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.....

Just Skiffed it

Wednesday swim was a big one 6.2km. Main set was 18X150m (2Hard/1Easy). Held consistently 1:55's. A short half hour efficiency run right after and then began resting up for the Heat Time Trial #2.

This time the test was actually fun. Well to the point that i felt good and wanted to complete the whole thing but once again my core temperature got too high and i had to be cut off. When thinking about it I can't really see how anyone could keep their core temp below 39.5 when your surroundings are 42 and you are producing heat by exercise, the math doesn't work. One more to go next wed. and then i'll get some good data from the study. It is also rewarding that the work i put into this study will be used to help olympians at beijing.

Yesterday was capped off by me just tapping a deer that ran at angle across the street and almost into my car. The best word to describe the encounter is skiffed cause that is the sound i remember. I just skiffed its rear hoof, but it and the car were unscathed.

sun's out and its 11 degrees, perfect for an afternoon run after work.

Good Week

Last week was a good solid week for me and I feel strong. ON the weekend we did a nice ride out to Williams Head Penetentiary south of Esquimalt. Although it was wet it was a good ride and steady in my base zone with a few efforts on some of the climbs. FOllowed that up with 30' off the bike and the day was done.

SUnday was a long solo run. I ran 1'53' which is probably the most i've ever ran at one time. A little sore, but to be expected. I looped around elk/beaver lake twice back to Commonwealth. THe afternoon was a 5km swim with a superbowl set thrown in. Colts beat the Bears 12-7, highlighted by the team waterslide TT that Kerry surprised everyone with the fastest rip.

Monday was a deserved day off. Today at the pool 7:15 for stretching and core activation. Craig Taylor has a good set of core exercises we cycle thru and new stuff added all the time. One which is particulary hard is get into a plank position on a mat (like a pushup position but resting on your forearms) and alternate tucking an arm to place on your hip, hold for 5 seconds then return to plank. Cycle thru that 4 times each arm and you feel it baby.

Short run after swimming and another tempo run this aft at Beaver.

The return to hell resumes tomorrow evening....

To Hell and Back

Hell...that is the word that best described it. I was beaten down and forced to pull out of my first time trial test with Mike at UVIC yesterday. Let me explain:

After getting my initial weight and blood taken i sat down and drank 1L of a unknown solution, tasted gross, but either was Sodium Citrate at 1%, 2% or Gatorade. Then got hooked up with wires like you wouldn't believe. Going in and out of places you don't even wanna know!

Waited another 45 mins and then more blood taken. THen i got suited up and shoes on and marched into the death chamber to start the test. He has a sort of greenhouse that the bike is set up in and regulated to 42C on the humidix. After getting only a 5min warmup (protocol) the test starts. The bike is programmed based on your VO2max test done previously, but i felt it was geared to hard and my cadence felt slow. You have no preception of anything in there. Don't know your time, your cadence, power, nothing, only a signal at 1/4, 1/2 etc. Your only real campanion is the bloody heat.

Water comes every so often but it is just a teaser amount and causes you to wish for more. Anyways i started to feel the hurt coming on about a quarter of the way thru. When i heard 1/2 way i felt like i had just been shot. ONLY HALF WAY!! Things really went south from there i was sweating like a mofo and was getting fatigued. I really don't remember much after half way, just the sound of the bike. The plug got pulled on me im guessing about 3/4's of the way cause my core temperature had gotten too high (40C).

I was dissappointed i didn't finish it. But mike can still use the data. Two more to go, and next time I'm taking this sucka down...

I'll try and get a pic of hell for everyone.