Another Ride.....Another Flat

How is it possible I get so many flat tires?

This morning I left at 5:45 am as the sun is rising later. Someone convinced me riding in the dark isn't safe so I waited until at least there was a crack of light. It was either that or ride inside which I absolutely hate and ranks right up there with watching paint dry.

I was riding for five minutes along Major Mac when I got flat tire. At least it was the front which made changing the tire easier. While I was standing on the side of the road waiting for traffic to pass so I could go across the street and change my tire on the sidewalk under the street light, I nearly got clipped by some idiot. Maybe riding inside would have been a better idea.

Surprisingly, I actually changed the flat in record time and didn't pinch the inner tube when I filled it. Could this mean, I'm actually getting good at changing flats?

Coach said the reason why I was getting so many flats and blowing up so many inner tubes was that the inner tubes I bought from the cycling stores are too thin. When I get my bike tuned up for the final race, we'll install thicker tubes which should a) minimize the possibilities of flat tires and b) not get pinched as easy. Going through all these inner tubes is beginning to add up.

The Brick workout itself was uneventful except for that it was 22 degrees with the humidex making it feel like 30 at 6 am. Summer is not over just yet.

My foot pod needs resetting. It said I ran 11.48 km in 54 minutes. I wish

IM Canada

They're off and running. IM Canada started this morning at 10 am our time and I know three people competing. Good luck to all. One of these days I'll get around to toeing the line.

I had to move some workouts around as Tammy had a 10 km run Saturday morning so I took that as rest day and moved my long bike and run to Sunday.

Tammy's run was ok but I think she was disappointed with her time. It was at Sunnybrook Park and started at 8:00 am but we got there just after 7:00 am. No problems finding parking. I watched the three kids while Tammy ran. One of the vendors at the race was Absolute Endurance. They had a tent set up with a couple of massage tables. Always looking for freebies, I started to talking to one of the therapists and he told me he would be able to give me a free session once the race started.

The first question he asked me was if I wore othotics which of course I do. Keeping one shoe on, Josh performed a couple of simple tests where he told me to resist his attempt to pull or push the opposite leg. For some reason, when I wore the shoe with the orthotic, the opposite leg was weaker and I was unable to resist him but when he took the shoe off, my leg was significantly stronger and able to resist his attempt to pull or push my leg. The point of this exercise was to show that by wearing orthotics it weakened the ankle, leg, thigh and glute muscles leading to repetitive injuries (now that sounds familiar). This is similar to what Kevin (the chiropractor) said about orthotics as well. Both believe the way to counter the weakness of the foot is through specific strength training targeting the glutes especially. Clearly that is my biggest weakness and the cause of many injuries. This is something I'll have to target during the off season.

For this morning long ride I was going to meet up with Lisa as I'm totally bored of riding by myself, however before it got light enough to ride, Tammy came downstairs in pain (from the run) and had a splitting headache. I offered to go to Sobeys to pick up some aspirin as it would help her headache and aches and pains as well. After I got home I left just after 6 am. Normally I would have left earlier but I was going to meet Lisa in North Pickering at 7:00 am but she doesn't ride with any lights or reflectors on her bike so that would mean riding before the sun came up so I pushed it back to 7:30 am. I did the usual twin peaks at Kennedy and Aurora before peeling out to Pickering. I was only four minutes late and we headed south down Tenth Line which is one of the smoothest roads I've ever rode on. It could have been used for Formula One racing. Compared to the crap roads I rode on this was awesome. I hammered it doing about 45 km/hr down the road only to look back and saw Lisa about one km behind me....doh.

All in all it was an uneventful ride but it was nice to ride with someone else. I'm still not sure about riding with a large group as I constantly weave all over the road.

I finished riding about 97 km but wasn't too worried about the distance as I did some solid hill climbing and repeats (I think). We did find one hill that was almost as big as Sixth Line Hill in Milton which I did two climbs.

After I ran about for 35 minutes and a fairly good clip. I switched to my new shoes as after my last long run my old shoes left my knees and feet hurting. I only had them since March this year but they were toast. I also need to reset my running pod on my shoe as during Muskoka Long course, my pod said I ran 13.7 km but it was only 13.0 km. This morning my watch said I ran 6.91 km but when I mapped it out it turns out to be only 6.1 km. It was a painful run as I wondered how in the world I would run another 15 km.

On another note, I seem to be getting the hang of that nutrition thing. I used to take about four gels for a three hour bike ride but found that it was way too sweet so today I used GU Chomps as well as two Salt Stick pills. It seemed to work well as this would allow me to save the gels for the run. Also even though it was warm, I drank four 750 ml of water/amino vital while I was riding and 1.5 liters before I left. That's a lot of fluid for a four hour workout

Post work out drink.......

I could have drank a liter or two of chocolate milk as it went down sooooo goooood

Whew

This morning was a short two hour run as Muskoka 70.3 looms. The only thing is that I left the house at 5:15 am which means I had to get up at 4:30 am to eat. The days of running on an empty stomach are long gone. Last year I did that and found by 11 am I had eaten all my lunch and snacks and was totally starving.

The run itself was pretty uneventful but I'm quite worried about my knee. Earlier in the year, I had lots of hamstring and knee problems. One problem is that I'm simply not built to run long distances. Being bow-legged and having flat feet leaves the door open for tons of injuries which I've pretty much experienced almost all of them over the last 10 years of running.

I've done my strength training for my legs and hamstrings.....sort of. Recently I've been slacking off lately and my right knee has minor aches and pains after a long hard run or ride. So I was a little worried about how it would hold up for today's run. One thing I've been concentrating on is trying to work my glutes. I read a great article by Tara Norton and have tried to incorporate some her tips as I seem very prone to the injuries that she talks about in her blog.





Getting my butt muscles firing! February 18, 2010 By tara norton

February 18, 2010
Getting my butt muscles firing!
Recently I traveled to New Zealand to partake in Epic Camp #3. Over the 15-day camp (including one rest day that only consisted of a 30km ride), I cycled almost 2300kms, ran almost 140kms and swam 40kms. While at the camp, my coach, Scott Molina, pointed out that my 'glutes were shrinking'. 'Tara, you have less booty than ever before!'

