Friday, May 15, 2009
A Flurry of Posts
I've finally got some time to sit down and set up a few highlights that have happened over the past few weeks...settle in with a drink and enjoy...
Chapter 1. Frigid Waters
I'll start way back on May 1st. First day of May marked the first open water swim. A nice sunny day didn't make the water any warmer however. Luckily some of the ethopians on the team came prepared with duct tape and extra neoprene:
Sharpie getting sealed up
Don't Forget the Feet
Shiver me Timbers!
Chapter 2. Uncle Andy
On April 15th a new person came into this world; Stella Ann Bollans entered the Salmon Arm hospital just after 8pm. Mhairi and Tim you will be the best parents, however I will be around to test your parenting skills from time to time with some tempting corruption for Stella, the uncle has to play that role doesn't he? I went and visited the three up in Salmon Arm. First diaper change, first baby bath, a lot of first actually. Most noticeable thing I learnt about babies was that even though everything is much much smaller, the sounds that come out of them are just as loud.
Chapter 3. Sooke Sprint
Last weekend I raced just 30k up the west side of the Island in Sooke. This race is my favourite pool swim triathlon. Both the bike and run are challenging and well marshelled. The 700m swim went well, had a little trouble in T1 adjusting my bra and then headed out on the bike with the cross hairs lined up on the names ahead of me. Into T2 I had about 75'' on AMac, but just 20s on Stevo who had raced a heat before me. On the run it was tempting to giver but PK was at hand to steady the rains, that was except for a short lived sprint with Amac at the end. Stevo ended up winning the race with time to spare, looking good for shawnigan my man!
Chapter 4. Hell in a Box
In prep for the race I am at right now the seniors got in some heat adaptation at the PISE MET, aka hell in a box. Cycling 75-90' at 36C/75% Humidity was tough. By the end of the cycle though I was flying stronger on the back half of the session and able to deal with the heat a little better. Every session I would lose about 6lbs in sweat...yup that is 1 and a half milk jugs. Per hour my sweat rate was about 3L. Now this is impossible to replace during a race, but it gives you an idea of how much you need to replace post workout or race in order to rehydrate yourself and aid in recovery. A revisit to the HIB might be in order when Kelowna rolls around in August.
Chapter 5. The day before the Storm
Nice day today here in Oklahoma, 85, sunny and some serious kite flying winds. We are about a 30' drive from the race site so we made use of Christians home swim set up to do some fast treadmill swimming! Another storm warning for tonight, tornadoes on the menu as well.
Chapter 1. Frigid Waters
I'll start way back on May 1st. First day of May marked the first open water swim. A nice sunny day didn't make the water any warmer however. Luckily some of the ethopians on the team came prepared with duct tape and extra neoprene:
Sharpie getting sealed up
Don't Forget the Feet
Shiver me Timbers!
Chapter 2. Uncle Andy
On April 15th a new person came into this world; Stella Ann Bollans entered the Salmon Arm hospital just after 8pm. Mhairi and Tim you will be the best parents, however I will be around to test your parenting skills from time to time with some tempting corruption for Stella, the uncle has to play that role doesn't he? I went and visited the three up in Salmon Arm. First diaper change, first baby bath, a lot of first actually. Most noticeable thing I learnt about babies was that even though everything is much much smaller, the sounds that come out of them are just as loud.
Chapter 3. Sooke Sprint
Last weekend I raced just 30k up the west side of the Island in Sooke. This race is my favourite pool swim triathlon. Both the bike and run are challenging and well marshelled. The 700m swim went well, had a little trouble in T1 adjusting my bra and then headed out on the bike with the cross hairs lined up on the names ahead of me. Into T2 I had about 75'' on AMac, but just 20s on Stevo who had raced a heat before me. On the run it was tempting to giver but PK was at hand to steady the rains, that was except for a short lived sprint with Amac at the end. Stevo ended up winning the race with time to spare, looking good for shawnigan my man!
Chapter 4. Hell in a Box
In prep for the race I am at right now the seniors got in some heat adaptation at the PISE MET, aka hell in a box. Cycling 75-90' at 36C/75% Humidity was tough. By the end of the cycle though I was flying stronger on the back half of the session and able to deal with the heat a little better. Every session I would lose about 6lbs in sweat...yup that is 1 and a half milk jugs. Per hour my sweat rate was about 3L. Now this is impossible to replace during a race, but it gives you an idea of how much you need to replace post workout or race in order to rehydrate yourself and aid in recovery. A revisit to the HIB might be in order when Kelowna rolls around in August.
Chapter 5. The day before the Storm
Nice day today here in Oklahoma, 85, sunny and some serious kite flying winds. We are about a 30' drive from the race site so we made use of Christians home swim set up to do some fast treadmill swimming! Another storm warning for tonight, tornadoes on the menu as well.
Sooner Boomer!
Wednesday night's arrival was interesting....on the flight from denver to OKC we hit some bad weather. It was sleeting, thunder/lighting and tornadoes in OKC so we had to circle around in a holding pattern for a while. Then the captain was going to land in Dallas if things didn't clear up quickly. Luckily in the end we landed in OKC...at 1am. AP and I then got the rental car and navigated to the homestay without directions which we forget to write down. We got here though and the homestay is great, about 20miles south of OKC in a nice town called Norman. A Couple, Christian is 36 and works as an architect, his wife (Alicia) is a nurse. Both are competing in the age group race Sunday. He (Christian) was a collegiate swimmer at Cal and once swam a 15:15 mile. Ap and I have been offering copious amounts of $$ to him to take our chip for the swim.
