Learning to Run

I just read this on Brad Cunningham's blog. An elite runner from the Vancouver area. He is coming back after a year or so off of running.

The road back to feeling like a runner is 50 hours long.

The road back to feeling like a runner is 600km long.

The road back to feeling like a runner costs 46,000 calories.

It is not a long road, but it is one that requires patience, perseverance, and consistency.

And the road back to feeling like a runner just gets you to the start of the longer road to becoming a runner.

Next step.

I like this because I feel this is where I am at right now after the concussion and the ankle injury. I am finally able to run again and work on improving. I don't think I am running at the same level as Brad, therefore it won't quite take me that long. Yay for shortcuts!

Active Weekend

No great weekend is accomplished without a little stupidity to make it fantastic! That describes my weekend pretty well.

Friday night was uneventful so lets skip straight to Saturday morning. Vancouver is a pleasant 26*C by 8AM and the apartment is easily 30+. Glad I'm sleeping with a down comforter! Mel was racing the Kits open water 3k swim race at 8:45 so after a quick breakfast we head down to the beach. I normally would have done this race, however, I wasn't sure if I would be around when the registration process was taking place and in the end it slipped by. Considering how much swimming I have done this month I am not overly upset by not competing. Mel raced well, the conditions were great, however from looking at the results I would say the course was a little long.

Mel about to start the swim

After socializing a little more after the race we headed back to Mel's because she had some chores to take care of (Med applications) so I made good use of this time and took nap #1 for the weekend. I've learned that when trying to nap, don't do it in a 35*C apartment in front of a window. When I woke up I was a little parched to say the least. Conveniently though Mel and I only had a long run on tap for the afternoon. After much persuasion (I don't like running in new places) I was convinced to run around Stanley Park instead of through the endowment lands at UBC. This turned out to be a great idea. Although there was very little shade and it was blistering hot outside, the seawall does offer water and bathrooms every mile.

We got back to Mel's around 6:30, got cleaned up quick and were out the door to meet friends for dinner. My friend Becky from McGill was visiting and flying out the next morning so we did what all smart endurance athletes do and drank heavily! Keeping in mind that I have barely been drinking all summer, Matt hasn't drank at all and Mel even less. We were a pretty lightweight group. After a good night and a new marathon goal set, we all stumbled home for what was sure to be a painful Sunday.

Although I'm a grown man with a lot to say, you would think I could hold my own against 100 pounds of persuasion, but apparently Mel has mind powers. About a week ago she mentioned the urge to ride a century ride (100miles/160.1km) at some point this summer. Since we have the scuba course next weekend (more on that later) and she leaves right after, this was our last weekend available before school starts up again.

Waking up joyfully hungover on a day with a humidex reaching 32*C I decided to ride my TT bike since I was too lazy to switch over the pedals. Immediately yesterdays run was felt in the legs. Not pain, just sluggish. We met up with a group totalling 8 at UBC and took off. Matt was sporting his brand new Argon 18 E112 and Winston had out the new P2. I wasn't the only one on a TT bike.

Bike Route

We ticked off the miles slowly and after only a few detours along the way managed to inch our way closer to 100 miles. Sure the legs go significantly more tired as we went, but on the plus side the hangover subsided with every pedal stroke! By 80 miles I could barely even remember I felt like vomit.

Just as we reached 80 miles we arrived in Steveston where we enjoyed some fantastic fish and chips at Pajo's! I had salmon, have never had a battered salmon before. It may have been the 6 hours of riding prior but it tasted FANTASTIC!

PAJO'S!

After a refreshing hour break we had the final hour back to home.

Upon arriving home I managed to take a quick nap on the couch on route to my bedroom to get changed. Roughly 45 minutes later (nap #2), I got up and made it to my room. Got changed and succumbed to my second nap of the night (nap 3#). This time being an hour long! Finally at 9 I got up for real, had a shower and proceeded to go directly back to bed.

Weekend total, 24k run, 162k bike 9 hours of training!

Considering how tired I was and I've done all this distance before, I can't imagine how tired Mel must have been since she also had a 3k ocean swim this weekend, missed a nap on Saturday and completed her longest bike ride! Hung over...

I'm impressed

BONUS JOKE!

Why did the cyclist ride to Steveston?

Just for the Halibut!

HA HA HA!

Training Like a Pro

Earlier this week Rachel Kiers (elite ironman athlete) asked if anyone wanted to go do intervals at Iona on Thursday morning. Since I have decided that intervals are pretty much the aspect of my training that is really lacking I decided to take her up on this offer. That and the fact that she is a nice person and makes good company to ride with!