How can this be possible when I am putting in this kind of training mileage? The answer is that it is possible because I am recruiting other muscles to do the job of my butt muscles. These other muscles include my hamstrings and adductors.This would explain why my hamstrings have been chronically sore. Due to my weak or non-firing gluteal muscles, my hamstrings have to work harder to take more of the load and as a result become overworked and fatigued.This muscle imbalance in the hips can cause hamstring pain and even hamstring strain. Triathletes also tend to have tight hip flexors which further inhibits gluteal muscle contraction because of the anterior pelvic tilt this hip flexor tightness creates.

It is really important for triathletes to correct any of these hip muscle imbalances with all the daily running and cycling to prevent injury and improve performance. The less the gluteal muscles fire, the more likely the hamstrings are going to be weak due to overuse or compensation and the more likely the performance will be sub-par.

This is what I am doing to try to correct my hip imbalances and get things firing as they should:
1. Stretch the muscles in the front of the hip, or the hip flexors as well as the adductors or inner thigh muscles. Two great stretches include the runner's lunge (done with a wide step and with the torso upright) to stretch the iliopsoas and a side lunge to stretch the adductors.

2. Strengthen the abdominal muscles for support by doing front and side plank poses.

3. Strengthen the glutes with exercises like one-legged dead lifts, glute bridges (Lie on your back with knees bent and put a small medicine ball between your knees. Squeeze the ball and lift up your butt. Hold for a couple seconds, lower and repeat.), side steps with a band around your ankles (for added challenge I go up on my toes), lunges (push through your front heel) and good old fashion butt squeezes to activate the muscles.

Always keep the abdominal muscles contracted for support!So get your butt muscles firing too!

Tara


At the end of today's run (22 km), I was a little sore and I did feel my knee ache but no major problems (knock wood). As coach always says, "you're body is like an elastic band. You can stretch it but you don't know when its going to break." Too true. I just hope my knee can hold out for another couple of weeks. Lots more butt exercises in the meantime.

Orillia Race Report

The day started out ugly and got worse. I got up around 4:30 am as Rebecca was already awake packing her things. Why my six year old daughter was up that early is beyond me. I looked outside and it was just pouring rain. This was going to be a fun day...not.

Throughout the drive to Orillia, I was wondering why I was driving to a race when the amount of time it would take to get to the race would be about the same amount of time racing. Too late, as I already signed up and wasn't willing to forfeit the entry fee (yes I'm a cheap bugger) all $67.

Getting there was no problem and in fact we got there in plenty of time, unlike the usual mad scrabble to get registered and set up. The unfortunate thing was that it looked like it was going to pour all day. By the time I entered the water, waiting for my wave to start, it started to piss and Tammy and the kids were going to get soaked. One thing about triathlons is that its a very small world. While standing in the water, Ed Wong came up to me as he recognized me from previous races. Ed is a friend of my brothers Glen and Paul and has been racing triathlons for many years. He did Lake Placid this year and someone knocked over his bike breaking his aero bar so he had to ride the entire 180 km without being in areo position. Ouch.

I also saw Paula Van Nostrand who is also friends with Glen and Paul. Her in laws own a farm with a pond and they meet every week to do open water swims. Unfortunately I haven't been able to make any of the swims as Rebecca as soccer on Monday nights. Maybe I can sneak a swim in before the end of the season.

As I lined up for the start of my wave group, I was standing beside Andrew Longsbourgh. He recognized me and we chatted before the start of the race. I used to play Aussie Rules against him and is a great guy. It was his first race this year and was toying with the idea of doing Ironman Cozmuel but hadn't been training very much. Clearly he's in excellent shape to even consider such a race with minimal training.

The race started as the rain poured down. I drafted off Andy as he's a much stronger swimmer (and better triathlete) but lost him at the first turn. The water was pretty choppy and ran into swimmers from the earlier wave including many girls swimming the breast stroke and one girl who was swimming back stroke WTF???

I chugged through T1 with my usual fumbling around and hit the bike course. At one point the rain was pouring down and it actually hurt as it was hitting my face. It was a fairly short ride with only a couple of hills so I actually had a half decent average speed (31.7 km\hr) my fastest ever bike time. Whoo hoo, now if I can just match that pace for Muskoka 70.3.

The run was pretty uneventful but I did see my buddy Derek Virgo come racing in as I headed out. Derek just finished Lake Placid in 11 hours. Not bad for his first IM. He also is an very fast swimmer. He once lapped me twice in 50 metres. Now I know I'm not a fast swimmer but.......

Overall, not a bad C race. I finished under my goal of two hours and was 30/71 for my age category. I checked Glen's time from 2003 and he beat me by one minute. Grrr

I'm still worried about Muskoka 70.3 as the bike does not look like fun.

Post race drink..... what else?

Finally now available in Ontario.

When I returned from 6 months in Australia in 1994, I brought back 40 cans of VB. Needless to say, my carry on was very heavy. Andrew picked up a slab (a two-four) before the race. No doubt he quaffed a few when he got home after destroying my time, again. He crushed me at Wasaga Olympic distance last year.

Tips For Dating A Triathlete

A dating guide to understanding your triathlete

"I am an outdoors type of person." Really means: I train in any type of weather. If its raining, snowing, 90 degrees w/100% humidity, or winds gusting at 30 mph. I don't want to hear any complaints because I will still train in it and you're just a big wuss for complaining about it.

"I enjoy riding my bike." Really means: With or w/o aero bars, alone or in a peloton, I don't care. If you can't do a spur of the moment 30 miler then you're not my type. I will let you draft, but if you can't hang and I drop you - I will see you later. I am a capable mechanic, but don't expect me to change your flats or tune your bike. You need to learn that on your own.

"I enjoy jogging." Really means: Lets run hills until we puke. I have just as many shoes as you only mine are better because they are functional and all look the same.

