I had been planning a cycling trip between my race and the big gun elites before i came over but didnt really think about where to go until sunday night. I pitched my plan to some others on the team but they wussed out with either girlfriends coming over or wanting to relax.
so it was Hans Solo on monday morning when i made the final preparations and booked my first night at a hostel in grenoble. Got on the bike with one bag and rode on the swiss highway #1 from lausanne to geneve. no major climbs to report or sprints. perhaps a few cat 5 climbs but nothing to get excited about. this was the prologue and only the beginning...
i saw a few bike route signs that pointed off the highway and followed one of them but it lead to a dirt trial so i decided to skip on that advice.
The plan for the week was finalized on the train to grenoble. stage 1 (prologue) has just occured and totaled 70k. stage 2 would see the lone rider attack the infamous alp d'huez, known by many as the grandaddy on climbs in the tour. stage 3 and 4 would be mountainous as well finishing up with stage 5 in the picturess 1992 winter olympic village of albertville.
2hrs on the train and i arrived in grenoble around 930. no problems finding the hostel and stopped for a late night giro on the way. much cheaper here in france.
hostel fine, rained like crazy monday night and i just prayed for sun in the morning...
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
University race report
Im writing all of these entries well after the fact but here is what im remembering. This whole trip here has gone by very quickly and it has been awesome.
lets begin with the race, the real reason i was here.
The start time was for 1230 and the weather was ideal 25 or so and no rain. 80 guys lined up on the pontoon for the gun. i was placed somewhere near the shore side of the pontoon and had a good line to the turnaround bouy. The gun went off and i got a good dive in quick surface and freakin put my head down and took 20 strokes as fast as i could before taking a breath. good start clear from getting beaten. didnt get into the front two packs but was in a group of about 6 the entire loop. Came out in the high 19s, not great but it would do. we ran up a ramp over a wood bridge they had built and into transition. Not a great transition and missed catching the wheel of two others. 4 of us hummed and hawed before the group grew to about 8 or so. The bike course was fun. one steep hill at 11 % , some crazy descents down narrow cobblestone lanes and another long hill. no crashes and once the group got going we made good time. two austrians in the group were being douche bags and yelling half the time at the japanese who werent pulling. My friend ben hoffman caught the group with a smile on his face about half way in and we then caught a teammate of mine, dave clinkard, on the last lap.
hoffman looked strong on the bike leading the group most of the way. Into T2 about 4 mins back of the front group. onto the run i felt felt. not tried but i wasnt running effortlessly and smooth like in july. the races i think and taking an effect and im ready for some rest but in the end i was 48th and ready for the afterparty.
lets begin with the race, the real reason i was here.
The start time was for 1230 and the weather was ideal 25 or so and no rain. 80 guys lined up on the pontoon for the gun. i was placed somewhere near the shore side of the pontoon and had a good line to the turnaround bouy. The gun went off and i got a good dive in quick surface and freakin put my head down and took 20 strokes as fast as i could before taking a breath. good start clear from getting beaten. didnt get into the front two packs but was in a group of about 6 the entire loop. Came out in the high 19s, not great but it would do. we ran up a ramp over a wood bridge they had built and into transition. Not a great transition and missed catching the wheel of two others. 4 of us hummed and hawed before the group grew to about 8 or so. The bike course was fun. one steep hill at 11 % , some crazy descents down narrow cobblestone lanes and another long hill. no crashes and once the group got going we made good time. two austrians in the group were being douche bags and yelling half the time at the japanese who werent pulling. My friend ben hoffman caught the group with a smile on his face about half way in and we then caught a teammate of mine, dave clinkard, on the last lap.
hoffman looked strong on the bike leading the group most of the way. Into T2 about 4 mins back of the front group. onto the run i felt felt. not tried but i wasnt running effortlessly and smooth like in july. the races i think and taking an effect and im ready for some rest but in the end i was 48th and ready for the afterparty.