The plan: Meet at 8:30, ride to Iona and start intervals

10X5minutes race pace / 2 minutes easy

2X20 minutes just lower than race pace / 10 minutes easy.

On paper this didn't seem like such a hard ride. Race pace is for 2 hours 30 minutes of riding. I can easily make it 50 with breaks.

We started and for the first few I was feeling pretty good but then as I started to tire, the race from the past weekend was still lingering.

To say the least I was drafting pretty hard most of the ride. For the 5 minutes on, Rachel was holding a steady 37-42kph depending on wind direction while I drafter my best! Impressive!

After the 2X20 minutes I split off from Rachel and did the last 10 minutes of the ride home realizing that I had just completed 85km of riding in 2:35. Not bad for a practice day when you consider that had rest intervals and some cruise riding to get out to Iona and on the way back.

What I learned today though was that I don't push myself hard enough. These raises in intensity nearly killed me. I got home, made a shake and sat on my couch. Next thing I know I've napped for 80 minutes. Oops. Glad I decided to work from home today!

It was a good ride and hopefully my legs will appreciate it in the long run. But one thing is for sure, if I plan on training seriously this winter I will need to get my act together and learn how to suffer in intervals.

Surviving the Triple Crown

There is no doubt that the biggest challenge on Saturday is going to be the HEAT! With the forecast being for 28-30*C (humidex 33-35*C), while this isn't too scary for the rest of Canada, I know a lot of people in Vancouver are sweating figurative and literal bullets at the potential of a hot day in the saddle. When the thermometer passes 20*C that is usually considered "hot".

1) Heat: The first tip for surviving the Triple Crown battling the heat. Hydration will be key. We have 4 planned stops en route: Horseshoe Bay (36km), Cypress (60km), Seymour (111/139km). I would expect everyone to try and go through 2 bottles between each of these stations. If you are concerned that this is not enough, bring a 3rd bottle and keep it in the back pocket of your bike jersey. This will sound ridiculous, going through 11L of liquid in a day, but believe me, it won't be hard to get through it.

As a little pre-emptive strike, freezing your first bottles isn't a bad idea either.

2) Sun protection: The sun will be out and we will probably have a clear blue day. Sunscreen on your ears and face is a smart ideal. A tan looks great, but a big red nose isn't exactly sexy.

3) Nutrition. In addition to hydration, this is going to be a 180km ride. Burning a conservative 600 calories an hour, be prepared to be hungry. Everyone should have a plan for a minimum of 2000 calories to be consumed during the ride. It will be next to impossible to carry all of this, so bring money to buy food from a bakery or gas station. In addition to this, carb load. That isn't just for races. So starting today, you should be upping the carb intake to make sure all your fuelling needs are met.

4) Endurance: The last is more just common sense. This is going to be a really long ride, anyone thinking of hammering up the first climb is going to get taught a lesson come the end of the day. Pace yourself and don't be shy if you need to sit on someones wheel.

Triple Crown: Saturday July 10th 2010

Leave at 8AM from Team Office at UBC outside the SUB.

TEST WEEK!

I have many times mentioned the UBC Tri Club race series which unfortnuately I had to miss much of due to stupidity... my concussion.

As a result I decided to make up all the events I had missed out on in one action packed week!

Event #1, Monday evening, 5km run Time Trial:

I was going into the 5k with high hopes right before the concussion. Unfortunately those goals were no longer anywhere near realistic as a result of 6 weeks off. I started off fairly strong, probably too fast running my first km in 3:23. I quickly settled in and ran 2k in 7 minutes and then 3k in 10:40 meaning I was holding nice steady 3:40 pace from there. Unfortunately this is where it started to hurt. 3:50 for my 4th km bringing me in at 15:30 and the wheels started to fall off. I managed to scrape it together and finished in 18:26. Last semester 5k time: 18:08

I'm pretty happy with that but looking at my pace times it shows two things. First I went out too hard... And second that I completely fell apart. I want to give this another shot in a few weeks time when I am feeling more in running shape.

Event #2, Wednesday evening, Mile Run:

Weather for the mile was terrible. Dumping rain, cold and REALLY windy. This was the night when all the boats washed up to the shore in Vancouver. Not exactly ideal conditions to be running a mile in. I knew this one was going to hurt. My legs were still really stiff/heavy from Monday's effort, but I gave it a go anyways since the rest of the club was running it that night.

