The One Yeah Want!!!!!!

Final Push

Last week i finished my final push in training ending a big block of training, and it is now time to start a gradual taper into Clearwater in two weeks.
Here is how last week went

Monday- was a good 2hour swim workout with F.A.S.T in the am mentioned in my last post with a long recovery spin in afternoon, legs were a bit tired from my track workout Sunday.

Tuesday- nothing too hard today it was a good recovery 10k on the trails and in the afternoon was a short and sweet bike workout wu, 20k TT and then a cooldown legs felt tired but still rode hard into the wind.

Wednesday-
1.75hour swim with fast. Ended up being Barratt Brandon and i only swimming, him wearing a wetsuit because the pool was broken, so the club did dryland while we swam. I froze but logged some good miles.
mainset was something like
800 swim
4x100on 1:10
800swim
4x100 on 1:15
800swim
4x100on 120

i forget the rest .

Then after a Little rest it was a track workout at TCU

6x1km mainset with about 50seconds rest, it was crazy wind and Barrett i switched turns taking the lead every lap, but we ran under 3:10pace in crazy conditions, with a big wu and cool down.

After we did a 1.5hour spin in the wind, it felt like a hurricane but it was a solid day ended with a massage at night from Tarp who got me ready for the rest of the week.

Thursday- ran another 10k ez in the am on the trails.
pm- was 2hour ride with 6x8mins hard mainset with 2mins recovery. sick and tired of the wind but it makes you stronger. So i sucked it up today.

Friday- Swim workout Threshold

Mainset was 2x400 on 5:20 Then 200 at pace 1min ez
then 2x200 on 2:35 then 100 at pace
2x100 on 1:15 then 50 at pace.
and a bunch of other stuff with a warmup and cool down, i had the afternoon to recovery and rest for tomorrow.

Saturday- Race simulation day.
Rode 10k ez wu, then rode 90kms at race pace effort, felt strong and maintained good cadence and form with more wind. Then i got off the bike and ran 10k at a little faster than half marathon goal pace, so it was a good 4hour workout but right to bed after i was cooked.

Sunday- Ez recovery day with 1hour run in am, some pancakes, and then a 1.5hour recovery ride in some more wind.

Well that was the end of the week, this week i start to taper. I will post towards the end of the week but it shouldn't be too hard of training. I am starting to get excited to race but even more excited to some recovery.

Cheers

Cold Fronts and Ice baths!!!

This weekends training ended a good solid week of training. Saturday was a 100k ride it was a good solid workout with a good block at race pace, in a pyramid. Each effort had 1min recovery after it, 5,7.5, 10,12,15,15,12,10,7.5,5 and then i ran 45mins off the bike with the first 15mins at race pace. It was a interesting day, a quick note: i will never leave my key in the under gas lid again. A recovery swim later on and i called it a day.

Sundays main workout of the day was 15x1km on the track. With a big wu, and cool down it was tough. To make things more interesting the wind was really coming on strong. It was a good run and the repeats were on 4mins so the faster i ran the more rest i got. I started off running them at goal half marathon pace, but i ended up running them way faster, it was a good workout and my buddy from Czech ran the last lap of my last 5 repeats so i could really push those ones. It was close to 28k of running. Nothing else for the day a nap, and ice bath and allot of football.

Today i start my last hard week before i begin to rest, basically one more push. I am feeling tired but i think i am recovering fairly well.

This mornings swim was a good 2hour workout with F.A.S.T
1800wu
then 8x through 150 tempo on 2:15 and 1x50 200pace on 1minute
Then a big 2000m kick set, that was 400m, 2x200,4x100, then 1x400kick timed(6:30)
Then some drill work and a cool down.
It was a good one, the cold front has moved in for a few days so tonight could be a very cold recovery ride.
Cheers for now