"I enjoy dining out." Really means: I enjoy eating out, in or anywhere else I can find food. Don't be shy because with the amount of food I eat, you can have that main entree instead of a salad and you will still look as though you eat like a rabbit in comparison. Don't get your limbs too close though as I may take a bite out of you. Most importantly don't expect any taste off my plate unless you can bring something to the party like more food. Eventually though if your not burning 4,000+ calories a day your going to plump up and have a terrible complex due to watching me eat deserts and not gain any weight. Friends and family will eventually decide not to dine with us anymore due to my horrid table manners. Oh, and don't ask me any questions during breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch, afternoon lunch, dinner or recovery dinner as it does not lend to efficient food intake.

"I enjoy quiet walks on the beach." Really means: Walks on the beach warming up into an 8 mile run and then plunging myself in the ocean for a 2 miler. If you get in my way you're going to find out what mass start is and let me assure you that you don't want to find out.

"I find fulfilment in charitable work." Really means: If I am not racing, I am volunteering or cheering on my buddies and I expect you to be there along side me as I stand out in 90 degree weather for 8 hours handing out sports drink to cyclists going 20 mph. Just stick the ol' arm out there and hope it doesn't get taken off.

"I enjoy sharing quiet moments together." Really means: It's taper time. Just back off because I am strategizing, trying to get into the zone and in a pissy mood because I am worried about my "A" race and can't workout.

"I am an active person." Really means: Aside from my 40 hour job, and the 8 mandatory hours of sleep a night. 10 hours a week are devoted to me during the off-season and 20 during race season leaving us 4 hours. 2 of which are spent inhaling food and you not talking to me, so lets make the best of the 2 hours we will spend together on average each day.

If you are a licensed message therapist or doctor this would make the most optimal use of our time together. Nutritionist is also acceptable, but I probably already know just as much as you.

"I enjoy road trips and vacations." Really means: You have your choice of British Columbia, Wisconsin, Idaho, Florida, California, Arizona, and New York, but don't expect to do much site seeing. But if I get enough support from you we might be able to include Hawaii in there.

"I enjoy site seeing." Really means: Lets grab a mountain bike and get our HR's up to 90%. There's plenty of time to look around on the descent as trees and bushes whiz by you at 40 mph.

"I like stimulating conversation." Really means: while we are running, we can talk about food. Then we can talk about how we decided what to wear on this run based on the temperature at start time versus the temperature at the time we expect to finish, how horribly out of shape we are, how many miles we did last week, and how many we will do this week and next week. Then we can talk about food.

"I enjoy relaxing soaks in the tub." Really Means: I'm going to stop on the way home and buy two bags of ice, throw them in the tub with some water, and sit in this torture chamber for 30 minutes.

"I'm interested in photography" Really Means: My camera is permanently perched a tripod in front of my trainer. I obsess over taking photos of my bike position and analyzing them to get the perfect set-up.

"I'm into in technology" Really Means: My HRM and bike computer are my best friends. Until you can give me some hard data that can improve my training, don't bother trying to buddy up to me. You could one day break into the top three if you recognize and feed my dependancy by buying me more gear.

Article courtesy of an anonymous Triathlete who is likely still single, from Toronto, and who completed rather well the Lake Placid Ironman in 2006. For a small fee we'll connect you to this handsome and successful individual...(works "downtown" Toronto in the "money business"

102.4...A Sense Of Satisfaction

I finally broke the 100 km mark for riding and it was painful. As usual, I headed up Kennedy road and did three hill repeats on the Twin Peaks before heading up to Vivian road but this time instead of going west to Warden which is pretty flat, I headed east. Paul S had shown me some of the routes that he rides which is much more harder (ie more like Muskoka).

I headed east to north Pickering. Once I crossed Hwy 48, the terrain definitely changed as it was much more hillier. I rode over to York/Durham line and headed south. This road sucks for riding as there is no paved shoulder and although traffic was light, every once in a while, I'd always get some idiot who seemed to drive as close as possible to me even if there was no oncoming traffic. There was a headwind of around 20 km/hr and riding up hills really slowed me down. Once I reached Durham Hwy 47, I headed east towards Uxbridge but turned north again on Concession side road 2 (actually it should have been Concession side road 3). It made a difference when the paved road turned into a dirt road. Nothing like bouncing around in the middle of nowhere on a dirt road. Sure hope I don't get a flat here.

I hit Davis Drive and was fed up with riding on this crappy dirt road so I headed west and then south again on York/Durham line. The wind was picking up and I was really dragging. My lower back was killing me and was getting tired. I turned west on Bloomington road and rode over to Kennedy and then north again so I could have more fun doing hill repeats on the Twin Peaks. Noticing the time I only did two repeats before heading south to boogie home but riding into the wind there wasn't much boogie.

Once I reached home, a quick change and was out for a short run. I ran almost 5 km but ran at a significantly faster pace than what I would run at Muskoka. That was painful. How in the world am I going to run for another 16 km?

Enough blogging as its Jake's birthday tomorrow and Tammy took the kids to Jake's soccer. I get to clean the house, not that I'm complaining.........

Every thing is life is a trade off and my trade off today is helping clean after four hours of having fun.

If I Were To Sign Up For An Ironman Part II......

My friends and brothers could help me train...........

If I Were To Sign Up For An Ironman......

Sign Up Phase
For most Ironman events, you have to register up to one year in advance. This gives you plenty of time to brag about doing an Ironman. During this phase, you must let all of your non-Ironman friends know that you can't hang out with them anymore, because you just signed up for an Ironman. If you don't have any Ironman friends, then go to a place where runners or bikers hang out. Look for the Ironman symbol (M Dot) on their training clothes. An Ironman would never be caught running or biking without their Ironman stuff.

Training Phase
Training for an Ironman can be compared to having a part time job. You must let everyone you meet know this. This can be accomplished by sighing loudly at work, mumbling how tired you are because you just biked 100 miles, because you are in training for an Ironman. You can also skillfully steer the conversation with your neighbors and co-workers to your Ironman training.

Here is an example:
Neighbor: "Did you hear what President Bush said this week?" Lee: "Were you aware that President Bush is a biker? I just biked 100 miles today. I am training for an Ironman."
Co worker: "Lee, are you working late tonight?" Lee: "No, I have to get up early to do a 20 mile run. I am training for an Ironman."
I even once rang my neighbor's door and when he answered, I said "Sorry Bob, can't talk to you now, I am training for an Ironman."