Lap 1 (72) Lap 2 (80) Lap 3(81) Lap 4 (83) Total 5:17

Matt and Vince Running the Mile

Again, my last semester time was 5:13 so not as good, however, conditions were significantly worse, and considering I had run the 5k only two days prior I will take it. Just to show the difference in my legs. my opening km in the mile was in 3:22 where as my opener for the 5k was 3:23. I feel as though i could put a lot more into this as well. Again, another task for a sunny day in a few weeks.

Event #3, Friday Evening, 10.2km Bike TT

I can't complain about conditions at all this time. They were great. Minor headwind heading out to the spit at Iona but then a great tailwind on the way back. Sum it up. went 16:22. Last semester I went 15:47 but that was fully decked out in triathlon geekery (disk, aerohelmet) whereas this day I was on my TT bike but riding in normal attire. So all considering happy and thing this was a good sign that my riding hasn't suffered too much.

Event #4, Saturday AM 8.2k Bike - 1.8k Run

This event was again another team one. The bike was somewhat of a gongshow as it started out with a mass start and so was just a hammerfest for the entire 8k. I think we finished the 8km in 11-12 minutes to give an idea of the pace we were holding. I was pretty happy, I came off the bike in 3rd just behind Matt and Barry. Onto the run I never caught up but also didn't give up any spots. Realizing I wasn't going to catch Matt and Barry I shut it down into control mode making sure that no one caught up from behind. Finishing in 19:18, good enough for 3rd.

All in all I'm pretty happy with the week and I'm confident if I had spread out the events a little more that they would have gone even better. But that being said now I know if I want to have a test week again in the future, I will have a reference for my ability with little recovery time.

Thats all for now. My next post will be describing a fundraiser I just took part in and will be a little more Risqué

Back At It!

I know I've been lacking on the blogging front lately, but its for a good reason! I'm finally able to get out and do things without headaches and I have been taking full advantage of that.

It feels SO good to be back training. I took the beginning of the week pretty easy and built throughout and have realized that my head is pretty much good to go for intensity work.

Managed to squeeze in nearly 10 hours of training this week and maybe a little more if I do anything tonight. What pleases me most however, is that at yesterdays bike practice I brought my heart rate up to 188 without any strain on my head, and then today the UBC tri club had the aquathon (500m swim / 2.7km run) and despite the pain of lack of fitness I felt confident pushing myself hard the whole way.

With that, I am declaring the concussion behind me. Now don't get worried mom, I'm still being careful, not drinking and managing my sleep, but as far as training is concerned I am going strong and confident with it.

Breaking down that Aquathon to evaluate my fitness, the 500m swim took 7:45 which is not ideal. The weekend of the concussion I swam a long and strong 500 in 7:12 feeling like I could have gone faster. So I have clearly lost a lot of strength in the pool. The run however, right before the concussion I was running just ahead of a teammate Matt Reeve, and today I was able to somewhat hold it together and ran just behind him so my running fitness is much better than my swimming.

Finished 4th, behind Elliot (guest appearance), Nathaniel and Matt. Was a fun race.

The team did well today, a lot of impressive races, Nathaniel held off Matt and I quite easily, and Scott showed huge improvement in his swimming. Unfortunately I don't know how many of the others did because I didn't really see them, but people seemed pleased. UBCTC will be hard to beat at Storm the Wall next week!

Long story short. Storm the Wall, 8 days away, 11 days until the final. Bring it on!

Green Light

I'm pleased to announce, that this my 200th post carries with it good new!

I've been given the green light to start training again starting this weekend. Unfortunately "training" is going to have to be pretty relaxed for now, but at least it means I can get on my bike guilt free and stretch my legs. The Tri club is doing a 10k bike TT this weekend, I won't be able to participate, but at least I can ride out to cheer people on and help organize. A step in the right direction.

The reason for all the caution is because Storm the Wall is coming up in 3 weeks and in order to be able to go 100% there, then I need to make sure not to overdo it too early.

I'm still a long way from being perfect (on the health front at least) although I'm sure people would argue against that, but at least this is progress.

Derailed

I'm way to busy for a real post, but I've got so much to say!

Friday night I went to a pool party at UBC and was jumping off the 3m diving board and faceplanted in the water and the net result is I'm pretty sure I got a concussion. I heard my teeth clap together and I've had a headache since. How did I do this you ask. Well it was pretty much like this:

yeah, pretty stupid. And it HURT!

How did I feel about this? well, this photo summarizes my feelings quite well.

The net result:

I can't believe the lack of focus I've had. Unable to concentrate on anything which is really inconvenient because I have a lot of work to do in the lab this week.