Back at it

Back at this week after the LifetimeFitness US Open, if you go to www.insidetri.com you can check out the pro Menes and woman's race video, you can see me a few times i am wearing a turquoise suit, towards the end of the video i am running and coming out of the water and running into transition you can see me. I am fully recovered because my body didn't let me Berry myself on the weekend. Monday was a 6k recovery swim with F.A.S.T and a light spin. Tuesday morning was another swim with F.A.S.T the workout was a good one here is how it went this is all in yards this morning

1700 wu then this was the mainset

800 on 10:00 negative split
5x200 backstroke on 3:10
800 on 10:00 negative split
5x200IM on 3:00
800 on 10:00 negative split
5x200 50fly/50br on 3:00
800on 10:00 negative spit
the goal was to start out at 1:10 pace and get faster as the 800's went.
Then it was a swim down for 8400yards.

In the afternoon it was another recovery ride, just giving the legs a little bit of a break since the weekend.

Wednesday- was a big running day,
Started off running a 1hour tempo run with 20mins at 165-170hrt during the later stages of the run, it was on a nice gravel trail and my legs felt allot snappier than on the weekend and i managed to sustain a good fast pace throughout.

Afternoon was another long base run, heart rate was a bit high however it was getting hot and i may have had a bit of dehydration.

Then i ran a little 30mins before dinner with some drills.
Defiantly alot of running on Wednesday.

Thursday- Swim this am with FAST.
This is what we did in yards

1000wu
then 6x800
1. swim br 7
2. fly kick 100front, 100back for 800
3. pull breath 7
4. 75fly, 25 drill, alot of fly.
5. pull breath 7
6. back stroke pull

THen 12x50 fast swim
and a cooldown for another decent 2hour workout.

later this afternoon i am doing a hard interval workout on the bike, i will write about this one at another time but the workout is going to be 10x5mins with 3mins steady state and 2mins very hard, with 2mins easy.

I have a lot of work left till i taper, plus there is a new challenge on the table for Clearwater. Me and my mate James Hadley from Boulder have had a little friendly competition over the last few years.
It started with James coming from Great Britian to race our Canadian Elite nationals, James was riding in my pack and he went off the front, he crashed, then got up caught our group again and then went off the front again, it was simply amazing effort and he he defiantly beat me. Later this year at Muskoka Long course race, i raced hard from the beginning and even though bonking James nearly caught me but i held on. 1 week later i run into my buddy in Buffalo springs 70.3 in Lubbuck Texas. Well later in the bike course, riding with Paul Amey from Great Britian, who comes roaring up behind us and passes us? James, so with 1mile left in the half marathon, i came running up beside James and ended up out running him. Just last weekend we raced again, and James Clearly kicked my ass, i couldn't stay with him on the bike and i didn't run fast enough to catch him, he had a great race and it tied up the series 2-2. So last night over some text messaging in Boulder the bet is on for Clear water and it involves buying rounds. Regardless it will be good fun competition. However temperatures are starting to get cold in Boulder so hopefully they will get some snow and help me out.
Cheers for now

