Recently I've been training pretty hard. Begining thursday last week I started with some long base rides and runs with some intensity and then this week added some more intensity.
On the weekend an hour run turned into two hours by getting lost at stewart mtn near Thetis lake. This morning was an ow swim in thetis. 1 big island loop warmup and then one loop TT effort (17:10 non wetsuit). In the afternoon I had my first track workout of the year and perhaps the last with the season almost over. Andrew McCartney took me on a WU around UVic and at the end of it i realized I had lost my car keys! There is a hole in my pocket! Oh no....well total fluke, cause I retraced my steps of a 5km loop for only about 30s when i found them laying right in the middle of the trail...geeesh.
On to the track I did a set as follows:
2X(4X400) on 2mins (Consistent with 1:09's)
3x1.2k on 6mins, 3:48's
4 strides
2k WD.
This weekend in vancouver should be an interesting and competitive race. Then I am on to veracruz for a race which should be hot hot.
I've also finalized my trip to HONG KONG for an asian cup! that's gonna be weird, but in a good way.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
tasty apples
The Kelowna Apple triathlon rounded off 3 races for Steve and I in three weeks. Arriving in Kelowna was a great feeling and seeing how prepared the race crew looked was very reassuring that this race would go well, unlike others...ahem...Longmont.
Friday and Saturday were race prep workouts in the Lake and on the bike loop before our meeting saturday afternoon. The Juniours raced saturday as well. An NTC sweep was in order with Jeff 1st, Aaron 2nd, and Matt 3rd. Nice job boys!
Race day was raining and probably only about 18 degrees or so. Warmed up on the bike and then a swim warmup with the wetsuit on. This was a good decision as the water was around 20-21 degrees. I kept the suit on until seconds before the start to keep warm. Great start! One of the best all year..Tichelaar was on my hip for a while..thats right my hip. I could see Dano and A-Mac cruising over from the left so i hopped onto dano's feet and rode that train around the first bouy and then fell off the pace. I hung into the main group though and exited in good shape. Heading to T1 was interesting, 2 americans bailed HARD on the wet wood going into the fence. Got on my bike feeling good, then it was a hammer sesh along the first flats to the hill where my race blew apart. I still do not have the leg strength to hang in on hill accelerations. Tom Evans attacked on the hill and i was sput out the back....just like edmonton i watched the main pack creep away in desperation. I TT'd for about half a lap when 3 others caught me. The rest of the bike i felt strong, but our pack was caught by a group behind on the last lap which i didn't like.
Onto the run I had the fastest T2 of the race and quickly settled into a good rhythm. Serrano, McKenzie and Burwash, all from the group that caught up on the last lap were running strong. I dug deep i was able to finish 13th with a PB on the run (33:09).
After seeing the results it was frustrating and actually i could barely sleep sunday night knowing what could have been. If i could have hung onto the main group on the first lap I would have been battling for a podium spot! Just makes the wolf hungrier...
Next up Vancouver Tri Labour day Monday and then hopefully Veracruz on the 8th. Hurricane Dean may have caused this race to be cancelled though so we'll see.
Friday and Saturday were race prep workouts in the Lake and on the bike loop before our meeting saturday afternoon. The Juniours raced saturday as well. An NTC sweep was in order with Jeff 1st, Aaron 2nd, and Matt 3rd. Nice job boys!
Race day was raining and probably only about 18 degrees or so. Warmed up on the bike and then a swim warmup with the wetsuit on. This was a good decision as the water was around 20-21 degrees. I kept the suit on until seconds before the start to keep warm. Great start! One of the best all year..Tichelaar was on my hip for a while..thats right my hip. I could see Dano and A-Mac cruising over from the left so i hopped onto dano's feet and rode that train around the first bouy and then fell off the pace. I hung into the main group though and exited in good shape. Heading to T1 was interesting, 2 americans bailed HARD on the wet wood going into the fence. Got on my bike feeling good, then it was a hammer sesh along the first flats to the hill where my race blew apart. I still do not have the leg strength to hang in on hill accelerations. Tom Evans attacked on the hill and i was sput out the back....just like edmonton i watched the main pack creep away in desperation. I TT'd for about half a lap when 3 others caught me. The rest of the bike i felt strong, but our pack was caught by a group behind on the last lap which i didn't like.