One Week Before the Race Phase
You need to let your neighbors and co-workers know you will be gone for a little while, competing in an Ironman. Once again, you can steer the conversation to your Ironman race.
Neighbor: "Wow Lee your lawn looks great!" Lee: "My lawn is going to look bad next week; I will be competing in an Ironman."

Race Expo Phase
You must buy as much Ironman merchandise as possible. For years we saved our money to send both of my boys to private college, but sacrifices must be made. Both Derick and Ty will be going to junior college now. You must buy enough Ironman clothes to cover every day at work and training. You must also buy plenty of shirts for your spouse and children. They will also spread the word that you just finished an Ironman.

The Race Phase
At ironmanlive.com you can setup automatic emails and cell phone message notifications of your Ironman timing splits. You can use all of the entries in your email and cell phone address book. Include everyone regardless of whether they remember you or not. It just does not matter, because you are an Ironman.

Post Race Phase
The finisher medal can be worn for one day per the number of miles raced and everyone knows that an Ironman is 140.6 miles. So wear that medal for 141 days (always round up as opposed to rounding down your finishing time). Your children must be trained to say, "My daddy is an Ironman. He gave me this shirt. He's an Ironman." This must be emphasized over and over with your children. I made the mistake of not doing this after I ran the Boston Marathon, and Derick, my oldest boy, told everyone at his day care that his grandma ran the marathon. Your spouse must memorize all of your splits (swim, bike and run). You must also include transition splits as well. Instead of wearing a shirt which states, "I'm with Dummy", your spouse will wear a shirt which says, "I'm with a stud Ironman". All conversations must be steered to your Ironman race.
Co-Worker: "Did you hear about the new work policy?" Lee: "Nope, I did not, I was racing in an Ironman."
For at least one month you can say, "Well, I'm only going to run easy today, I just did an Ironman."
When someone brings up a subject of hardship suffered, you need to remind them that you also have suffered hardship, while training for and racing in your Ironman.

The Most Annoying Workout

Today's workout was a 3 hours and 15 minute bike followed by a 20 minute run. I left the house around 5:30 am and it was freezing!!! I had to wear arm warmers as the temperature was only 12 degrees. WTF happened to summer and last week smoking hot temperatures?

Paul S had suggested riding north on Kennedy (I usually ride southbound back home) as it was surprisingly hilly although nothing like Muskoka. Once I crossed Aurora Road, I hit the twin peak hills and did the three hill repeats stopping at the bottom of the hills each time. I continued north and rode uneventfully until I hit Keswick which was the 50 km point so I turned around and headed back south down Warden. At Vivian Road I turned east and then south down Kennedy so I could hit the twin peaks again. By this time my back was killing me and I was getting tired but I did three hill repeats before heading south. I reached Elgin Mills Road and turned east and was just in sight of McCowan when my back tire began to wobble. I couldn't believe it! I got a flat tire this close to home. I was so pissed. I had been riding for 3 hours and 17 minutes and had less than 10 minutes to go.

Recalling my previous problems of blowing up inner tubes, this could get ugly. At least this wasn't during a race or pouring rain. Pulling out my kit, I noticed the two tubes I bought were slightly smaller than the one I was using. Oh oh, this could be a problem. I changed the tire and proceeded to blow it up using the CO2 cartilage. I disconnected it and BANG!! There goes that inner tube. Swearing profusely, I changed the tire and put the second tube on but clearly the inner tube was not inside the tire all the way as a giant bubble appeared but before I could stop it blew. There goes the second inner tube.

I called home and Tammy came to pick me up. As punishment for being a retard and not being able to change a flat tire, I ran a hard and hilly 5 km.

So close to the 100 km ride but so far away. I ended up at 93.7 km. DOH

Now That Was Fun

There is nothing like running for 90 minutes when the temperature with the humidity is 33 degrees. Because I went swimming this morning and Vanessa has soccer at 6:30 pm tonight, that really doesn't leave a lot of time to squeeze a run. I planned to get home by 3:30 pm and go running but of course I couldn't get away and when I got home, I couldn't find all my gear including Tammy's iPod so I didn't leave the house until almost 5 pm.

I guess I should be thankful as the humidity was dropping and it wasn't as bad as yesterday (40 degrees with the humidity) but it was still a tough run. I ran a 10 km loop for the first hour and desperately looked for sprinklers but none where to be found. However I did run by the water park at Mingay and spent a couple of minutes cooling down as a couple of adults looked at me as if I were a retard. Why would anyone go running when its this hot?

Within the first hour I ran out of water so I stopped off at home to reload my water bottle. In this heat, one gel wasn't enough so I mixed some Amino Vital in my water bottle and headed out to finish the run (yes I stopped my watch while I was inside). It definitely made a difference but by the 70 minute mark I was slowing down.

Lessons to be learned from this run:

1) one gel pack doesn't cut it

2) I need to take some salt tablets as I started to cramp up after the run like after Muskoka

3) Change my route so I find more sprinklers

Update

Saturday's ride was a long three hour ride followed by a 20 minute transition run. Actually I found it easier than doing the Muskoka Long Course probably because a) I didn't swim 2 km before b) the route wasn't as hilly. I really need to push myself harder when I ride. Interesting I rode for 89.7 km and would have went further if I wasn't doing hill repeats. To make things harder, coach told me to come to a complete stop at the bottom of the hill and choose a harder gear to ride up. Seems to make a difference. This Saturday's ride should put me close to the 100 kilometre ride (depending on how many hill repeats I do). Who would have thunk I'd be doing 100 kilometre rides? What's next, 180 kilometres rides?

I took my bike up to the coach's place as there were funny clunking nosies coming from the pedals after Saturday's ride. The crank was loose so coach tightened it up so for Monday's ride it seemed ok but by the end of the ride it was making even louder nosies and I could clearly hear metal on metal with every pedal stroke. That could only mean one thing....more $$$. Again I took my bike up to the coach's place and this time I told him just replace the part as the last thing I needed was my bike falling apart during Muskoka 70.3. Turns out the ball bearings were toast and it was grinding every pedal stroke. I haven't got the bill yet but there goes another $250. And that doesn't include the $350 I dropped at the Running Free sale the week before.