Flat

Congrats to Beno for taking home the bling in Dallas. This week went a bit up and down for me, training hard for Clearwater 70.3 and traveling back to Canada where i think i picked up some sort of flu virus, i spent the few days before the race just basically resting as much as i can. Getting a last minute spot in to one of the biggest races in the US this year was exciting but at the same time a bit scary knowing that i would be racing the best in the world, while trying to battle the muscle and mental fatigued i experienced from the last big block of training. The beginning of the swim, i got murdered lining beside some of the fastest swimmers. As we were paused at the line because of everyone creeping forward, finally we move back and the gun goes off by surprise. Well the swim felt relatively easy and i kept hitting peoples feet so i knew i was where i had to be, unfortunately i swam in the chase pack, who was not doing a good job of trying to keep in touch with the leaders and it was my own fault for making this mistake. i couldn't see anything in the sun another mistake or i would have tried to serge on my own. So the whole swim felt like a walk in the park not the way a swim should feel, but i wasn't sure since it was non-draft legal. Getting out of the water i realized i was coming out with a pack that i didn't want to see to later in the bike course, containing Greg Remaly, Micheal Simpson, my Brit mate James Hadley, Richie Cunningham, and a few others. For some reason i felt really flat on the bike and couldn't get moving. I only caught one person on the bike and that was the speed demon from France who lead the swim. All of a sudden i was in no mans land and wishing i wasn't so dang tired. I just didn't have the push i needed to get out of the comfort zone i was in. Not too long into the bike super biker David Thompson went ripping by me, and i kept a group of riders in site, just wasn't turning it over in the wind and hilly course to Dallas.
Getting off the bike i felt fine, except running by myself, i ran a good solid first loop and couldn't not come in touch with any of the runners in front of me and i got discouraged. I crossed the line knowing it wasn't the effort i wanted, i wanted to Berry myself, but my fatigue wasn't letting me. I ran 34mins off the bike and it felt very easy,i wish i didnt mentally give up on the last 5k loop because i would have ran a pb off the bike, so i am excited for when i am rested in Clearwater after a taper. It was fun racing the best in the world, however i made a few rookie mistakes that cost me some time, the biggest lesson of the day was not to set your helmet on your bars in transition on a windy day because when you come out of the water it may be missing, which it was and loosing that group on the bike cost me, it wasn't draft legal, but just having people to ride behind helps. It was a fun training race, and i like these non-draft legal type races, but with such an elite field, i needed to treat the swim more like a draft legal race. After the race it was an easy 5k to cheer on some friends i had racing, and then it was off to watch the boys play the patriots, the boys were looking good and then it was over. Oh well early to bed last night and i swam 6k this morning with F.A.S.T it was a pretty recovery type workout lots of distance and drill. Once the thunderstorms end later i will be out on the bike, to spin the legs out. I have a couple more big weeks before i taper for 70.3 Worldchampionships in Clearwater. Any way i will post about my adventures over the next month. Cheers

Thanksgiving

Most parts of Ontario had great weather for the weekend, but i was lucky enough to spend the weekend in sudbury, where the temperatures where very cold and it rained for 3 days in a row. Oh well i probably needed to shower anyway. I had a good weekend with Carley and her family, and then a couple of days with my family visiting.
Saturday i slept in after arriving late from Texas, i rode 100k in the rain and it finally cleared up for my 45min run off the bike, i felt good running off the bike and at a low heart rate, and was cruising just under 4min k pace, which was fairly easy. regardless when the workout was over it took me a few hours to warmup, good thing there was lots of college football on. A light swim and that was a good day logged.

Today Sunday was my last day of a 3 week build and i was looking forward to a lighter week before lifetime fitness US Open. My goal was to run a big workout, with the mainset being a hard 15k loop that was very hilly that went near and around the university, it was a fun challenging loop, but when i woke up to rain and bad wind i knew it was going to be hard to hit my pace i wanted to hit. Carley rode her bike with me when i ran the loop and that was great, it was fairly cold and my goal was to hit 56:30 on this hilly loop, the head wind felt like tornado's, the problem was i had to keep my hrt in my racing zone for clearwater, so i ran the hole 15k not going over 155hrt, it felt very cruisy and at the half way mark i knew i was way a head of the time i wanted to hit, i ran 53:40 for the loop which is a decent pace, and it will set me up nicely if i can run that pace off the bike, with the warm-up and cooldown it was almost 30k of running and i was ready to hit some thanksgiving dinners.

This week i haven't done too much, as it is an unload week, which i really need right now, Monday was a good 5k swim at Lu pool bring back old memories, and a trip to orillia, Tuesday was a good race pace swim workout in the am, where i did a set of 100's on 1:20 hitting goal race pace, i felt good for that, i am sure the extra carbs from the past couple of dinners helped that workout out. Tuesday afternoon i did another good race pace set on the bike, with 10x3mins at pace, 2mins easy, holding 40kph or faster on the bike is starting too feel real easy so i am happy with how that is going.

