What a Weekend!

What a weekend it was indeed!.........

From Katya's blog "you know your a triathlete when" you are late (but ready helmet and all) to meeting training partner's because you are reading other tri geeks blogs on the computer! Once again Carley caught me in the act! 

Saturday was quite an exciting day, I road 4.5 hours with a few 25minute intervals at 70.3 wattage and also met up with two local cyclists Rob Rice (super strong) and Peter Sanowar(pro Cyclist) for my long ride and it was awesome, although at one point I was pushing 400 Watts for a couple hill intervals before cool down. Off the bike I had a hard run of 40minutes where i was happily running my 70.3 pace that i did in Maui for 1mile intervals. (in rain it sucked!)

After my brick workout I went to dinner and the movies with Car. When we arrived home I told her to look under her pillow and she found a diamond ring.  Wow, I guess that means I am officially engaged. Scary i know but i believe it will be good for me. Car is awesome, so i am super happy!

Sunday was a great day, my legs were sore from going Ballistic on Saturdays Brick Workout. Ryan joined me for a progression run around the lake, he had a tempo run planned so he ran tempo during my middle portion of my run and dropped me and then when he cooled down i went ballistic again on myself for the last 30mins,  i had permission since i have a few days easy coming up, i was happy with the pace average with really tired and sore legs. Later on Court and Ryan picked us up for a great meal. Before going out to dinner, I took Ryan to my favourite icing spot for a quick 15 minute icing sesh. The air was freezing yesterday and I didn't know I was back in Maui on the ocean with the size of the waves that were rolling in, however I managed to tough it out and stay in the freezing cold water (40 F). Ryan on the other hand had a hard time lasting for 1 minute. I explained to him that around 1 minute was the climax and it would all get better after that but it was a no go. Below is a pic of Ryan in a lot of pain!

This pic of icing is from Friday, the weather was much warmer as you can see but behind me there is still plenty of ice left on the lake.  It was great to take advantage of the natural icing modalities as oppose to hauling ice bags up to my bathtub. 

Pay Back!

This week has been a lot of fun. Training has been rolling along, and ice baths, Epsom salt baths, stretching, ART, and massage have all made workouts roll by smoother.  Today after a couple of good sessions I packed up to go to Carley's for the weekend. When I was in Maui, Carley did a core/strength bootcamp 3 times a week and she was shattered all the time. All i did was laugh and say whatever it cant be that bad. Well Carley dragged me to this class today and told me just to do what i could do.(lol) Well I tried to keep track of how many reps and bridges of core exercises we did and I stopped counting at 920. That's what the class did I won't admit what I was able to do. I tried to take it easy as I have a hard fri-sunday of training. 

So needless to say I take back badmouthing Ricks BootCamp that Carley has been doing. After the 45 minutes (yah 45 whole minutes) of core, we moved on to strength of the entire body. I stretched in the corner for most of this 50 minutes session, because I was worried that I would not be able to get out of bed tomorrow morning.  One exercise everyone (16 people in total) had to count out 5 reps of pushups and one lady counted her 5 aloud as " My... Arm's... R... Falling.... Off!" You had to be there but it was pretty amusing. At the end of the class I asked someone in the class to take a picture of Rick (the class leader), myself and Carley, it turned out to be a video instead. However, I still thought it was worth showing. Carley's arms are going to look like Rick's in a couple of months from this class! It was lot of fun!  

Self Control

Going to the grocery store when hungry is never a good idea. However going to the grocery store after a 4.5hour hard brick and a super cold ice bath is never a solid plan either. I made sure i had a recovery shake before stopping by however it didn't fight off my hunger too long. Carley went and decided it would be funny to take some secret photos of me cruising along looking at pretty much anything. I didn't know that i could spend 50minutes in the cereal section checking out the new goodies however anything is possible when in that state of mind. Apparently i even asked a clerk for a chair so i didnt have to stand anymore, but i don't remember that! When i finally finished up with my two items the secret detective had already our weeks food through the check out and in the car. Self Control in a tired state is important if i ever want to maintain a race weight. I am lucky enough that everyone loves my favorite dessert Morning Crisp Chocolate Organic Cereal by Jordan's. It limits me from how much i can consume at one serving when everyone else kills it before i have a chance( Sorry Mom!). Lots of intensity this week but i love it. Be safe when shopping after workouts it can be extremely dangerous! Or better yet leave your wallet or purse in the car!

healthy eating and lots of icing

The past week has been fun and I am feeling strong, its amazing what the benefits of a little rest will do after 5 big weeks. I have started another two big weeks before i will head south to get ready for the race season ahead. I will also be back to a steady job that will allow me to train and be able to make some money:)

The photo above is the my final product from Cowgirl Corbin's Power Quinoa Chili! It was awesome; even Carley who is the pickiest eater of all time even liked it tremendously. I had to trick her into eating it by telling her that there were only few vegetables, and not so many healthy ingredients in the chili. It worked and she ate a tonne of it. I followed Linsey Corbin's recipe but I used some homemade tomato sauce that my mom prepared for the base. The second photo is a picture of me icing in the lake. The ice has just left in the past few days, and the water is perfect icing condition.

