a good laugh.

http://www.startribune.com/local/27368119.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP40:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aU7EaDiaMDCiUT

steal, swim, bike, run!

Kelowna Canadian Championships Report

For the last two years I have had some brilliant sections to my race in Kelowna but the overall result has been disappointing.

Last year I had a great swim, got dropped on the bike, and then ran my best 10k (low 33).

This year I had an even better swim, awesome bike, then ran a horrible 10k.

Lets Recap.

I had a great start on the beach, the start line wasn't fair for everyone and as a result the right side, which i was on, got a straighter line to the first bouy 250m out. After coming out at 750m i was hanging on the back end of the front group including Daniel Wells, Kalen Darling, Sean Bechtel, John Dalhz and Brent McMahon. I continued to hang in there until about 1200m when i got gapped. Coming out after 1500m i was on the heels of my teammate Scotty Dagnall, who im sure would have lead out the swim had he not had the worst starting spot.

Scott, myself and Matt Seymour had 15s to make up on McMahon's group but the three of us were no match for that group and we ended up getting swallowed up by the next chase grp of 10 or so on the 2nd lap. It took that grp of now 13 four more laps to reel in the leaders, they were working hard.

Cycling has been a focus for me ever since i got it handed to me last year at this race and I saw the rewards in this race. I felt very strong throughout the whole ride and the climbs were no longer an area of concern. i could climb well and even had some attacks up my suit.

Near the end of the ride i felt a slight stomach cramp, but it was minor. On to the run the cramp flared up significantly. NOT GOOD.

By halfway in the run i had dropped right back to back of the group i came off the bike with. Not longer than 5k though the cramp subsided and i started to find a rhythm. By this time though it was way too late, and my late surge would not catch anyone. Crossing the line, i was down on the result but knew in the back of my mind that with the strong swim/bike i have made a good jump up from last year and some day the run will come together.



This week has been a rebuild into steady training as my season is not quite over. At the moment I am in my stomping grounds of Revelstoke enjoying some cooler weather, feels like good old fall.

On the weekend Im headed to Calgary to fly over to Europe AGAIN!

Sept 7 Kedzierzyn Kozle, Poland
Sept 13 Vienna, Austria
Sept 27 Lorient, France (pending selection)

I'm looking forward to this trip as i will be based out of my Aunts in London throughout. My sister will be over there at the same time as well to show off her Husband Tim to all of the family who couldn't make it to Canada for their wedding last May. Tim, it may say you are married on your certificate, but until the brits approve you better make sure you can stomach the Haggis and bitter.

Another update to follow later this week.

Friday, August 15, 2008

To To Too much Fun

If i had to go to summer camp, i'd make sure it had one of these

Monday, August 11, 2008

8 Gold?

The Olympics have started with a real bang this time around. The opening ceremonies were incredible and the events have been just that as well. Cancelera was so strong in the mens cycling road race I wanted him to win with the amount of work he put in, but to still grab 3rd was impressive.

Phelps won the 400m IM decidedly but last night the mens 4x100m relay was up. The french had a body length on the US with 50m to go and I thought the 8 gold wasn't gonna happen but lochte (edit Lezak) came back on the french in what was one of the most exciting finishes i've ever seen in swimming.

And phelps has been down-playing the whole 8 gold thing, but with this picture i think it is safe to say he was fired up to have the dream kept alive....



Sunday, August 03, 2008

Ali

One athlete that I have really begun to admire and thought of as "the man" is Muhammad Ali or Cassius Clay Jr. I suppose it started when i saw the movie Ali with Will Smith. I had not known the whole story behind the The Louisville Lip.

It was the combination of his pure athletic talent, pose in the ring, and his comical arrogance that set him a part and made him appear almost supernatural.

At the end of a long tough week i had one last workout to do. A long run... I was struggling to get out the door. I then came upon this video which i remember seeing on tv a while back and all was clear.....out i went.

"Follow me Chumps"

Friday, August 01, 2008

Sir David Bowie

So europeans are supposed to be all healthier and less obese than us North Americans. They don't consume the fastfood trans fats and such.......so howcome i went there and gained 10 pounds?

Yup, on Monday i weighed myself at the pool and bingo bamo im 10lbs out of race shape......ah guhhhhh?!

So i thought about it for awhile and started to piece together how these 10lbs came to be.

As soon as i was over there i found myself incredibly hungry. In the night and day i would eat....i think the natural cycle of eating was so engrained in my system that i had to maintain it and then also eat according to the new time zone. So this went on for awhile, but then continued right thru the trip as bigger meals, especially breakfast.

Here is what breakfast usually entailed. Sometimes i'd have a small breakfast first thing like orange juice, muesli with yougurt and a banana before swimming 3k in the early am. But every day i would have the following, taking full advantage of the buffet breakfast:

3 bowls of muesli with full cream yogurt and honey
2 hard boiled eggs
6 pieces of rye bread with a combination of nutella, jam, speck (smoked ham), and or gouda, edam or swiss cheese
Herbal Tea
Orange Juice
Pastries

yes this is making more sense now.....

Lunch was nothing unusual, but dinner got out of hand i guess a couple of times. I ate so much fatty pork over there I now have another similarity with talking like Porky the Pig...





Kerry with one of our Hungarian Dinners




So with that in mind i've got two more weeks to shed this 10lb dumbell or that kelowna hill is going to be even harder than i remember. As for now it is on to the David Bowie 70's Diet of Red Peppers and Milk.