Wednesday Morning today i did a good track workout in Hamilton, nothing too hard a lot of 400's and a few 600's, it was a good 1hour workout. After that i did an easy 1hour ride up the escarpment to spin the legs out for a bit before cruising back down, in a nice overcast wind. Tomorrow i will be back in decent weather again with some more easy training before the weekend. Oh yeah cowboys now 5-0, sorry Dano but come on, Romo pretty much gave the bills the win? Anyway I am sure it was a wicked game to go too.

Its Friday

Marion Jones wins the women's 200 metres final.Photo: Rod Taylor
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MELINDA Gainsford-Taylor said yesterday she felt "sick to the stomach" when she heard the reports that Marion Jones had admitted to drug use at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
Jones has admitted to using steroids before the Sydney Olympics, according to a report by The Washington Post yesterday.
The Post, in a report posted on its website, said Jones had written to family and friends telling them she would plead guilty to lying to US federal agents about her drug use.
According to the report, Jones said in the letter that she took the steroid produced by the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) known as "the clear" for two years, starting in 1999.
The report said the letter had been "read to The Washington Post by a person who had been given a copy of it."
The maximum penalty for lying to a federal agent is five years in jail and a $US250,000 ($A283,665) fine. The Post said Jones told friends she expected a sentence of up to six months, though another report in the New York Daily News said she could escape jail altogether.
Jones also faces the loss of her three gold and two bronze Olympic medals from Sydney.
Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates said yesterday the American should be stripped of them.
"Under the new world anti-doping code, there is the ability to go back eight years," Coates said.
"I would expect that the International Olympic Committee would re-open … an investigation which I think they did commence in respect of her at the end of 2004 and I would hope the medals would be taken away."
Coates admitted stripping Jones of the medals now could not bring justice to those who competed against the American.
"I don't think an acknowledgement now will ever right the injustice for those other ladies."
One of those was Gainsford-Taylor, who finished sixth in the 200 final, with Cathy Freeman seventh, and with Freeman, Tamsyn Lewis and Nova Peris finished fifth in the 4 x 400 relay.
Gainsford-Taylor said there had been speculation about Jones leading into Sydney, speculation heightened by the revelation there that Jones' then husband, shot putter C.J Hunter, had tested positive to steroids, and by changes in Jones' appearance, notably acne.
"There was some sort of guilt by association," Gainsford-Taylor said, "but to actually hear her say she's taken it is a bit of a shock, really."
Jones' Sydney Olympic campaign was billed as "the Drive for Five," as the US superstar sought gold medals in the 100 and 200 metres, the long jump and both relays


Well this morning i logged a good one for the books, on the compu trainer i did this following workout with a 45min run off the bike.

20wu,
pyrimid at 320watts, 1min,2min,3min,4min,5min,5min,4min,3min,2min,1min
then 5mins easy
3mins at 290-300watts then 1min at 400watts, 2mins easy
3minsat 290 then 2mins at 400watts, 2mins easy
3mins at 290 then 3mins at 390-400watts, 2mins easy

15min cooldown and then hitting run
it was a tough workout at threshold with some v02 max efforts at 400watts.

well it was solid off to Canada later tonight, Carley is picking me up, we are going to have a good weekend, however i have a very hard weekend of training before a few days easier before lifetime fitness us open. On Sunday i am going to be trying to run my goal half pace (clearwater pace) after a massive brick on Saturday so i will report on how the TT goes.
Happy thanksgiving to all Canadians, i am going to get to celebrate two thanksgivings this year, i am defiantly not mad at that, considering i love pumpkin pie, so Sunday i need to run faster than 56:30 for a hilly 15k loop to meet the pie standard.

US Open

Well i got a spot for the US open in a couple of weeks. I am happy with this because it is an invite only Pro field and i managed to get my self into the race with a rather big pro purse.

Prize Purse

Place
Male
Female
1
$60,000
$60,000
2
$25,000
$25,000
3
$15,000
$15,000
4
$7,000
$7,000
5
$6,000
$6,000
6
$4,000
$4,000
7
$3,000
$3,000
8
$2,500
$2,500
9
$1,500
$1,500
10
$1,000
$1,000
TOTAL Purse
$250,000

Anyways i am using this race as a prep race and it is non draftlegal and is looking like a wetsuit swim, so i am hoping to swim and ride with the leaders as long as i can. This race will give me a good chance to test my fitness leading in to World 70.3 Championships in Clearwater.