Onto the run I had the fastest T2 of the race and quickly settled into a good rhythm. Serrano, McKenzie and Burwash, all from the group that caught up on the last lap were running strong. I dug deep i was able to finish 13th with a PB on the run (33:09).
After seeing the results it was frustrating and actually i could barely sleep sunday night knowing what could have been. If i could have hung onto the main group on the first lap I would have been battling for a podium spot! Just makes the wolf hungrier...
Next up Vancouver Tri Labour day Monday and then hopefully Veracruz on the 8th. Hurricane Dean may have caused this race to be cancelled though so we'll see.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Kelowna or Bust
Back from Quebec and Colorado, but only for a few days. tomorrow i head off for Kelowna to finish this set of races.
Quebec went very well, Colorado not so much. I had a decent swim/bike but onto the run i could feel the heat getting to me so i pulled the plug about a mile in. I am pumped up for this kelowna race, probably the most ever. Hopefully i'll have some adoring fans there to get me thru the tough spots. I hear there is a beer garden afterwards....what better way to finish off 3 races in 3 weeks.
Quebec went very well, Colorado not so much. I had a decent swim/bike but onto the run i could feel the heat getting to me so i pulled the plug about a mile in. I am pumped up for this kelowna race, probably the most ever. Hopefully i'll have some adoring fans there to get me thru the tough spots. I hear there is a beer garden afterwards....what better way to finish off 3 races in 3 weeks.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Longmont
Longmont is just north of Denver and that is pretty much all i can say. We (steve, grant and I) are staying at a hole in the ground just off the I-25, basically a truck stop. Feeling sluggish today, not sure if it is the altitude or the heat.
Have seen the swim/bike/ and run courses. Nothing special, the run is on dirt which i like though.
Just back from the meeting and the race director is a clone of Jon Gruden, aka Chucky, who coaches the Tampa Bay Bucs FOotball team. About the same tenacity levels too.
This race is not well organized, it will be interesting to see how things go off tomorrow.....
Have seen the swim/bike/ and run courses. Nothing special, the run is on dirt which i like though.
Just back from the meeting and the race director is a clone of Jon Gruden, aka Chucky, who coaches the Tampa Bay Bucs FOotball team. About the same tenacity levels too.
This race is not well organized, it will be interesting to see how things go off tomorrow.....
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Round 1 A...Now Round 2
Sitting here to report on this last week in beautiful quebec eh. Steve and i arrived last thursday with no worries and were set up with a great homestay that spoke english so we were in the clear. As i say great homestay with the lapointes they had a 6-star hotel going on and mccartney missed out!
The race in Drummondville almost as well as i could have wanted. Great swim coming out in the main bunch with ticchelaar,bryden,plata and AP. Hung in on the first furious kms of the bike and then actually made a litte noise on the 3rd lap with an attack (didnt amount to anything), but it brought a smile to mccartney face when i was swallowed back up. The run in some heat went well but it would have been great and earned an A+ if i could have stuck with bechtel and tache on lap3 and had a shot at the canadian podium. I placed 8th in the race and was the 5th Canuck.
After the race we came down to montreal to stay with some of steves family in Lachine. We have done some training highlighted today with a swim in the 2005 FINA pool, outdoors 10lane 50m, nothing better.
Now the bags and box are packed and we off to colorado for some high altitude madness. The race looks uber competitive with big names all over the start list, its gonna be tough!