This morning's ride was only a 75 minute ride but Tammy wanted to go to the 6:15 am pump class so that meant I had to be out of the house by 4:45 am. As summer comes to an end, it ain't light out at 4:45 am. That meant riding up Warden ave in total darkness. Coming down the hill on Kennedy road (south of Bloomington) normally I'm hammering down going about 65 km\hr but because it was fairly dark and also mist was rolling across the fields onto the road, I took it easy (only 60 km\hr). I figured visibility was about 100 metres and also as I stayed in the aero position, I hoped the road was clear or I could see any crap on the road and avoid it in time.

I've must have had a good workout as I've been totally starving all day long. Leaving that early in the morning, actually gave me time to do a workout after my ride and I even did some Abs!

Getting back to the coach, I was talking about pacing Tammy for the Toronto Good Life half marathon but because I run over one minute per kilometre faster, I knew it would be a painful run for me. My brother Paul paced Sarah for the New York marathon one year and I think he was hurting more than she was simply because its hard to run at a significantly slower pace than your used to.

Coach suggested I borrow a jogging stroller and run with Jake inside. That would put us on the same pace. Hmmm running up Hoggs Hollow on Yonge street with a stroller. How fun would that be? Can you say, burning quads?

Debrief From The Coach

I talked to the coach yesterday. He was pretty pleased with my race results but I told him I was unhappy. He didn't quite understand as this was the furthest distance I've ever raced. I told myself I would have been happy if I finished under four hours beating both of my brothers' previous times but..............

I guess my main point of dissatisfaction was my run time. At an average pace of 5.52 min\km, that probably ranks up as one of my slowest run times ever. I know the course was hilly and I never done a 13 km run after riding 55 km and swimming 2 km but it just didn't sit right with me.

During the debrief, I admitted when I saw Lisa approaching the turn around point (27.5 km out) and I had already turned around, I begin to hammer it back in as I didn't want her to catch me. Basically I rode hard for about 20 km and burned up my legs. Coach was very unhappy about that and made some choice comments to me. He also said I'd probably lost about 20-30 seconds per kilometre on the run because of that stunt. If that's the case, as my quads were burning on the run, that would have put my run time down to about what I was expecting.

To make matters worse, Scobie had warned me about burning out on the ride.

Chalk it up to some people just have to learn the hard way.

Muskoka Long Course Race Report

The Muskoka Long Course race is the longest race I've done in my short racing career and easily the hardest. I felt pretty comfortable handling the swim (2 km) but wasn't sure about the bike and the run would probably be the strongest leg. Everybody says how hilly the course is and they have made lots of changes so was a little difficult to gauge.

Tammy decided to make this our summer vacation (part one) and we stayed at Deerhurst Resort (home of the G8 last month). Clearly none of the diplomats stayed in our room as it was a little disappointing for $250 a night. We had a junior suite which allowed for Tammy and the kids to sleep in the bedroom while I took the fold out sofa bed. The kids were sooooo excited that we were going away that Rebecca wanted to know if we were taking an airplane to get there and the others wanted to pack their bags a week before we left. They started packing Thursday and were ready to go Friday except we weren't leaving until Saturday. I also found out that we were staying for two nights instead of one. I emailed Sharon my assistant to cancel my Monday morning meeting I had schedule. I didn't protest that much as they deserved a summer vacation.

The drive was a little longer than I expected but we made it there with no problems. When we arrived in Huntsville around 1 pm, Jake and Vanessa were sleeping so I wanted to check out the course so we drove the course following the map I downloaded from Tri-Sports website. The map was not very detailed and we seemed to drive forever as it definitely seemed longer than 27.5 km out. There were some nasty hills especially coming out of the town. This wasn't going to be fun. We ended up turning around and drove back into town and off to the resort. By this time, everybody was tired and whinny after being in the car for more than four hours so we headed over the the resort.

Check in was for 4 pm but when we got there around 2:30 pm, our room wasn't ready so we ended up hanging around checking out the place. We waited and waited and waited until finally the room was ready at 4:15 pm. Hardly impressed but what could we do? If the room isn't ready, it isn't ready. After getting settled down, we walked over to one of the restaurants at the resort for dinner. The food was ok but slightly overpriced.

Settling down was a harder than expected as the kids went to bed and I tossed and turned for hours. I was drifting off when are phone rang. It was swimming buddy Paul (whose wife I kicked in the head trying to do a flip turn several months ago). They were staying at Deerhurst as well but in a different building. We promised to hook up before the race and he was targeting a 3:33 race time. Ugh

Sunday morning finally came (I was awake around 4 am) and we headed down to the race site. We parked and as we were walking down, we ran into Lisa and her hubby. Getting registered and set up is always a clusterfuck so at least we were there earlier than usual. Once we were ready I saw Paul and Cathy and talked to them for a couple of minutes before we had to head over to the swim. The walk to the swim start was a lot further than I had figured and we had the wagon with the kids and all their backpacks. The website said something about a train running back and forth from the swim start and the main building but I didn't see anything.

Paul was swimming in a different wave so he left before me and I didn't see Lisa but she's way younger so she would have been at least two waves ahead of me. I looked out the course and the markers seemed so far away. Someone must have measured wrong because that looked a lot further than two kilometers!! My wave started and away we went. Because it was such a wide start there wasn't much jostling around and within a couple of minutes, I found a pair of friendly feet to draft off. Throughout most of the swim I managed to draft and it did make a difference. Coming out of the water I took a quick look at my watch and was somewhere around 40 minutes but it was a little hard to see as I stumbled up the steps and was pretty dizzy from swimming so long. I saw Cathy and the kids and they yelled something at me as I stumbled towards transition. I saw Tammy and kids further up. T1 was better than Guelph but it still felt like it took forever to get my wetsuit off and get going.