As much as I've read about concussions, they say you need to get rest and drink water. I've been able to do about 50% of that, however, today I have been in the lab for 15 hours so far and when contemplating going home I'm thinking that this would be a "short" day. Last week I managed over 100 hours over 6 days! Gross. It feels like I am on Christmas holiday when you no longer know what day of the week it is.

Why am I so busy you may ask? It's because I have a committee meeting this coming Friday where we are deciding my future. Can I start to write up my thesis? Has my progress been adequate? Soon I'll have to make real life decisions which is scary. I much prefer the alternative:

But, in all reality I do need to start wrapping things up and moving on.

How does all this relate to triathlon you may ask? And what was derailed? Well, I've read plenty about how with concussions I shouldn't be physically exerting myself. Something about causing more brain damage. As a result I have had to postpone my 50 day running challenge. I will probably delay it until Friday. Hopefully the headaches are gone by then. This has been a huge bummer because we had a 500m swim test set yesterday where I "cruised" trying not to get my heart rate up and just focus on Distance Per Stroke and managed a new PB of 7:12. Had I not been concerned with raising my heart rate above 140 I feel like I could have gone much faster. Even that exertion was too much and my head was spinning for the rest of the day which led to my conclusion that I needed a break. Even walking up stairs is rough. This sucks because I was right on track for an awesome 5k run time trial this coming Wednesday. Instead I'll just have to spectate.

Thankfully with the help of Advil, I can control the head and get some work done. The only issue I've noticed is that my focus is completely gone. I need to try really hard to get anything done this week, even writing this post I kept getting distracted and off topic. Oh well. Hopefully some of my cartoons have been at least entertaining. If nothing else this post has been:

Have a good weekend everyone!

Oh wait, its Monday...

WWJD?

Often I have trouble motivating myself to work out in the morning. These past few weeks with the added workload and late nights mixed in with the crappy weather we've been having has made morning workouts even harder if not impossible.

Yesterday when Sherwood asked if anyone wanted to do an 8AM ride this morning, I looked at the forecast and saw rain. Sitting in lab at midnight I had convinced myself that this wasn't a good idea. Following a wet ride home I toiled with the idea. For some reason the letters WWJD kept running through my head.

WWJD?

No! Not this guy!

Then who you ask? What other J's do I know. Although typically I take this next guys advice, turns out this J is also not my guide.

J is none other than Jens Voigt. The workhorse of the peloton.

Jens is probably my favorite cyclist. So much so that my friend Amy was making fun of me for having a man crush because I was talking so much about him. He is in no way the most exciting to watch, however, if someone told me he was in a breakaway I would definitely tune in to see the outcome. He probably won't win, but you know he will be putting on the hurt.

One notable quote about Jens Voigt I remember reading from David Millar's Tour de France diary. It was a conversation between David Millar and Robbie McEwen.

Robbie McEwen, phenomenal sprinter

David Millar, time trialist

Quote from David Millar:

"I found myself next to Robbie McEwen for a minute in the bunch, we exchanged pleasantries and that obviously led to the weather, which was incredibly windy and storm like.

RM: "I bet there isn't one guy racing today who woke up and looked out the window and thought, YES, YOU BEAUTY!"

ME: "Yep, this is shit..."

We both pause.

RM laughing: "Well actually, Jens probably did."

Then we both start laughing and say at exactly the same time,

RM + ME: "YEAH, HE DOES THAT EVERY DAY!"

RM laughing: "Animal."

ME laughing: "Freak."

That had us chuckling for a few more minutes and says so much about the man, the machine that is Jens Voigt."

Awesome!

So whenever I am in question of whether to ride or not, I always have to ask myself, What Would Jens Do? The answer, Always ride!

In case you wanted to know how H.C. you are and needed a reference, I've snatched a rating system from Cyclocosm.com to evaluate my Jens Factor (FYI don't google the word Hardcore images without safesearch on... YIKES!)

Todays ride comes out to a big fat ZERO on the Jens factor. It wasn't windy and was warmer than 4*C. Clearly I need to HTFU. But at least I was out there. Matt pointed out that Jens would have ridden more than 18km but I take what I can get, I've got a day job.

If ever you need inspiration while out there riding, just remember these words from Jens himself. When asked what he says when his legs are burning, one quick reply is all that was needed.

Hopefully we will see more people out to tomorrows ride than last week.

Weekend Recovery

I survived my all nighter in the lab. It wasn't pretty and required a little bit of persuasion from my friend Elspeth on skype (she is in Australia and was still awake at 3:30AM Vancouver time) but I made it.

