Tad of a Short Note

Training is going well so far this week. I am into my 4th pretty solid week so i will admit i am starting to get a bit tired. This week the volume is down a tad however, the intensity is cranked up. After this week i will have a little test to see how the training has been going, I am going to Race PraireMan Half Ironman in Grand prairie, Tx. Chris Leigh races it every year, so i am going to race to see how my prep is going in hopes to hang with Chris for as long as i can.

Monday- Am- was a hard swim (4.6kms) It had 15x100 and a couple of fast 500's alternating fast,moderate,ez and repeating. It was a solid swim but i was a tad shattered from the weekend. The afternoon had a tempo ride with some 12min repeats, i felt great out on my road bike for a change.

Tuesday- Started the day off with a track workout 5x1km with a big wu and cool down, the goal was to decend them but by a small margin while taking it out hard with the first km. I took it out in 310 so needless to say by the 5th one i was working pretty hard. it felt good, and i met the challenges i set so i was happy.
Pm- another hard swim workout with a test set and a big drill set that was kind of nice. (4.5k)

Wednesday- Swim Am was recovery 4k it was nice to have an ez swim
pm- was a long recovery spin, it was nice to have an easy day. I think i logged 60+ kms a tad chills.

Thursday- am (4.5k swim) Started with a main set that was 10x100m on 115 holding 110's. Well that woke me up fast. Felt a bit flat in the water but i didn't go off the back which was nice. Then did a set that was 4x4x100m pull paddles on 120. not too bad held 115's nothing hard just logging some fitness.

pm- Tonight is supposed to be a big run workout with a 5000m hard in the middle. We are expecting some bad weather so it may be a tempo run on the tready if the 40mph winds and rain keep up tonight. Oh well running in wind is fun. a tad tired-- sarcasm. :)

solid weekend

Not too much to report on. Went to see a hilarious movie Friday night called "Superbad." I don't even know how to explain this movie, other than it's hilariously funny, check it out!!
Carley and I also got a little lucky this weekend, winning 50 bucks in grocery money at this bad ass grocery store in Fort Worth, called Central Market, aka CM. So how did we both win you ask? Well here's the story. Friday night after work as we are driving to the grocery store to pick up some grub for dinner, we get stuck in some heavy traffic. Ten minutes roll by and we don't even move. Finally after much swearing and loss of frustration we arrive at CM. As we are walking in these country radio station spokespeople start hounding us with questions and asking us to fill in ballots. With my frustration through the roof and my anxiety soaring, I see Carley approaching the table and filling out a ballot to get a free magnet!! As i'm filling out a ballot (it was better than standing there) the spokespeople start telling me I look like Kenny Chesney. I was pretty excited to hear that, figuring he was some hot stud until later Carley explained to me that he is some older, balding country singer! So it's ballot drawing time, the first name he pulls is CARLEY"S and she won a $25 dollar gift certificate to CM. How exciting is that. The draw was obviously rigged the joker didn't even put her ballot in the box, it was in his hand the whole time! But i'm not complaining we won dinner money for the night! So 15 minutes later as we are leaving the grocery store another draw is going on I stop by just for fun, and the guy asks me my name, looks through the box and pulls my name. Another $25 gift certificate. Wow we are on fire here!! I think I won just cause I look like Kenny Chesney and it was a country radio station putting on the raffle. So after the traffic delay, we managed to win grocery money for the entire week!

As Far as training goes, it was another solid weekend, Saturday consisted of a 4hour ride with 5x10kms tempo with 5k ez between. I averaged pretty fast speeds on the ride and was able to maintain a pretty strong pace over the 4hours. A nail in my tire caused a quick stop to fix but other than that it was good. Then it was off for a 1hour run where i felt great running off the bike, it was starting to get hot and since i had my off road shoes on i wasn't shy to rip into some trails, to get off the pavement. My Brooks weren't supposed to have the off road package on them but i have turned them into my 4x4's because the last time i was in the trails i fell in some mud so they are my new mud rippers now. So 5hours in the bank with some good hard intervals and some core in the afternoon and a nap ended a solid day. Sunday was pretty chill axed with a 1hour run in the am, my legs felt better then i thought they would, and in the afternoon was a 4km swim and some more core and stretching. And that was it. Back at it for another solid week coming up.
Weeks Total: 17kms of swimming, 303kms biking and 72kms of running.