The race in Drummondville almost as well as i could have wanted. Great swim coming out in the main bunch with ticchelaar,bryden,plata and AP. Hung in on the first furious kms of the bike and then actually made a litte noise on the 3rd lap with an attack (didnt amount to anything), but it brought a smile to mccartney face when i was swallowed back up. The run in some heat went well but it would have been great and earned an A+ if i could have stuck with bechtel and tache on lap3 and had a shot at the canadian podium. I placed 8th in the race and was the 5th Canuck.
After the race we came down to montreal to stay with some of steves family in Lachine. We have done some training highlighted today with a swim in the 2005 FINA pool, outdoors 10lane 50m, nothing better.
Now the bags and box are packed and we off to colorado for some high altitude madness. The race looks uber competitive with big names all over the start list, its gonna be tough!
Monday, July 30, 2007
O'Hare Airport
Here is a story from my trip back from New York a while back.
Sitting in the chicago O'Hare airport getting hungry. Venture about and find what looks to be an authentic american bagel shop, sure looks good. The bagel was giganormous, twice the size of our normal bagels. So a normal bagel equals 3 pieces of bread so this was 6.
After bagel had to use the facilities. So head to the bathroom stalls, check for no pee on the sit and then whooooooooooooosh! I almost fall right thru the seat and into the water. The toliet seat hole was huge, cause im not that skinny. I had to actually spread my legs a bit to hold myself up on it. Looking back perhaps I got the special "aka fat" stall or something.
Moral of the Story: A bagel looks like a toliet seat and I should have keyed off the subliminal warning.
Sitting in the chicago O'Hare airport getting hungry. Venture about and find what looks to be an authentic american bagel shop, sure looks good. The bagel was giganormous, twice the size of our normal bagels. So a normal bagel equals 3 pieces of bread so this was 6.
After bagel had to use the facilities. So head to the bathroom stalls, check for no pee on the sit and then whooooooooooooosh! I almost fall right thru the seat and into the water. The toliet seat hole was huge, cause im not that skinny. I had to actually spread my legs a bit to hold myself up on it. Looking back perhaps I got the special "aka fat" stall or something.
Moral of the Story: A bagel looks like a toliet seat and I should have keyed off the subliminal warning.
Some photos and This week of training
Firstly here are some photos from the Squamish Triathlon this year won by Peter Reid
Out of Alison Lake in the Lead
mmmmmmm...gel..... mmmm
Does he look familar?
On to this past week which is in the books as a very good week for me. After my week of rest it took a couple days to get the body activated once again, but by the end of the week i felt strong on some good efforts.
Tuesday: 5.5km swim in the am with 20x100 (3hard,1Easy) on 1:30. Was in the neighbourhood of 1:12-1:14's. Some aerobic longer efforts and then a 90' bike which was filled with attacks...base ride turned evil by tour mania. At 2 we ran at Cedar hill GC for 3 loops, 1 WU, 2 tempo on the flats easy on hills. To finish off the day we helped set up the splash and dash at elk lake and made up relays.
Wednesday: Open Water at Thetis with 4xsmall island(1000m). 1 WU, 1 race effort with wetsuit, 1 race effort sans wetsuit, 1 CD. 60' Base run on the lake trails. Then we geared up for the Newton heights crit, but it got canceled so we had our own mini Tour with a team TT, crit, and indv. TT followed by rootbeer floats courtesy of Richard and PK.
Thursday: 4km aerobic swim at Commenwealth and a light 30' run in the afternoon.
Friday: 5km swim with 12x50 (1Hard/1Easy) and then 3x300m in Draft Packs. Scotty had had a night he couldn't remember on thursday so this made the 300's a good match for me. Felipe, a chilean, who is up here training for 5 weeks was also in our group. We went 3:45, 3:41, 3:39 i believe. In the afternoon we had a great brick workout at Comosun college. This workout was a good indicator that i have recharged the batteries. The setup was about a 7km bike loop and a 1km run loop. We did 2x (2 bike loops followed by 2x1km) and then 1 X (1bike loop with 1 run loop). On the seconder doubler stevo rocked on by me on the bike after starting 20' back and put on another 30' on me, he is killing it these days. Once that swim gets him in the chase pack look out! The run splits were good on the doublers we went out as tempo then race pace so 3:30 then 3:15. On the last repeat we nailed down a 3:05! on a technical 1km loop. This is the work that will give us good results in drummondville man!