Recovery wasn't too simple. Friday was just a normal day and then in the evening our building had a poster session (social). I followed this up with going to see the Dar Side of the Rainbow. What is that you ask? Well, turns out that if you play the Wizard of Oz and Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon at the same time, that the two sync up pretty well.

Despite being one of the only "non influenced" people there, I still enjoyed it. Unfortunately, the record is only 45 minutes long so you get halfway through the movie and it just ends. Oh well.

Today I woke up for bike practice, but didn't quite make it. Instead I knocked out back to sleep until noon at which point I only woke up because someone was knocking at the door. I guess I needed to catch up on Thursday's lost sleep. It was a good thing that I was woken up, because I had to get to UBC by 1PM to be a timer for a thunderbird swim meet. I have a few friends on the team and this being a really low key meet was great because I was able to be on pool deck with them and interact.

The meet ended up finishing early (was schedule from 1-5 and finished at 3:30) and the lifeguards were still on chair for another hour and a half so I asked if it was ok if I swam. Many of the swimmers were still cooling down so they didn't see a problem there. Man was it great. I had an entire lane to myself for the entire workout. I put out a solid 3000m short course which I haven't done in a while. Swimming short course is fun, although I really had trouble a few times counting. I did as a main set 5X200m and was holding a steady 2:45-2:50 leaving on 3:10 which for me is really fast. I was pumped because I really haven't been swimming much lately.

Following my swim Matt from the Tri club came over for dinner and we had AWESOME steaks and vegetables. Was my first real meal all week since I've been living in the lab most of the time.

Matt is a Resident Advisor at UBC so had to leave early but then my friend Paul came over to watch a movie. I was invited out but after last week was too tired for it. I was pretty pleased with myself today. Good eating, exercise, no drinking! A+ for Vince!

Then Paul found a coupon for 2 for 1 McDonalds which expires tomorrow, and I'm ashamed to say we actually bussed to campus to get it. So much for my healthy day. That being said, we ran into half the Thunderbird swim team while we were at it. So if varsity swimmers eat it, can't be that bad can it?

Anyways, time for bed! Another big swim tomorrow.

50/50 Challenge Update

18 Days in and 109km run.

So far the challenge has been going well. I'm feeling good, running smooth and fast, however, now I'm running into a problem.

My legs are getting tight...

The smart thing would be to take more time, however, the ego/pride/stubbornness is making me want to push through. I know well enough that getting injured in January is DUMB, but I don't want to pass up on the challenge that quickly.

So far I've run 15/18 days. I needed to take a day off on Tuesday because the day off I took on Saturday I feel didn't do me justice because I went skiing for 4.5 hours doing moguls and sick jumps.

I haven't given up yet, but I have decided to put more focus on stretching and icing (something I've been neglecting). Its ridiculous how quickly fitness can come back. From only 2.5 weeks of running I'm feeling great and our run workout last night proves this. We did a fartlek workout (speedplay for those who don't know), and I was running with Matt. As we began he was saying that he wasn't going to be able to hold the pace we started at (3:30-3:40/km) and I decided that my goal for this workout was to keep consistent and do so (resulting in breaking him). 29 Minutes later, success. The whole workout I ran just shy of 8km in 29 minutes. which considering that has rest period, I'm pumped.

I've decided to change my interval pace. For the longest time I've stuck with 3:45min/km for running intervals, I've decided its time to push a little harder and move that down to 3:35-3:40. Mistake? We'll see.

After run we did AB RIPPER X, but more on that later.

50/50 Challenge

In the fall I read on Doug's blog about a 50 day swim challenge. Now I have no false hopes of swimming 50 days in a row, I know myself better than that, and know that I would never complete it. Running on the other hand is definitely possible.

Just to outline the 50/50 swim challenge as Doug described it:

1. We will record workouts individually on the honour system.

2. There is no need to complete one swim each day; multiple swims are allowed, as are rest days (see point 4 below)

3. An individual swim workout must be at least 1000 metres to qualify, with the following exceptions:

• 1-on-1 sessions with a swim coach count even if you don’t swim 1000 metres
• Open water swims that last for more than 5 minutes count as a swim (but honestly, it’s October, so this shouldn’t be a problem

4. If attempting to do multiple swims in a single day, 1000 metre swims won’t cut it

• To count two swims, one workout must be at least 2000 metres, or the total of the two workouts must be 3000 metres
• To count three swims, one workout must be at least 3000 metres, or the total of the three workouts must be 6000 metres
• If you try to count four swims, we’ll know that you’re cheating

5. Dry-land training doesn’t count. That’s weights

How am I changing things for the run challenge? I know that running 50 days in a row probably isn't the smartest idea because of the impact. So I will try and take 1 day off a week. Originally I was going to try and schedule this day off, however, decided that since life throws you curve balls that I will leave it unscheduled and when a day comes that I'm too busy, then no problem.