This weeks training in a nut shell: Threshold swim(hard 150's), Strength ride; Fast RUN!(40mins@5:30permile, Strength swim;recovery ride,recovery run, Speed swim, bike intervals:); Swim intervals 1000m repeat with tempo trainer, high cadence work on bike; and some other goodies.

I got a ticket yesterday but more on that in a future blog post. I wasn't wearing my seat belt in the bike store parking lot and I got a ticket (not very impressed!). Tomorrow will be an outdoor brick, and Carley will be motor pacing me in her vehicle, I hope that she does not run me over. I will also be trying out my new power tap, it's pretty awesome!
Have a great weekend!

Hoppy Easter!

Happy Easter! Its been a good week to rejuvenate and absorb some of the Hawaii camp. I haven't been at home in quite a few years and i sort of feel bad for my parents right now as i forgot how messy some athletes can be.(me!) I forgot that normal people don't hang bike shorts and jerseys everywhere, fill the sinks up with water bottles, hang training suits all over the bathroom or eat ridiculous amounts of food. Lucky for them its a short visit as my mother reminded me that she doesn't believe in boomerang children. So i guess i wont be moving back home in the near future. I think my father likes having me around however this is the guy who sneaks out for french fries because he is tired of my mothers organic cooking and now that i am home i make him look pretty good with all of the things he usually gets caught for.

I went online to try and find a good Quinoa Chili recipe as i remembered the fantastic one Lucy made in Maui. Just as i couldn't find anything i started reading blogs and found Cowgirl Corbin posted a recipe, awesome! Okay i attempted to search for a recipe however i got sucked in to the blog and twitter world. Phil Mickelson is on fire so i need to hop back to the t.v. I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Home Sweet Home !?!

Congrats to the Lifesport Squad for throwing it down in New Orleans and Oceanside 70.3. It was awesome to watch online in Kona and as a result I am super excited to race. They had wicked results, the funny thing is I wasn't really surprised with the results. They trained super hard and super smart and they owned it!

I am finally home from Hawaii and I am a little depressed, tired, sore, and very cold. I definitely miss my training partners and the great friends that I met along the way. However, Carley is super excited to have me home!

This week I haven't really done much of anything. This week is a recovery week from training and since I had a red eye flight home into a snowstorm all I have done is slept. The sleep i have logged is pretty impressive as it started with a 6hour sleep, 3 x 12-15hours, and 1 x 10hour.
It has been awesome hanging out with Carley and seeing my parents, however my Mom wasn't too shy to snag my 100% Kona coffee from me and also reminding me of how much she doesn't like my bike trainer set up in her living room. Anyways Carley and I have a fun filled Good Friday ahead with some Coffee, a movie(*hopefully not, but probably Hannah Montana) and a great dinner with my folks, and maybe some chocolate.

Kaloko Climb #2

Another attempt at Kaloko, i went 49:52. The Lavaman Camp went well and i met a great group of athletes. Thursday was the end of the Camp, with a big swim session and a 4.5hour ride with Kaloko attacks. I hope everyone had a great time at the camp and i want to wish everyone all the best in 09. I have a couple more good days in Kona and then it's home for some rest. Tomorrow is a good hard group ride and a fast run:)

Musubi?

A few pictures from today. A great swim session in the lagoon! Helping out with the Lavaman Camp has really been a blast, Some how i show up to workouts thinking they will be easy but the words "best Avg" or Brent your leaving last and have to catch everyone has really kept me honest. Not to mention Bree is swimming fast and pushing the pace so i have no choice to work hard. A few seminars in nutrition and swimming and then off to a long base run at altitude at Mana Road. It was all up hill and it got cold when i turned around, luckily some icing and Musubi (spam and rice) was on the agenda. A good photo of Coach Dan and I before the ride, tomorrow is going to be fun, a big swim, Kaloko climb (round #2)x 2? , and i believe a run if there is still sun light. The lesson of the day is Sea Turtles some times float near the surface of the water when your swimming fast, so keep an eye.

Feeling Local

Recovery Days are awesome! Monday was a lite swim at the pier and some coffee at Lava java. Bree took took me to get a 50lbs bag of ice for an ice bath, Thank you i am still cold. Last night we had a great opening to the Lava man Camp with a dinner @ the Hilton. Thanks to Coach Paul for an awesome meal. I think Paul felt bad about making us swim 6x(all Hard!), Motor Pacing Intervals behind the Scooter, Climb Kaloko with a track workout off the bike, Run the Ironman Run Course, Ride the Ironman Bike Course, swim some more, a couple more easy runs, and an easy ride all before starting Lavaman this past week, oh and i had to ride home from Lavaman. ( Headwind is my new friend!)

Today was fairly easy but i felt good, open water swim workout with Coach Dan for a little activation* , Cycling Clinic, Road 70miles of the Ironman Course with some intervals, little run off the bike. A lot of work coming later on in the week, so i am pretty excited. Ice baths hurt, but are key! So embrace them.

Rest Well!