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
swiss
hello everyone.
have landed in switzerland and am getting used to the jacked up prices on everything yzou can imagine and also the y and z kezs being the opposite waz round here.
we had a look at the bike course today and let me tell yzou, it is knarly. one section is so sketchy, and i loooooove it. there is going to be some crashes for sure. looks like its gonna be a wetsuit swim as well which will help me.
we ran earlier this morning and did a swim as well. the pool is nice , outdoor and 50m, though reallz cold. like yzou have to wear a wetsuit cold.
the coach phillipe here is great, good ideas and very enthused.
lausanne as a city is spectacular. right on the lake with a view of the mountains. the whole city is bustling with anticipation of the elite world championships, yzou should see the stuff the carpenters and making. will take some photos but wont be able to post them until i return unfortunatlez.
this y and z kezs are driving me crayz.
all for now
A big thanks goes out to all the sponsors that have made this trip possible
have landed in switzerland and am getting used to the jacked up prices on everything yzou can imagine and also the y and z kezs being the opposite waz round here.
we had a look at the bike course today and let me tell yzou, it is knarly. one section is so sketchy, and i loooooove it. there is going to be some crashes for sure. looks like its gonna be a wetsuit swim as well which will help me.
we ran earlier this morning and did a swim as well. the pool is nice , outdoor and 50m, though reallz cold. like yzou have to wear a wetsuit cold.
the coach phillipe here is great, good ideas and very enthused.
lausanne as a city is spectacular. right on the lake with a view of the mountains. the whole city is bustling with anticipation of the elite world championships, yzou should see the stuff the carpenters and making. will take some photos but wont be able to post them until i return unfortunatlez.
this y and z kezs are driving me crayz.
all for now
A big thanks goes out to all the sponsors that have made this trip possible
Thursday, August 03, 2006
berries and dung
took it easy today in the pool wasn't feeling strong. usual warmup then some drills and kick and a whopping main set of 8x75 spin I.M. Haven't done that set in a while and the butterfly sure showed.
finished off the plans for the allards in the afternoon and then went for run.
10min WU
20min steady from airport to robinsons up to ski hill road turnoff. 20:50 a little slower than last time but felt fine on the hills
then 5mins easy followed by 6 1min hill repeats on 2min rest. feet felt heavy on these and was evident with 2-5 seconds off usual pace.
cooled down with 5 strides then hit the hub trail. Fresh bear poop on the trail had me hollering a few HEY-OH's on the cooldizzle home.
pretty pumped for the hill climb tomorrow, see if i can knock off some cat 2's or 1's.
adios, be back here monday.
finished off the plans for the allards in the afternoon and then went for run.
10min WU
20min steady from airport to robinsons up to ski hill road turnoff. 20:50 a little slower than last time but felt fine on the hills
then 5mins easy followed by 6 1min hill repeats on 2min rest. feet felt heavy on these and was evident with 2-5 seconds off usual pace.
cooled down with 5 strides then hit the hub trail. Fresh bear poop on the trail had me hollering a few HEY-OH's on the cooldizzle home.
pretty pumped for the hill climb tomorrow, see if i can knock off some cat 2's or 1's.
adios, be back here monday.
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
ramping it up
Training has picked up again after having an easy couple days. Sunday did a beautifull hike on keystone pass just north of revelstoke, very nice, all in the alpine. Took monday off and had a massage.
Tuesday got back at it:
Swim
1000WU
8x50 (4catchup/4fist)
3x400 pull paddles on 6min
8x100 on 1:35 (held 1:15)
400 focus with snorkle
200 CD
In the late afternoon ran quite hard and felt pretty good:
10wU with stretch
6xstrides
Fartlek (1,3,5,7,3hard,5,3,1,3 fast fast) with half recovery.
3x strength
4xstrides
5 min CD
followed by ice bath
I've added another strength to the repitoir, it's now high kness, donkey kicks, lunges, and 10 squat jumps (man those are hard)
I finished off the strength at my old elementary school and tried doing some chin ups on the jungle gym, could only muster 6. I remember doing 2 sets of 15 a year and a half ago. funny how the body gets rid of strength in areas if not being worked. Also tried the monkey swing handles and ya i couldn't do them...geez.
Today was again a solid 4km swim of:
1000WU
4x100 drill w fins (one arm and 8kip)
100 focus
8x50 with band on 1min
800 pull paddles
400 pull paddles (5:30)
2x200 swim (2:35)
100 easy
300 kick with fins
200 WD
Late afternoon rode 1:45 out above the dam with a strong head wind turned around and headed down south to the 10mile TT. Rode well considering the head wind. 23:30 is solid and was only at 160bpm or so.
tomorrow looks like swimming in the am and some sort of run (maybe hills) in the pm
all for now
Tuesday got back at it:
Swim
1000WU
8x50 (4catchup/4fist)
3x400 pull paddles on 6min
8x100 on 1:35 (held 1:15)
400 focus with snorkle
200 CD
In the late afternoon ran quite hard and felt pretty good:
10wU with stretch
6xstrides
Fartlek (1,3,5,7,3hard,5,3,1,3 fast fast) with half recovery.