As a result of these days off, its really a 50/56 challenge, therefore, you can't make up any days by simply running longer.

5K minimum for a day to count, pace doesn't matter.

Why am I doing all of this? I find that every spring I start running and find that I'm in terrible shape and need to rebuild all the work I've done over the past season. This way it will be building a nice strong base over the "off season" banking on consistency instead of long mileage.

How am I doing so far? I started on January 3nd and currently have only missed one day because I had lab work run late and dinner plans that prevented me from running, so in 11 days I've run 10 of them with 61km done and feeling pretty good.

I'll keep you posted on how the rest goes.

Any takers for the challenge?

Fast Mile

I mentioned in an earlier post, my first of the new year that one of my goals for this season was going to be to run a fast mile. I still want to do that.

Now that the UBC track is finished, it offers the perfect location for my mile attempts.

I don't really have a reference for my potential time, so instead of guessing at a whim, I'm going to use the McMillan Running Calculator to come up with a similarly arbitrary estimate of my potential. Warning, website has loud annoying music.

Using my 10k PB of 37:30 it estimates I could run a mile in 5:12. This sounds slow. Especially since at practice I've run them in 5:30. I find that the McMillan calculator for me shows the short stuff as being too slow, however my 5/10k times are dead on, and the marathon/half times are too fast. For example if I use my 800m PB, it gives me a mile time of 4:42, and my 400PR a time of 4:32. I guess this means I have speed but I just don't train enough.

That being said. My original goal that I set in January was to run a 4:30 mile as my A objective, however, before getting there I am setting my preliminary goal as simply breaking 5 minutes.

Last week I pushed at the end of practice to a controlled 5:42. Tomorrow will be my first attempt where I am actually pushing the limits. I doubt I will be near 5 simply because my training hasn't been focused on this, however, I shouldn't be too far.

Maybe I'll get lucky and have some pace bunnies for the first laps.

Wish me luck!

WOW that hurt!

So today I was walking down Agronamy Way, minding my own business telling Paul a riveting story about myself, when a wasp decided to ruin everything and fly down the collar of my shirt and bite me. What a jerk. Right on the clavicle. Check this out!

!!!

The rough part being that its right where my shirt rubs, not good. Clearly this is going to bother me for the next 15 minutes!

In other news. Today is the first day of classes back at UBC. Very exciting time. So many new faces walking frantically around campus, not knowing yet how to get out of the way for traffic on the sidewalk. With that we had our first Triathlon Club practice today. The UBC triathlon club met for our first swim of the year at 1:30 in the outdoor pool (I'm writing everything out in case someone googles it). We didn't have the largest showing today due to short notice of our pool booking, but hopefully now that its all been nailed out we should get more in the coming days.

I am trying to think of ways to publicize the club better in the first few days of school, I was asking Paul where he thought I could get chalk to write on the sidewalks. He didn't buy my advertising story and started telling people I was practicing hopscotch.

On that note, if there are any local triathletes looking for someone to train with, come on out and try a practice or two. Its a great substitute for the UBC Masters Swimming and at a fraction of the cost, especially since the masters has a waiting list right now.

I start coaching run practices tomorrow night, with the new UBC track open should be easy coming up with some fun workouts.

Upcoming post

-new steep hill found

-pre race thoughts

-introduction to the racing series with UBCTC!

Fall Race Series.

Alright, I've decided this fall semester to spice things up with the UBC triathlon club.

How am I going to do this? Simple, organize a race series that can all be done during practices as a means of test sets, devise a scoring system that evens the playing field for beginners/elites and keep track of the results.

The difficulties I will have with this, some people don't have a bike, so can only participate in 2/3rd of the races. For those that miss I'll have to come up with an average score to apply to them. Or make it top 5 out of 8 scores count of something.

My idea's:

Already we do a

5k Run TT

Swim Test Set (usually 500m or 750m)

Beer Mile

What I am proposing is a whole bunch more things like this. For example;

Uphill Run TT

Uphill Bike TT

Flat Bike TT

Running Relay (ex 3 X 1k) Put slow with fast to even out the field.

Swim Relay (same premise as run relay)

Brick TT

A group of friends of mine do this already through the Vancouver Cycle Series however, this year, they won't be hosting one. In their absence I thought I would step up.