Riding out of town I knew there was a nasty hill coming up and I was still dizzy from the swim. When I came up to the hill I shifted down and used my "Granny Gear" - a third chain wheel to make hill climbing easier. I figured it was better to use it than struggle up the first of many hills. I continued along and was booting down a hill in aero position when a race official yelled at me to slow down. I wasn't sure why and initially thought the road was too bumpy but as I rounded the corner there was a police SUV with his lights flashing directing everyone turn left. WTF??? This wasn't the route I thought we were travelling. Good thing the guy yelled at me as I was doing at least 50 km/hr and would have blown through the intersection missing the turn.

As we went on, it seemed like the turn around was never going to appear. There were some more nasty hill climbs that I kept thinking how great it would be going down instead of climbing them. Just past the turn around point I saw Lisa. I figured she would hammer it and try and catch me so I picked up the pace. Coming down the hills was a lot more fun than riding up and I easily hit over 60 km/hr. Unfortunately, my speedometer wasn't working correctly and I was only getting a reading some of the times. Coming into T2, I took my feet out of my shoes and rode barefoot. That didn't work to well as my shoes were dragging and one came unclipped. I had to stop while an official picked it up and handed to me. More time wasted.

The fuel belt I brought kept falling off when I ran and I ended up holding my water bottle as I ran until I drank enough water that I could put the bottle back into the holder without it falling off. I'm not sure why this was happening as I've run before with it on. The run course was the hardest I've ever done. It had lots of small rolling hills and within the first couple of hills my right quad begin to throb. It was ok on the flat surface as several times I looked at my watch and saw I was running faster than 5:00 min/km. Eventually the hills began to take their toll as my speed dropped dramatically. The run course was a double loop in around town and had several out and backs. The first time I saw Lisa she was just starting the run and looked fresh but the second time I saw her, she looked gassed and the last time I saw her she looked bagged. I never saw Paul but than I figured he must have finished a while ago.

Usually during the run, I have enough energy left to pick up the pace and finish at a half decent pace but this time, the hills were killing me and the thought of stopping was getting more and more appealing. Lots of people were walking the hills but I kept remember the article that Lisa sent me about quitting. Finally the finish line appeared and I hammered it home (3:31 min/km pace). Tammy and the kids were there to greet me and thankfully my race was over.

That was by far my hardest race. My back was killing me on the ride and my quads were aching on the run. I thought for sure they would seize up. My final time was 3:50. I said I would have been happy to come in under four hours and although I did beat my goal, this course showed me that I have much work to do for Muskoka 70.3.

Note: Hats off to Derek V and Mike D who completed their first Ironman Lake Placid. Kick back and enjoy a beer or two or three or............You're an Ironman and you've deserve it.

Next Up, Muskoka Long Course

This is a taper down week as Muskoka Long Course is this Sunday. Funny, I feel more tired than ever. Partly due to running 11 km starting at 4:30 am followed by swimming at 6 am. The swim was pretty much a write off as my swimming buddy bailed on me and I was totally bagged but interesting enough I walked in with a fellow swimmer and when we went to pay it appears that both of us had a run in with the same lifeguard. This lifeguard is insistent that we swim in a circle (as opposed to lane swimming) even if we're in the lane by our selves. Why? Because its the rules that's why! End of discussion! Never mind that even within the fast lane there are people swimming at significantly different speeds and that causes problems when passing or turning at the wall. I've run into this attitude before in the City of Toronto pools before where I came dangerously close to slugging the fat overweight Pool Supervisor last year.

I can certainly understand why its necessarily to swim in a circle if there are more than three swimmers but why is it necessary if there are less? Simply mind numbing. The only thing I can chalk it up to is power trip. Most of the other lifeguards are ok and don't get involved unless there are obvious problems so why is it always the one or two assholes? I can't wait to go back to swimming with the Mallards but who knows when that will start up (September probably).

Anyways, once I found out the name of the lifeguard in question, I left my business card on the windshield of my fellow swimmer and he later informed me that he discussed this swimming lane problem the pool supervisor. Turns out that the pool supervisor was very understanding and agreed to let the lane swimmers "police" themselves with minimal assistant from the lifeguards. Apparently this change in policy was initiated when a swimmer complained that she felt intimidated and harassed by other swimmers when she couldn't keep up with the pace in the fast lane. Which begs the question, "if she couldn't keep up with the pace then why didn't the lifeguard inform her about lane swimming etiquette?"

Tomorrow is a rest day and Thursday is a swim, ride and run. Seeing that swimming is at a fixed time (either 5:30 am with Serge at Thornlea or 6:00 am at Centennial), I'm not sure getting up a 4:30 to do the ride/run before swimming is such a great idea as I am totally starving and exhausted all day long. In fact, today I had to take a gel shot around 2 pm as I was almost falling asleep at my desk.

I'm not sure what to think of the Muskoka Long Course race. I'm not worried about the distance as I view this as warm up to the big event in September (Muskoka 70.3). I talked to Scobie this afternoon and he gave me some great ideas: 1) drive the bike course when I get there on Saturday seeing that I never got a chance to ride it. 2) take it easy on the bike and hold back saving my strength for the second part of run portion. I figure I can hold a 5:45 min/km pace and drop that to around 5:00 min/km by the end, I think...... It would be great to shoot for a four hour time and I'd be pretty happy. I think it will all depend on hilly this damn course actually is!

We're going up Saturday morning as Tammy booked us overnight at Deerhurst. I guess this is our "summer vacation" so I didn't really say much and quietly gagged at the cost and for 70.3, we're staying there for three days/2 night. Tammy and the kids are getting pretty excited about staying overnight and given all of my crap they have to put up, well they deserve it. This week the "tiredness and irritability" have greatly increased. On Saturday and Sunday, I think I went to sleep before 9 pm both nights. I'm pretty sure all three kids were still up

How I'm ever going to train for an Ironman is beyond me.

Race details to follow..............