3x strength
4xstrides
5 min CD
followed by ice bath
I've added another strength to the repitoir, it's now high kness, donkey kicks, lunges, and 10 squat jumps (man those are hard)
I finished off the strength at my old elementary school and tried doing some chin ups on the jungle gym, could only muster 6. I remember doing 2 sets of 15 a year and a half ago. funny how the body gets rid of strength in areas if not being worked. Also tried the monkey swing handles and ya i couldn't do them...geez.
Today was again a solid 4km swim of:
1000WU
4x100 drill w fins (one arm and 8kip)
100 focus
8x50 with band on 1min
800 pull paddles
400 pull paddles (5:30)
2x200 swim (2:35)
100 easy
300 kick with fins
200 WD
Late afternoon rode 1:45 out above the dam with a strong head wind turned around and headed down south to the 10mile TT. Rode well considering the head wind. 23:30 is solid and was only at 160bpm or so.
tomorrow looks like swimming in the am and some sort of run (maybe hills) in the pm
all for now
Saturday, July 29, 2006
Holly cheese
If your reading this you might be surprised because this is the first new blog in about 3 weeks. A lot has happened to me in three weeks but i wont go into the details too much...well maybe
I raced squamish and then the peach classic back to back after nationals and squamish was awesome, peach alright. In squamish i pushed the swim and then drilled the bike knowing that ben H would be coming to get me. Rode well and run well too. I really like trail running and i think it suits to my strength. Constant changes in direction and choosing the best line is what pays the bills in trails. Was shocking to hear near the end of the race that one lady had been chased off the course by a momma black bear and her two cubs! Triathlon is like a box of chocolates...never know whattya gonna geet. One other highlight of that weekend was driving back over the duffy lake road home. Lillooet has the best radio station ever! No commercials just 70's and 80's rock. we are talking stones,doors,police,beatles,Zeplin oh and it goes on..its like a station where some dude has hooked up his i-pod on shuffle for the weekend and left the station!
Peach went alright. I wanted to beat Matt Seeley (grandmaster of the Montana tri club) but it wasn't to be. Swim was out and back and out went well, i stayed on Travis chater's feet and we were on our own to the turn around. Then we turned and "I was blinded by the light" the sun that is, couldn't see travis or the lead kyak. so on my own i screwed up the back leg royally offcourse and come out in anger. Seeley came by me about 5k into the bike and that was the last i saw of him. I needed a good 2 and a half minutes from the swim to have a chance but had less than one. Ben then caught me 30k in. I picked up my tempo, making sure to ride with him to transition. On the run we were even steven until the climb where i put on maybe 20 seconds. That turned out to be the tsn turning point as that is about what i would come in ahead of him at. Made sure to gorge on the fresh local fruit post race and then uneventfully drove home thinking why on earth some german engineer hasn't invented oscilating air vents in cars, like regular house fans have.
From the peach i've stepped it down a notch or two here in revelstoke. I did find out i've qualified for the world university championships in lausanne, switzerland. That should be an amazing once in a lifetime experience and has got me stoked here in the stoke. So i've been organinzing some fundraising for that trip as Triathlon Canada isn't giving a penny.
that brings me to now...today nothing more than a 3hr ride to blanket creek down to the campground and then back to Clough road where we drilled out 3 hill repeats. That is a good hill to prepare for the Lausanne course (which you can all view if you go to www.triathlon.org link in on the bottom of page) which has has steep nasty hills in it.
oh i hear the bbq calling my name, it saying "gimme something to grill ba-bee"
keep on enjoying the summer
I raced squamish and then the peach classic back to back after nationals and squamish was awesome, peach alright. In squamish i pushed the swim and then drilled the bike knowing that ben H would be coming to get me. Rode well and run well too. I really like trail running and i think it suits to my strength. Constant changes in direction and choosing the best line is what pays the bills in trails. Was shocking to hear near the end of the race that one lady had been chased off the course by a momma black bear and her two cubs! Triathlon is like a box of chocolates...never know whattya gonna geet. One other highlight of that weekend was driving back over the duffy lake road home. Lillooet has the best radio station ever! No commercials just 70's and 80's rock. we are talking stones,doors,police,beatles,Zeplin oh and it goes on..its like a station where some dude has hooked up his i-pod on shuffle for the weekend and left the station!