Anyone have any other suggestions for events?

I'm pretty excited about this for many reasons. It allows people to get some practice in a race situation without the cost of racing. Its also a great venue for smack talk to build, which is among the most important parts of racing.

So any suggestions are much appreciated, and I'll keep you all posted as to what evolves.

Getting Fat

After work today I went to the gym, you know, pumping iron, getting huge and stuff...

Before starting I weighed myself, thinking I would come in low because I haven't had the most "ideal" nutrition today, as in I kinda skipped lunch (late breakfast). Surprise surprise, I weighed in at 150.0lbs. I've never been that much. I'm using the same scale as I've used all year. Last summer when I was preparing for the marathon I actually hit 139, so 150 is in my opinion far over my race target weight.

I blame this on the laziness I've had over the past couple of weeks at the beach and next to zero training I've put in.

Could this mean that I've reached the age where my body is catching up to me? If I get lazy I will get fat! OH NOES!

This is going to be a big weekend for training, lots and lots of biking and I'm going to try and break my record on Seymore (shouldn't be hard, I've only ridden it twice and once 100k into a ride).

On that note of my being fat, time to go for a run. I've got lots of updates to post, but catching up on work and life take priority at the moment. Sorry Chris

Feeling GREAT! YEAH!

Today I went to the gym and did a solid hour of stretches. Its tough to say how my legs are feeling now because they are a little sore from rolling out my IT band (Note, if you don't have a foam roller, the small hard medicine balls will make you cry, good substitution), but I defintely feel loose and the pinching pain is gone.

I'm taking the rest of the day off from training and I'm hoping that by tomorrow I'll be feeling GREAT! YEAH!

Namaste!

Pretty fun day today. After a solid 9.5 hour sleep last night. AWESOME. I woke up and strolled into lab. Surprisingly I was one of the first ones there (must have been a lazy Monday because I wasn't early), and managed to get in a solid days work in. Today just flew by, I was running HPLC for anyone who knows that, which meant I got a lot of breaks which I filled with running around chatting with people. Good times.

Wrapping up the day managed to make it to the VOWSA swim and wow was this an experience. Typically Vancouver waters are calm and kinda boring to swim in. Not tonight. I was just tossed around going over sometimes 4-5 foot swells. It was fantastic. I'm guessing my arms will be feeling it tomorrow. It was funny though, people that I can't normally keep up with on calm days I was actually leading today. I guess its my lack of technique and bank on power strokes that got me through it. I kinda hope its like this for the Vancouver Half in two weeks. Although it will mean slower times. I feel it will really spread out the field a lot more and I'll have the advantage over the weaker swimmers strong bike/runners.

To follow this up. Lululemon puts on free yoga sessions on Monday nights at 8. Perfect timing to go from the open water swim, 6:30-7:30 and change and walk up the street to yoga.

My friend Kendra has been trying to get me to go for a while now, and tonight decided I would take her up on it. All around it was a good time. It wasn't the best stretching I could have done in an hour, but was definitely more than I WOULD have done otherwise. I think I'll keep going week after week. The hardest part was that I was so hungry after the swim. I'll have to bring food next time.

That it, heading to bed and hoping to get another big day in tomorrow before having Wednesday off for Canada Day. WOO!

Excruciating Saturday Ride

Long ride today. Started early this morning leaving my place at 8 after a late night celebrating a birthday on my way to meet people at McDonald and 4th. 

Swearing to myself as I rode along coming up with excuses for why I was late after having giving everyone such a hard time to ensure they were on time. Just repeating the words in my head, "If your not there by 8:15 we are leaving without you!"

As I roll up to the gas station there is no one to be seen. Surely someone must have waited, I'm only 3 minutes late. Teaches me. I decide despite my tardiness to give a few members of the group ride a call.

Rider 1... no answer. shoot! Must already be on the ride.

Rider 2... answers! But is feeling sick and isn't coming on the ride. 

Rider 1... no answer once again, hmmm. Rider 3 (whose number I don't have) was meeting rider 1 so no way of reaching him.

I decided to try and catch up if I can. Off I go, hammering around English Bay to Stanley Park. Finally reach the Lions Gate and cross and hear my phone ringing, Rider 1. STILL IN BED! oh Geez. thanks guys. At least Rider 1 was getting on his bike and going to try and catch up and meet me. 

So I embark on a long solo ride decided no problem. Off to Deep Cove. I had a few new routes I had read about from MJ and Jeremy, so decided a solo discovery mission was in the cards. There was a brutal headwind the whole way out do Deep Cove. After 50km and a few adventures rider 1 meets up with me and I show him Indian River rd and I do it for the second time.