It's a bird, it's a plane... NO it's a piano!!

This may have been when the piano fell on me! After that incident I felt like I was running with a grand piano on my back!

Piano Melody

Training the last few days has gone well. However, a couple days involved flying piano's but I managed to survive them. So Tuesday was a good hard threshold swim in the am, therefore I finished with a ride in the afternoon. The next few days i spent logging some miles on the bike. Tuesday afternoon i was on it, a good steady base ride for a couple of hours. Then Wednesday morning did a 1 hour run on the trails and my legs felt great, pretty weird because i have just been loading them up for past few weeks now. Wednesday pm- i was out logging some more miles doing some hard intervals on the bike, i rode out in Aledo where there are many challenging hills. Since i am gearing up to ride with the big boys i am sort of on a ride fast or don't bother showing up sort of focus. So i am getting ready to ride 90km's averaging 40plus kph, and then running, this is why i need to get stupid fit, oh well i have allot of work to do that is the joy of the focus right now. After doing my 10 repeats i could feel the heavy legs again. Good thing i am on the bike again tomorrow morning.
Thursday morning i hit another good 2hour+ ride where i rode some hill repeats out on oakmont avenue, and then rode out in the country roads in Benbrook. My hill repeats went well, and i felt like lance for a few, and then i realized hey i only have another 11 repeats to go, so enough said i was sort of starting to feel like a sprinter off the back in the late stages of the Pyrenees. Oh well another one logged. I am telling you one word, and one only: utter butter. okay maybe two words but it helps with saddle sores and right now i have enough of them i could name them after the last few weeks. Okay so after feeling pretty shattered it was time to run a 5k at a local 5k run race down on the trinity trails, my legs felt sore and tired and walking at this point was a stretch and all i wanted to do was sleep, however right now in my training i am trying to burn the candle at both ends, or something like that, lots of volume and lots of intensity so i should be feeling fatigued. The standard was set that i had hit and it was run fast or no pizza, so i better run fast. The run course was 2miles out and 1.2 back. The out section was into the wind, and i was going to take a risk running into the eye of the storm, specially when pizza was on the line. Well i took the first mile out in 5:05, maybe a bit faster but you get the idea, anyways i should have known running 1mile into a headwind that was about to send my headband to Oklahoma city was not a good idea, oh well, i tried to keep for even though my legs felt like shizza, and at mile 2 i got hit by a flying object from the sky. It was black and weighed about 500pounds and it had lots of white keys. I got hit by a piano and i started to slow down, oh well it was a good effort and at 95 degrees i started to feel a bit sick during the cool down. Oh well another good day logged.
Friday(this morning)- recovery day 4.5k swim am, felt okay but just logging the training right now. Not much to mention about it, 1x2000 pull nice and strong, and then some IM work, but all aerobic as i need to recover today. I have a big workout tomorrow but you will have to wait to hear about that on Monday. Have a great weekend!

Harder or Hotter than Hell

This week is going to be my third build week. I am starting to feel a little fatigue in the legs but it is expected with the volume and intensity i am putting out on a regular basis. This weeks plan is to get another big week of riding in with a cycling race on Saturday called Hotter than hell. The race will be 100miles and i am hoping to get into the A race that will mostly have cat1-3 cyclists in it. I don't hold a licence in the USA for cycling so i am still waiting to get into it. It is going to be a very hard race with the name reflecting the race, however i hope to be able to step up with all the volume in my legs.

Monday- Feeling a Little fatigued after a big weekend. I hit up a swim workout with the squad. The workout was 4kms with one of the mainsets 10x200descending. I brought it down to 2:23 long course which wasn't bad but i didn't want this to be my hard workout of the day. I went a little harder than i wanted to but i was leading a lane and had to rise or get run over. Oh well i reserved a little in the tank for my track workout in the afternoon.

pm- With another hot day, i hit the track for a little leg speed workout, the goal was to run 12x300m on 1:30 holding 51-52's. IT was very windy and i manged to hold a great average over the 12 with only 38seconds rest, which seemed to fly by way too fast. Oh well it was another good workout logged.