Oklahoma is similar in landscape to southern Ontario. It reminds me a lot of the Claedon/Brampton area. Flat to rolling hills, with quite a variety of vegetation.
THe race course itself is well different...The swim venue is in the Colorado river. Little current but very murky. When you dive in it feels like someone has turned out the lights. The swim to bike transition is quite funky with a lot of U-turns. The bike is quite bumpy, and has some narrow sections. Flat for the most part with one gradual up-hill. It circles the state capital buildings which will give something to look at. The run course looks fairly straight forward but again is on a narrow foot path, which might be interesting if there is a large group coming off the bike.
Should be a fast one on Saturday with a lot of good competition. Many of the top south american's however have not showed up, being denied visa's etc.
Today AP and I are trying out our homestays cowboy engineered endless pool. Maybe i'll post a video later.
Oklahoma is similar in landscape to southern Ontario. It reminds me a lot of the Claedon/Brampton area. Flat to rolling hills, with quite a variety of vegetation.
THe race course itself is well different...The swim venue is in the Colorado river. Little current but very murky. When you dive in it feels like someone has turned out the lights. The swim to bike transition is quite funky with a lot of U-turns. The bike is quite bumpy, and has some narrow sections. Flat for the most part with one gradual up-hill. It circles the state capital buildings which will give something to look at. The run course looks fairly straight forward but again is on a narrow foot path, which might be interesting if there is a large group coming off the bike.
Should be a fast one on Saturday with a lot of good competition. Many of the top south american's however have not showed up, being denied visa's etc.
Today AP and I are trying out our homestays cowboy engineered endless pool. Maybe i'll post a video later.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Blue 42...Blue 42
When I broke my neck in the year 2000, I was told I could never take up contact sports again......well here I am 9 years later and apparently I am in a contact sport. Not what you would think with Triathlon, and certainly not the case on a day to day basis, but today had some serious contact.
Lets start in the morning. After a good longish warmup the bouys were in place for a good set of bouy swimming. 4x50m Lanes is a lot of space if you look at it with no bouys. But with bouys it looks like a bath tub. So the workout was a good one....
2x (1x 5 loops, 2x 4 loops)
With the addition of a few euros to the group this workouts have been more interesting. This morning was just bad. Waterpolo came to mind as I had contact made at EVERY bouy! I guess it is good race prep, but less contact = faster swimming for EVERYONE.
Luckily I was able to have a contact free easy run following the swim.
Tonight was the first crit for the group this year. A hail/rain storm rolled thru just before the 630 start. Cold to start I quickly warmed up and felt in a good rhythm as the laps counted down. AMac had some good breaks, but unfortunately didn't have other stronger riders to go with him and hold the group off. Still good riding there white knight!
2 laps to go we hit a corner and BAM AP goes down right in front of me. WIth nowhere to go I proceed to ride over his bike, flip over my handlebars and have my bike go KAPOOey up in the air. Luckily we are both ok i believe, and the bikes didn't suffer any major damages. Needless to say I was a little steamed not to finish the race as I was feeling great. I cooled my jets as I TT'd down the Trans Canada mashing out in the Big ring home. There will be little sleep tonight though as I think adrenaline is still coursing through my veins.
All and all a good day on the gridiron.
Lets start in the morning. After a good longish warmup the bouys were in place for a good set of bouy swimming. 4x50m Lanes is a lot of space if you look at it with no bouys. But with bouys it looks like a bath tub. So the workout was a good one....
2x (1x 5 loops, 2x 4 loops)
With the addition of a few euros to the group this workouts have been more interesting. This morning was just bad. Waterpolo came to mind as I had contact made at EVERY bouy! I guess it is good race prep, but less contact = faster swimming for EVERYONE.
Luckily I was able to have a contact free easy run following the swim.
Tonight was the first crit for the group this year. A hail/rain storm rolled thru just before the 630 start. Cold to start I quickly warmed up and felt in a good rhythm as the laps counted down. AMac had some good breaks, but unfortunately didn't have other stronger riders to go with him and hold the group off. Still good riding there white knight!
2 laps to go we hit a corner and BAM AP goes down right in front of me. WIth nowhere to go I proceed to ride over his bike, flip over my handlebars and have my bike go KAPOOey up in the air. Luckily we are both ok i believe, and the bikes didn't suffer any major damages. Needless to say I was a little steamed not to finish the race as I was feeling great. I cooled my jets as I TT'd down the Trans Canada mashing out in the Big ring home. There will be little sleep tonight though as I think adrenaline is still coursing through my veins.
All and all a good day on the gridiron.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Sunday, April 19, 2009
New Water Toy
Now this is how to fun on the lake this summer......
Apparently it can go up to 40mph and 50ft high. Although I wonder what would happen if it sucked up a big fish causing the water flow to stop....that might not be so fun if you were 50ft up.
Apparently it can go up to 40mph and 50ft high. Although I wonder what would happen if it sucked up a big fish causing the water flow to stop....that might not be so fun if you were 50ft up.
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