Saturday: A "light swim" at thetis with "reduced volume" seemed a little harder than light and 4k but it's all good...was nice to swim up to the upper lake under a bridge. A 3hr base ride around lands End finished the day.
Sunday: 1.5km Open Water Thetis HtO MS Charity swim. Went well felt strong and almost held on to a 14 year old swimming phenom's feet. A good interval run session at Lochside with 5x1km. First two as build, 3:07,3:07. Next 3 stevo set the bar and I followed as best i could, 2:58,3:07,2:59.
Coach says that is the work in the books for nationals. This week a couple key sessions, 1 of which will be a swim/bike brick at Durance. This will be key as it is an area i need to pump up to hang into that front pack.
This is it...3 races in 3 weeks....time to let em know who i am.
Out of Alison Lake in the Lead
mmmmmmm...gel..... mmmm
Does he look familar?On to this past week which is in the books as a very good week for me. After my week of rest it took a couple days to get the body activated once again, but by the end of the week i felt strong on some good efforts.
Tuesday: 5.5km swim in the am with 20x100 (3hard,1Easy) on 1:30. Was in the neighbourhood of 1:12-1:14's. Some aerobic longer efforts and then a 90' bike which was filled with attacks...base ride turned evil by tour mania. At 2 we ran at Cedar hill GC for 3 loops, 1 WU, 2 tempo on the flats easy on hills. To finish off the day we helped set up the splash and dash at elk lake and made up relays.
Wednesday: Open Water at Thetis with 4xsmall island(1000m). 1 WU, 1 race effort with wetsuit, 1 race effort sans wetsuit, 1 CD. 60' Base run on the lake trails. Then we geared up for the Newton heights crit, but it got canceled so we had our own mini Tour with a team TT, crit, and indv. TT followed by rootbeer floats courtesy of Richard and PK.
Thursday: 4km aerobic swim at Commenwealth and a light 30' run in the afternoon.
Friday: 5km swim with 12x50 (1Hard/1Easy) and then 3x300m in Draft Packs. Scotty had had a night he couldn't remember on thursday so this made the 300's a good match for me. Felipe, a chilean, who is up here training for 5 weeks was also in our group. We went 3:45, 3:41, 3:39 i believe. In the afternoon we had a great brick workout at Comosun college. This workout was a good indicator that i have recharged the batteries. The setup was about a 7km bike loop and a 1km run loop. We did 2x (2 bike loops followed by 2x1km) and then 1 X (1bike loop with 1 run loop). On the seconder doubler stevo rocked on by me on the bike after starting 20' back and put on another 30' on me, he is killing it these days. Once that swim gets him in the chase pack look out! The run splits were good on the doublers we went out as tempo then race pace so 3:30 then 3:15. On the last repeat we nailed down a 3:05! on a technical 1km loop. This is the work that will give us good results in drummondville man!
Saturday: A "light swim" at thetis with "reduced volume" seemed a little harder than light and 4k but it's all good...was nice to swim up to the upper lake under a bridge. A 3hr base ride around lands End finished the day.
Sunday: 1.5km Open Water Thetis HtO MS Charity swim. Went well felt strong and almost held on to a 14 year old swimming phenom's feet. A good interval run session at Lochside with 5x1km. First two as build, 3:07,3:07. Next 3 stevo set the bar and I followed as best i could, 2:58,3:07,2:59.
Coach says that is the work in the books for nationals. This week a couple key sessions, 1 of which will be a swim/bike brick at Durance. This will be key as it is an area i need to pump up to hang into that front pack.
This is it...3 races in 3 weeks....time to let em know who i am.
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