Tuesday(this morning)- emphasis this morning was speed/threshold swimming. Feeling a little fatigued in the water. I swam with the squad group this am, and i was planning on hitting a good hard swim with short rest. The workout ended up being 4.5kms and i defiantly hit the threshold plan for the day.
5x200m, 5x100m, 6x50m, and 800m pull breath control. I really hit the intervals, and tried to make the best of it feeling flat. Tonight will be an aerobic ride, nothing crazy just building up some cycling miles in the legs before the weekend.

4 day Weekend!

Friday Night Carley and i went and saw 4 Day Weekend, which is a improv comedy act at one of the comedy clubs in Sun dance square. It was nice because it was a 2minute walk to the club. The show was probably the funniest thing i have ever seen in my life. Carley had to be the first one there so we were at the club at 7 lined up waiting to get in for a 730 start. She wanted to sit front row so we were involved in the show. Involved was not the word i should have used. We were the examples used the whole act and had many songs and jokes sung about us. Pretty hilarious. They came up with lots of Canadian jokes and all in all it was a great time. I almost wet my self a few times in the hour and a half show. It was so great and i would recommend it to anyone to see atleast once.

Saturday was a good training day. I did a 4hour ride, 130kms tempo averaging a pretty good 36kms/hour on a rolling sort of course, the average was well maintained due to some motor pacing off a dodge ram on the way home. I think i rode 15kms behind the wheel of this dodge ram before he even noticed i was drafting off him. Oh well when he realized it, he dropped a gear and blew me a way. oh well it was fun while it lasted. I started the ride out with Clay but dropped him 1 hour into the ride, so i was feeling pretty good. Off the bike i ran 45mins at a 325:330 k pace, which felt pretty tough but i felt fairly good at that pace after a long week of training. After that it was some core in the afternoon and that was it for the day.

Sunday- Starting the day off with some sort of food poisoning i woke up and instantly felt like puking. Not too sure what was the problem because i got 11hours of sleep last night. Oh well pretty weird. I ran 40mins in the am, and puked twice on the run so i decided i was going to chill ax and try running again in the afternoon. I narrowed it down to some warm chocolate milk that i drank yesterday after my brick workout. Oh well, instantly i felt better, and later in the afternoon, i finished the rest of the run 1:15mins of running in the trails out at benbrook. I involved some tempo half marathon pace but really it was just logging some miles. I felt great, i didnt even feel like i had puked early in the day. Oh well it was a great run in the trails, i saw some caribou, wild turkeys and one rattle snack that made me run like a BAMF until i had dropped the slithering creature. Oh well some core later in the day with a good 25-27kms of running. It was off to bed early because i have a massive week coming up with hotter than hell road race on the weekend.

Weekly totals:
19kms swimming, 230kms biking, 80kms of running.
12 weeks till Clearwater. Another big week coming up.