Peach went alright. I wanted to beat Matt Seeley (grandmaster of the Montana tri club) but it wasn't to be. Swim was out and back and out went well, i stayed on Travis chater's feet and we were on our own to the turn around. Then we turned and "I was blinded by the light" the sun that is, couldn't see travis or the lead kyak. so on my own i screwed up the back leg royally offcourse and come out in anger. Seeley came by me about 5k into the bike and that was the last i saw of him. I needed a good 2 and a half minutes from the swim to have a chance but had less than one. Ben then caught me 30k in. I picked up my tempo, making sure to ride with him to transition. On the run we were even steven until the climb where i put on maybe 20 seconds. That turned out to be the tsn turning point as that is about what i would come in ahead of him at. Made sure to gorge on the fresh local fruit post race and then uneventfully drove home thinking why on earth some german engineer hasn't invented oscilating air vents in cars, like regular house fans have.
From the peach i've stepped it down a notch or two here in revelstoke. I did find out i've qualified for the world university championships in lausanne, switzerland. That should be an amazing once in a lifetime experience and has got me stoked here in the stoke. So i've been organinzing some fundraising for that trip as Triathlon Canada isn't giving a penny.
that brings me to now...today nothing more than a 3hr ride to blanket creek down to the campground and then back to Clough road where we drilled out 3 hill repeats. That is a good hill to prepare for the Lausanne course (which you can all view if you go to www.triathlon.org link in on the bottom of page) which has has steep nasty hills in it.
oh i hear the bbq calling my name, it saying "gimme something to grill ba-bee"
keep on enjoying the summer
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
Nationals
well i;m sitting in the winnipeg airport and thought i'd blog up the race in brampton this past weekend
Conditions were not the greatest not only was it hot and humid it was also very windy. I think the temp was 31 with close to 100% humidity. Although it wasn't raining so i don't know if it is correct to say 100% is it Nolan? Winds were gusting up to 50k.
The swim was nuts. that's how i can sum it up, just nuts. Picture 60 guys on a beach lined up and then with the shot of a gun sprinting into the lake. I got punched in the mouth right away and then half way to the first bouy someone elbowed me in the eye and busted off my googles. With all the wind it made the lake very choppy. Literally i felt like i was a prisoner trying to escape from alcatraz.
Anyways, i was able to not get too far behind and had a fast transition out on to the bike. Caught up with a some group including mike simpson (probably the best cyclist at the race) and we quickly caught more guys and then closed in on the second chase group. I barely hung on until we reached that second chase group. Once there thought the pace eased up. We rolled into T2 in a group probably areound 15 or 20.
Out on to the run i set off with the front of the group. The run was good but i died around 8k getting a stich and then pain in my chest. I was done when i crossed the liine and quickly headed to the med tent where i got ice and could lay down.
I didn't get lapped by simon whitfield which was awesome and i finished 22nd out of 55 (`15th canadian). Overall very happy with the result. have to wait to see if i got one of the two university worlds spots, not likely but maybe....
We went to the party dinner afterwards and gorged out on chocolate fondue mmmmmmmmmm
spent yesterday relaxing and zzzzzzzzzzzz in caledon and then today made my homeward bound.
I will see most of you soon
next up is squamish and then peach classic.
all for now.
Conditions were not the greatest not only was it hot and humid it was also very windy. I think the temp was 31 with close to 100% humidity. Although it wasn't raining so i don't know if it is correct to say 100% is it Nolan? Winds were gusting up to 50k.
The swim was nuts. that's how i can sum it up, just nuts. Picture 60 guys on a beach lined up and then with the shot of a gun sprinting into the lake. I got punched in the mouth right away and then half way to the first bouy someone elbowed me in the eye and busted off my googles. With all the wind it made the lake very choppy. Literally i felt like i was a prisoner trying to escape from alcatraz.
Anyways, i was able to not get too far behind and had a fast transition out on to the bike. Caught up with a some group including mike simpson (probably the best cyclist at the race) and we quickly caught more guys and then closed in on the second chase group. I barely hung on until we reached that second chase group. Once there thought the pace eased up. We rolled into T2 in a group probably areound 15 or 20.
Out on to the run i set off with the front of the group. The run was good but i died around 8k getting a stich and then pain in my chest. I was done when i crossed the liine and quickly headed to the med tent where i got ice and could lay down.
I didn't get lapped by simon whitfield which was awesome and i finished 22nd out of 55 (`15th canadian). Overall very happy with the result. have to wait to see if i got one of the two university worlds spots, not likely but maybe....
We went to the party dinner afterwards and gorged out on chocolate fondue mmmmmmmmmm
spent yesterday relaxing and zzzzzzzzzzzz in caledon and then today made my homeward bound.
I will see most of you soon
next up is squamish and then peach classic.
all for now.
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