Frolicking Through The Sprinkler

This is supposed to be a "down" week and the schedule called for a short 45 minute ride and a 60 minute run. No problemo however what the problemo was the humidity. The weekend was a lot less humid than the week before and when I left the house at 5:30 am, although it was only 23 degrees the humidity must have pushed the temperature over 3o degrees. By the time I came back from the ride the sun had started to come up making it a little hotter. In the past, I've run out of water on the run so I tried using a fuel belt that my brother Don had given me. It holds two flask (6 ozs) and one bottle of water that holds about 18 ozs of water. I really didn't like it as the bigger bottle bounced up and down with every step and then when it was half empty, began to fall out and the little ones were almost useless as two big gulps and they were empty. It was so humid out that within 20 minutes into the run I had drained the bigger bottle and and basically ran with out water in the last 15 minutes but was manageable. I did see one person watering their lawn with a sprinkler so I ran through it but it didn't help and I didn't see anymore. I think a fire hose would have been better. I don't really like running without water as for some reason, I'm always thirsty and if I don't drink enough I begin to bonk very quickly. Hopefully, it won't be as humid on race day or there are a lot of water stations.

This week promises more of the same weather, hot and very humid so there maybe more stupid runs at 4:23 in the morning. Now I know what my brothers meant by Kona North.

Saturday's workout was pretty good as I had to ride 2 hours and 45 minutes (80 km) followed by a 20 minute(4.5 km) transition run. Given that everybody keeps telling me how hilly Muskoka is, I thought I'd better start adding more hills and the route I ride is fairly flat with only two major hills so I incorporated several hill repeats. In fact I did nine hills and I was totally bagged by the time I finished. Thankfully I had a nice tail wind otherwise it would have been a very slow ride home. Ten minutes into the run, I was ready to start walking. I'm not sure how far I could have ran after that ride but something tells me I could be in a rude awakening for the Muskoka Long Course which is two weeks away as I start to taper down and there are no more opportunities for hill work. Interesting enough, due to the G8 meetings they have changed the course as need trails/roads were built so the run course has been reduced by two km to only 13 km. I was originally disappointed when I first heard that they were shortening the course but maybe that isn't such a bad thing after all.

In trying to better my times in T1 and T2, I've been practising mounting and dismounting the bike leaving the shoes clipped on the pedals as its far easier to run in bare feet than in riding shoes. This is far harder than it looks but practise makes perfect....sort of.

This Is A Stupid Sport!

Since the weather is so nice and warm, as in 40+ degrees with the humidity, I decided I'd rather run at 4:23 AM as opposed to running at 4:23 PM. The humidity was like a wall when I stepped outside and I think I started sweating as soon as I got to the end of my driveway (about 20 feet). Thankfully it was only a 45 minute run but by the time I finished I looked like jumped in a river. Oddly enough, I didn't see any one else running at that time.

I had just enough time to refill my water bottles and boot over to swimming by 5:30 am. The water was nice and refreshing as I didn't even need to take a shower......just kidding. That would have been gross.

One of our swimming buddies, Pierre, had returned and was slowly getting back as he had crashed his bike on a training ride up in Muskoka several months ago. I think he had a separated shoulder and can't swim, run or bike. That would suck as needless to say his race season is over. He was going to do Muskoka 70.3. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to talk to him as Serge gave us about 2,000 meters of drills to do and by the time 6:30 rolled around, Pierre had left. I'll catch up with him next week for more details. No chance on finishing the drills.

Driving into work this morning, I was falling asleep at the wheel so I pulled into a McDonalds drive thru to get a diet coke (for the caffeine fix), but forgot my window wouldn't roll down so looking like a retard, I had to open the door to pay and get my drink. And then, it was a Root Beer so I had to go in the store anyways.

Some days, I wonder why I even bother

Ok so maybe this isn't a stupid sport. Maybe its just me for running at 4:23 in the morning

That Was Close!

While playing hockey last night, I was ran into my own player and hurt my left shoulder. It wasn't too bad and I finished the game but it was aching by the time I got home. Thankfully this morning it was OK. Whew! Maybe coach was right in that I shouldn't be playing other sports....yeah whatever. At least I'm not playing Aussies Rules Football anymore

Speaking of this morning, with the lovely temperature we've been having, 40 degrees with the humidity, I wanted to get this morning ride in early so I would be back before it got too hot. It was only a hour ride but I need to start incorporating more hills in my rides as apparently Muskoka is quite hilly and riding on the flats ain't going to help. So when I'm riding up Warden normally I would cut across Bethesda Road avoiding the hill but this morning I decided to add it in for as hard as it is to climb, I love riding down it in the aero position at 65 km/hr.

Tammy wanted to go to the gym for a 6:15 am pump class so if my ride is just over a hour that meant I left the house at 4:45 am. At least it wasn't hot.

All in all, it was a pretty good ride as I averaged 31.3 km\hr including climbing the hill. I think going forward I'll start adding hill repeats into my long rides using that hill on Warden.

Now if I can just figure out what afternoon I'm going to do my 45 minute run when the temperature is around 43 degrees.

A Good Test

This morning's workout was a 2.5 hour ride (72 km) followed by 20 minute (4 km) transition run. I left the house around 5 am as I definitely did not want to ride/run in the hot sun and also because Tammy had to do her run as well.

Overall it was a pretty good workout with only some minor issues:

1) My left shoulder began to ache which was probably caused from swimming on Friday (2,000 meters in 40 minutes). Need to restart shoulder exercises

2) I began to "feel" my right hamstring so need to continue to do the hamstring exercises but not as intense as before.

3) Google maps isn't quite as accurate as I thought or more likely, I simply didn't look closely at the roads I had chosen for my route.

I basically did my regular route going north on Warden Ave but just continued north until I hit Mount Albert Road (north of Davis Drive) and headed east to Kennedy Road and south. I thought I could take it straight down back to Markham but it ended a couple of kilometers south and I turned east to Mccowan Road and headed south but that ended as well. I should have turned right but I went left and continued east but ended up at Hwy 48 which I absolutely hate riding on as the shoulder is literally one foot wide. I've seen people ride on Hwy 48 and can't figure out why they would risk their lives as traffic roars by at 100 km/hr especially since they could ride either on Mccowan or 9th Line. Morons. You don't want to end up like that triathlon

group in Quebec a couple of months ago when a truck plowed into six riders killing three of them. Anyways, I boogied home and actually got back quicker than I anticpated so I rode around up and down 16th Ave to kill some time.