Have a Feel Good Day

Have a Feel Good Day. Yesterday, Carley gave me a orange bracelet that says " have a feel good day". I am going to test it for a few days to see if it can transverse into "Hope your legs feel good day"! Because your going to hit a lot of training. So onto training. Tuesday where I left off I had a speed/threshold workout in the am that was 4.5 k with an ez spin on the bike in the afternoon. Wednesday morning is where the madness begins.
Waking up the plan was to do a big w/u and cool down, with a 5k Tempo in the middle. Well as we all know down here the heat can really drain you so doing a 5k hard after a long workout leads to a tough run. I ran 16:39 and got back into a big cool down, with a run of around 16k-18kms not too sure because i was a tad dehydrated on the long cool down. I am pretty happy with the 16:39 as my heartrate was extremly low. It would be badass if I could run this pace for my half off the bike in Clearwater. The rest of the day consisted of taking a nap at work and hitting a swim workout later in the day with Clay. The swim workout was pretty chills being 4.5k long with some 600's at pace, some fast 100's and some drills. I guess a little bit of a mixed bag of stuff. Now with my legs being fairly wrecked after a big weekend and long hard workout i was going to battle Thursday.
Thursday I did a 2 hour bike workout with a pyramid of hard efforts, also met up with Clay where he was doing some hill repeats and some single leg drills. We hammered some good hills and after the workout it was off to work, with a nice nap in the afternoon. Work is very chill this week as everyone in the USA is at the USA Gymnastics Congress which has a world cup event going on as well as a massive vendors show for anyone involved in Gymnastics. So we have a booth set up in San Jose, Ca and I opted not to go this year in order to hold down the fort here in Texas.
Anyways Thursday afternoon the madness starts again, i do a big w/u in the heat, being very tired; i toe the line just in time to run a 5000m trail run race down at trinity trail. The wind was howling and the rain began during the race. I ran 17:00 flat a very slow 5k however the legs were shattered and it wasn't the most pleasant experience running into a head wind. The couple of miles where very taxing and very slow, i didn't take a risk and run with the stud runner from Colorado who holds a PB of 13:40. Next week if I do this 5k again I will take more risks. Anyways a good effort regardless and another long cool down in pouring rain, and it was time for bed. Oh wait it was time for dinner but Carley who was cooking some pasta left the stove top on and wrecked shop on our dinner while i was out running in the rain. It is a long story but we ended up at Chili's restaurant for a black bean veggie burger.
Friday-Thankfully, today is a legs off day. After running two long runs with hard 5ks in the middle, and with all the biking lately my legs are taxed, I really need this recovery day. This morning i logged a swim workout that was 5k and involved a 1000 w/u, 1000(50fly,200fr), 1000pull paddles, 1000paddles, and 1000sw(d1-4 by the 250). I felt pretty good and i am looking forward to the afternoon of rest for the legs. Next week if the 5000 Trinity Trail race is in the program i am going to take some risks and try and run sub 16, like i should, i hope the weather will co-operate, and one thing i have learned from the heat, the longer you warm-up the more dehydrated and tired you are once you get to the meat and potatos of the workout. Oh well these longer run workouts will pay off as i am getting ready to run fast for 13 miles. Tonight is going to involve hopefully some great Texan Mexican food with Carley, that i hope will burn my mouth off, and then a movie and early to bed because i am logging another big weekend of training.




<-------- Catch yah later!!
Hope everyone has a "Feel Good Day"

This Geico makes me laugh every time i see him. You could save 15% on Car insurance by switching to Geico, i don't know if it is his appearance or his ascent that really makes me bust a gut. This little Geico is hydrating which is good because you have to do allot of that around Texas lately it has been hot. Every night while i am making dinner i turn the T.V to the Dallas or Fort Worth News, i like to keep up to date with what is going on around me. I have been pretty sheltered most of my life growing up in Canada with the lack of crime rate, so i enlighten myself everyday with news from Dallas. Living in Fort worth i don't see any crime very often and for the most part it is very safe and clean. I have found a trend in the news in Dallas which is only about 20mins away. For a month or so, there was constant bank robbery's like 2 a day or 2 every 3 days it was incredible and it went on for a month. What i don't get is that if a bank is robbed one day and there is another 2 that week, shouldn't the police start watching banks and gas stations??Oh well this went on for a little while. Then there was a 2 week period, where there was some hostage situations, pretty cool to watch on t.v live because usually i only see that in a movie usually featuring Denzel Washington or some one bad ass like, never mind Denszel is bad ass.
Well the past few days there have been a couple of shootings, one massive shooting where a teenager was in a car wreck and when people stopped to help he shot and killed them, unbelievable he even shot a police officer. Well i am glad i am living where i am living, i will keep to watching the news every night only to educate me and my small town mind. Pretty scary and sad that inocent people where killed trying to help out a car wreck.

Training this week:
Monday - a bit fatigued after the weekend, not going to lye or pretend that i am not fatigued after those workouts, it gives me such a feeling of how amazing those tour DE France riders are, how well they recover. SO yesterday was fairly easy, i did a 5k swim workout in the am, the focus was aerobic volume, it had a bit of speed in it but more or less some constant swimming. I did
12x300 on various pace times. 3 at mid pace on 4Min's, 1ezon 415, 3strong pull on 3:55, 1ez on 410, and then did 2 strong, 1ez and 1 strong, 1ez on 4mins. So it wasn't bad, a little fatigued.
Then it was a little 45min Trot later afternoon when temperatures decreased a tad. The funny thing was it was 100degrees and i ran buy some guy running in jeans, and he gave me a nod, pretty weird considering, it was dangerously hot, oh well props to that guy for running fast in jeans. So not much for the day just swim and an ez trot. Oh yeah legs a bit fatigued from 5hour ride yesterday.