Training has been going well so far this week, i am looking forward to an easy week next week leading into Lifetime Fitness.

Training so far this week:

Monday was a swim with Fast and a tempo run in the afternoon talked about in my last post.

Tuesday- was a good hard swim with F.A.S.T mainset being 8x400m on 5:45 descending 1-4,4-8, i swam with the big boys for most of the workout, starting to feel better in the water, it got tough once the times started to get under 5mins long course. But good 6k workout.

afternoon was a 2.5 hour ride with 4x15min at race pace with 5ez and then some other tempo efforts. It was a good solid day but feeling a bit fatigued.

Wednesday- Track workout, building off the last two weeks of hard efforts it was a 17k workout, with a mainset of 2mile,200rest, 2mile 200rest, 1mile, with a big wu and cool down, so basically 5miles straight because 200recovery was over so fast. Legs didn't feel to snappy but kept it under 5:10per mile pace average all the way through so that is solid running on tired legs for myself.

pm-recovery legs 1.5 hours pretty slow and easy, legs needed a good spin and a stretch.

Thursday(today)- swim in a.m with fast.

Mainset was a solid pull set however fast pace times, and lots of hypoxic work, i thought i was going to blow a lung. one of the sets i was looking at the bottom of the pool because i am sure there was a lung down somewhere. big wu, and then

400 on 5:15 breathing 3, 200 on 2:45 breathing 7, 100on 125 breathing 13, 50 1 breath or no breaths. we did this set 3 through.

then a set of 100's.

Then we did a set of 16x50 with 1 on 1minute, 1 on 40seconds, not free. so doing breast longcourse or backstroke longcourse on 40 was challenging enough for me. Oh well TCU who was practicing after us, got to experience some of my IM work which is brutal to watch specially at the end of workout. Oh well it was 6k logged.

Tonight will be devoted to recovering a little before i start a big weekend of training, tomorrow i have a late flight into Canada for the thanksgiving weekend.

On the morning i have a fairly hard brick workout on a compu trainer doing some v02 max intervals, and then a big Saturday and Sunday in Canada.

I will log on my adventures soon.

Good Weekend lots of Running.

Good Weekend, lots of football games. Saturday was a good day. 3.5hour ride with some varying paces however, 30mins at 1/2pace of 42kph was the main section. I ran 1 hour off the bike so it was a decent workout, the first 30mins was at 155hrt. After i drank about 3 gallons of water so i didnt look like a shriveled up grape. Cousin Ben and i went to Fox and the hound to watch college football, it was a good afternoon, however i sat at the bar stool with a pitcher of water trying to concentrate on one of the 15 big screens going on Ben was visiting from Colorado and it has been a while since i have seen him, so that was sweet. I went to bed at 7 and woke up feeling great.
Sunday was some more running with 24kms on the trail, i tried to negative split it so it was fun. Then a little recover flush swim, and i was done for the day. I went to Cousin Amanda's house where Benny and I watched the Boys go 4-0. Dano's Bills won, so it should be fun to watch the Boys play the Bills next Monday.
This weekend ended a solid week of training, it was my second build week and i was starting to get a bit fatigued, but 6 more weeks till Clearwater so i am pretty focused with 1 more hard week to go, this next week will defiantly be one for the books.
Weeks Notes:
Swim-4 swims, Bike: 300km+ Run: 80kms.

Today to start off my 3rd build week, i swam with F.A.S.T in the am for 5500m. Then this afternoon in Texas 90 degree weather i did a 1hour tempo run with 20mins at Threshold pace, my legs were a bit fatigued but that's life. 62k of running in 4 days so my legs should be a bit flat.
2 more weeks till The Life Time Fitness US open, i am still keeping my fingers crossed i get into it, i should know in the next couple of days. Cheers for now!