Rider 1 (Andrew), and I ride another 30k and he splits off heading back to UBC. He only wanted an 80k ride and I pushed him up to 100. I on the other hand was doing 140-150k. He takes off and heads over the bridge and I continue on to Horseshoe Bay. This is where trouble begins. Tailwind the whole way out. I turn around and feel the pressure. 

I'm now 110km into my ride. The pain is building. Should I stop? Nah, its just a nagging pain, I can push through it and make it home. 

Every little roller is building. Its becoming unbearable. I reach Stanley park, only 15km to go. The pain passes, and now I'm in the city. Every bump on the road just killing me. I'm trying to block the pain out of my mind but its all I can think about. Cornwall street with all the cracks is just torture. 

Finally get rolling well, I'm only a 1500m hill away from home. The urge to pull over is unbelievable. Green light go, go, go... NO! Red light. I have to stop, can I keep going. I need to. Push push push, 140... 141... FINALLY 142 km up the hill. No more lights no more stops, no more cracks. Now just to find my keys. Fumbling in my pockets. Enter my house and finally the pain that has been haunting me for the last 30km in relieved.

I REALLY HAD TO PEE!

Mid Taper

For starters, I hate tapering. I find that before races I'm in my most motivated state and all the things necessary during a taper (short race effort practices/stretching/ AR eating habits) are all the things I hate about training. I much rather go out and just put in a good grind. At least I have more time on my hands and have completely caught up to all my Giro d'Italia watching! Di Luca is pretty awesome. 

As a result, my tapers are usually shorter rather than long, and I typically don't actually scale down my workouts so much as shift them towards swimming which is much less impact so allows me to rest up my legs.

That being said, the past couple days I've had a couple solid swim workouts in the glorious sun at UBC and then tonight I led the run practice with UBCTC where we did a race prep run of 3/2/1km all at theoretical race pace. Since doing so at my half iron run pace was somewhat useless, I decided to run them at 4min/km pace. This brings me just outside comfort talking pace but still relaxed and not really hard on the muscles and joints. 

One thing that tells me that race season is about to come and that I'm in the middle of a taper is that I'm feeling aches and pains everywhere. This always happens to me, I always become paranoid about everything hurting before a race.

I've been struggling with my IT band and hips, and this week it seems like they are 10X worse than ever before. Obviously they are not but that doesn't stop me from feeling it. One thing that actually has me quite worried is I'm getting the ticklish feeling of bruising in my shins. And as a veteran of shin splints I knew exactly what this is. So icing and stretching will ensue and hopefully I can nip this one in the butt. Its a little suspicious because I only started noticing it last night (an off day), and I hadn't run since last Thursday... Weird. I may even race in my training shoes to prevent the shock from racing flats. But thats a tentative suggestions. Come race day I may throw caution to the wind.

As far as the race is concerned I'm feeling pretty good. As I said, running is coming along smoothly, I haven't quite decided what my target pace will be yet but I know it should be much faster than last year. 

On the bike I'm feeling very strong. I haven't put much time in TT position, however, that doesn't worry me too much, I know the strength is there and I'm still young and limber, my back rarely bothers me on the bike.

Unfortunately my bike is currently in the shop. Last weekend one of the rides I did was up Cypress. I went up at a pretty steady pace pushing hard but not killing myself (I still had 100km of riding to do after), about 9k up the climb my chain skipped up into my wheel dragging with it my derailer. Fortunately I was riding slowly and was able to stop quickly without causing much damage. Result being I stayed in my 19 cog or below, avoiding the 21 and 23. This meant I still had to climb the last 3.5km in my 19, YIKES! I reached the top in 53:58, and this didn't mean much to me at the time, but upon review when I got home turns out this was my fastest ascent by 50 seconds on a day where I just buried myself last year. This was a huge confidence builder since I felt I could have gone significantly faster and the technical issues I had with the gears. Hopefully when I pick up my bike tomorrow the derailer hanger will be fixed and this won't be a concern over the weekend. It shouldn't matter either way, I won't be going into my small gears, since there are no real hills. 

In other news, I received my second helmet in the mail today. My old road helmet was getting a little worse for wear and probably shouldn't have been used for the past year. That being said I ordered a Giro Atmos and it fits and is super comfy, I snapped a few dorky pictures of me in it to show you all.  

Front, Wow I look happy...

Side

Back!

I tomorrow in my typical Friday procrastination will have a race preview with my expectations along with my competition. Stay tuned!