Tuesday- am (today) 4.5 k Speed/threshold swim workout
After going to bed at 815 last night i woke up feeling great and ready to hit a workout, this mornings purpose was to hit a good swim because it was my main workout of the day. Just a cycling workout later on.
Main set was 20x100m on 130
1 dive all out, on 1:15 For this one since i did it from a push was to go a 1:05-1:06, then push off and hit 100m ez to moderate but staying on form. Then right into 7x100m on 1:30 at race pace, so sub 110 was the plan and i was pretty bang on with most of the swimming. Then i did 100 ez. And repeated the set again. I was pretty happy with how i was swimming, allot better than i have in a while. I think my body is starting to recover from all the long course racing. And i have a feeling my body was so depleted the last month from racing and travel and training between racing that i am finally getting some glycogen put back in my body, and brain for that matter.
Tonight is an ez ride, because the rest of the week is going to be alot of tough training. 13 weeks to go!

Sammy Saddle Sores

Monday Hi 105 Lo 79 Mostly Clear
Tuesday Hi 104 Lo 77 Mostly Clear
Wednesday Hi 102 Lo 77 Mostly Clear
Thursday Hi 100 Lo 78 Mostly Clear
Friday Hi 98 Lo 77 Mostly Clear

Well another hot week expected, i am sort of getting used to it however hydration becomes a major factor in completing workouts with any sort of sanity left in you towards the end.
This weekend was a great finish to a strong week.

Saturday- Started off the day with an open water swim workout, it was part of a clinic however the faster swimmers did a pretty hard workout doing hard 200-300m efforts, i did a lot of work on start speed, and i felt super good in the water, its too bad i didn't feel like this last weekend. Ahmed an Egyptian Olympic swimmer lead the clinic and him being a finalist at the Olympics he was making me do a lot of start speed stuff, which hurt but will pay off later down the road. Regardless it was 4k logged, and on to the rest of the day.

After the swim it was on the bike for a 3hour ride at a fairly good training pace. The workout had many hills, with even a couple that stimulate "the beast" a knock off of the St Croix famous climb. The ride went well, a good group of guys made it fun, and the heat started to wear me down towards the end. I ran 30min off the bike and by this time it was 100+ degrees. Oh well it was an end to a good training day.

Sunday- More saddle sores, i had a great ride with Clay we rode 110miles , on a great out and back type course on 377 to Stevensville, I took some risks in the heat and managed a great average over the whole ride especially with more hills. I have a really good feeling about Clearwater that by then i may be able to hang with the leaders on the bike. Anyway feeling pretty dehydrated after the ride, the rest of the day was devoted to some stretching and hydration and early to bed. So 8hours on the bike in two days was a good beginning to my prep for Clearwater. Next week there will be a little more running in my program.

Weeks Totals:
Swim: 21kms, Bike: 362kms Run: 40kms

Hot Start For Cowboys

Well good news in the dub, the cowboys Won the season opener against the Colts. Pretty cool Stuff hopefully i will get to check out some games this season. I am not getting my hopes up about the boys in blue, because like every year the boys end up in jail one at a time for various charges, its sort of a common theme for the cowboys for years. I probably shouldn't have said that but lets be real here a more appropriate team name would be the Dallas Jailbirds or Dallas Meat heads. Oh well regardless its going to be some bad ass football to watch.

Not much new, yesterday afternoon was a good spin, it was very hot, but beautiful at the same time. I would much rather be sweating then shivering. Today is a recovery day, a little 50min Trot this morning on the trails, and a little 2.5km flush swim. Saturday and Sunday are going to be Big days especially in the saddle so this afternoons rest will be well enjoyed. Cheers for Now!

14 Weeks Away "JFT"

Back at it. After a tired and disappointing ITU race in Quebec I am back in Texas, training and getting ready for World70.3 Championships in Clearwater in less than 14weeks. The last couple of months have been rough racing 3 long course races and 2 ITU races in a short period of time, the travel and the lack of recovery between events caused me to have a sub par performance at nationals. However each race was fun and even though i am tired and the legs and body didn't respond on the weekend, i now feel fitter than ever and really motivated for the block a head. Getting ready for Worlds is going to be a process i am going to be doing lots of Fun races for Training and maybe another ITU race later on if the timing works, if not the ITU racing will be put on hold till January or so. Anyways it should be an interesting 14 weeks to say the least.
Here is how the training has gone since nationals, my body felt fine afterwords because being tired i wasn't able to hit it and smash my body to badly on the run.

Monday- was a 90min spin on my bike in Orillia with Carley it was very easy and it was nice just to get out and do something after the drive from Quebec.

Tuesday- 5k swim with 8x300 alternating 1 fast and 1 ez on 4mins, then into 5x100m fast on 130. A little 30min run and i was off to Texas.

Wednesday- 5k swim Volume main set was 6x500m 2pull on 6:30 and 1ez swim on 7mins.
Afternoon- a hot workout, being around 100 degrees i did a big run workout that involved running 5x1mile intervals on a very hilly and windy stretch of trail, i like this mile course because it is a very Challenging stretch. It was a nice break from the track or road but it was not very forgiving. With a big wu and cool down, and a little core/strength it was a decent day. Logg it!

Thursday(today)- This morning was another 5k Swim workout logged, some more threshold/volume. The mainset was 6x100, followed by 500pull, this set i did 3x, with the 100's on short rest it forced me to swim fast which will be a common theme for next 14 weeks as it will be important for me to swim with the leaders in Clearwater without Taxing the body. Now that i think about it i am probably going to have to swim fast, bike evne faster and then have the run of my life. So all 3 disciplines will be hit hard for the next few months. This afternoon will be spent on the bike, for an aerobic recovery ride. Its another hot one, in the DFW.

More Pics From Drummundville ITU

Drummundville ITU Triathlon

On Sunday August 5th, 2007 I had the opportunity to race Canadian Nationals in Drummondville Quebec. The week prior to the race I spent in Orillia, I had some business meeting I had to attend so I flew from Texas the weekend before nationals. As far as training leading into nationals, I did a little bit of tapering, and during the taper my body was starting to recover from the 70.3 series race in California therefore I was feeling pretty exhausted. Finally by mid week I started to feel a little better.
I arrived in Drummondville just in time for the race meeting on Friday afternoon. The traffic was a bit chaotic driving through Montreal, which made my drive a grueling 8 hours. Doing some race preparation on Saturday at the race course I felt alright, a little fatigued but nothing unusual that an athlete doesn’t feel all the time. So I would say I felt ready to go.

Sunday arrived and it felt like forever waiting around for 1:00pm, otherwise known as GO TIME. I did a little run in the morning from my hotel and arrived at the race site about 2.5 hours early. I avoided the sun, sat in the shade and focused on my upcoming race. Afternoon races have to be the worse, all that waiting seems to drag on and on for so long. Finally, it was warm up time I did my usual warm up and finally the race was set to start.

The swim started great, I had a great position and I managed to get somewhere near the lead pack of the swim during the first lap. By the end of the first swim lap I was a little behind but not much, still in decent position. As I re-entered the water I put my head down and gave it my all – only to run head first into a wooden box that was marking the distance. If I had glanced up that second to site I would have had a broken nose, luckily the box smashed into the top of my hard head, though I was distraught for an instant I managed to regain myself and continue swimming. I came out of the water a minute down and found myself biking in the third, and much smaller bike pack.

I had to do a lot of biking in the pack if I wanted to have any chance on the run. My bike pack, much smaller and all of us working very hard, lost a few minutes to the lead and chase packs.

I came off the bike and tried to hit my run, I had done so much work on the bike I knew right away I was going to have a tough time finding my running legs. I managed to run down a couple people from the chase pack, but not the finish I wanted. Overall, I finished the race in 20th . I am going to go on a massive swim focus and commit myself to coming out of the water in the lead pack. As for now, I’m going to do a lot of distance training as I will be competing in world’s 70.3 series in Florida in November.