Overall I was ok with the ride as the terrain was much more hillier on the way back which is a good thing for Muskoka. The transition run was fine as I felt good and know I could have ran longer than 20 minutes. I felt great and so I even cleaned by bike and lubed the chain after my workout (quick tell coach).

The only downside to Saturday's workout is that Tammy is coaching Jake's soccer at 10:30 am and by then its usually smoking hot

Oh yea, also after a long workout like today's, I'm totally starving all day and I'm pretty sure I've consumed way more than the 1,900 calories I burned

This Is An Expensive Sport! Part II

I read an article that Triathlons are quickly becoming the new golf. In fact the average income for an Ironman finisher is $160,000. I can see why. Yesterday, Tammy booked some rooms for Muskoka Long Course in July as well as Muskoka 70.3 in September.....six hundred dollars later, and that doesn't include other expenses like food or eating out. Seeing this is my first time up at Muskoka, we figured that it would be better to stay at Deerhurst Resort as that's where 70.3 starts and ends so there would be one less thing to worry about ie the travel to and from the race site with the kids and everything else.

Taking a page out of Scobie's idea of vacationing (go to some exotic place to have a nice vacation and oh while I'm here, I might as well enter an Ironman), I've been toying with the idea of racing Calgary 70.3 next August as Tammy's brother is expecting their first baby in December this year. So, we can combine a visit to see the new baby and a race in Calgary but I'd be a little worried about the expense and logistics of hauling three kids and my bike and gear across the country.

My schedule is ramping up and becoming more interesting. This Saturday is a 2.5 hour bike and a 20 minute transition run. By the end of July it will be up to 3 hour bike and a 30 minute transition run. Definitely will be needing a nap after that workout.
Paul was telling me about the good old days when he and Glen did 5.5 hour bike rides followed by a 90 minute run.......doh!

This morning's ride was freezing as the temperature dipped to nine degrees. I wore my cold weather gear. How depressing and its almost July 1st.

No Shame

What more needs to be said?

Tubes Go Boom

So how is it possible to go through four inner tubes in one day? Quite simple. Over inflate them until they blow up.

Coming in from Thursday's ride my back wheel started to wobble just as I pulled up to my driveway and I had a flat tire. No problemo, I'll just change it downstairs as I always ride with two spare inner tubes. So once I changed the flat (yes I made sure the tire was rotating in the right direction), I started to pump it up when BOOM. The tire exploded. Annoyed, as I made sure that I was pumping them up to the proper pressure (120 psi). So I changed that one, pumped it up and re set the wheel. The next day, I went down to the basement and my rear tire was flat again!! What the fuck????

So I changed it again, and BOOM. That tube blew as well. I couldn't figure what was going on so I called Paul and basically we figured out that I was pinching the inner tube and it was hanging out so when I pumped it up, because it was outside of the tire (which was unnoticeable), the tube would explode.

So, what lessons are to be learned from this debacle? a) ride with more than one inner tube, b) learn how to change a flat because if this happened in a race, I easily wasted 15 minutes changing the tire and c) the importance of making sure the tube is all inside the tire and not pinched especially by the valve.

This week was a down week and on Thursday I had my first outdoor run. It was a short 30 minute run with no problems. Saturday was a 45 minute ride and a 30 minute run. I could "feel" my hamstring after today's workout. Clearly its not 100 percent healed. On both Wednesday and Friday's strength workout, I try to target the hamstring and wonder if I'm over doing it. Hopefully I can stay out of trouble as the mileage starts to ramp up in July with Muskoka Long Course which is a 15 km run.

Guelph Report

It was a great day to race as the temperature called for sunny skies with a slight breeze. I switched my triathlon to a swim and bike as although my hammy had healed, I hadn't run in 3 weeks and running 10 km probably wasn't the greatest idea despite how badly I wanted to run. Does that mean I'm actually learning something?

The swim was two loops of 750 metres with a 100 metre run along the beach. Looking back I think that was easier to swim rather than a straight 1,500 metres. The race was a mass start (not waves based on age) which I didn't like as it was pretty crowded as I got punched and kicked. I came out way too fast and think I finished the first leg in about 12 1/2 minutes as I tried to get away from the mass. By the second leg the pack had thinned out and I swam at a much slower pace....way too slow. If I swam the first leg in 12 minutes then that means I swam the second leg in 21 minutes. Brutal. Part of the problem that this was the first open water swim with a wetsuit and I really laboured getting my rhythm under control. I definitely need to practise more open water swims as its completely different than swimming in a pool. Hopefully I can get up to Van Nostrom's pond for their Monday night swims except Rebecca has soccer that night so I'll have to try and figure something out.

The transition was a disaster as when I racked my bike I entered from one way but the run from the water came in a different entrance and I must have wasted at least 90 seconds looking for my bike. So much for blasting through this race.

The race course wasn't too bad but the wind had picked up and heading out of the park was right into the wind and uphill. It took a little while to get my legs but I kept reminding myself I wasn't running so I could push harder. Riding with the wind I was averaging about 45 km/hr on the flats which was great but riding into the wind was a different story. I felt sorry for those who were riding without aero bars.

Clearly there are lessons to be learned from this race.

1. I need to take things more seriously and not get too cocky

2. My transition was a disaster, never mind not being able to find my bike

3. Even though my average speed was 30.4 km/hr, I need to increase my speed

4. Need to build my speed on the swim portion

5. Need to run faster....oh wait I didn't run but I think I would have been hard pressed to match Wasaga's pace at 5:07 per km

Other than that it was a perfect race. Finally met Mike Dunbar and had a little chat with him. Lisa had a good time (even if they couldn't find her results) as she beat last year's time by a good 20 minutes or so.

All in all, it was a good day as it was nice and sunny but not scorching and the kids had fun playing at the park. Thankfully, my brother Don and Barb were there to help out as it can be tough to watch all three kids for a long time.

Guelph Is On!!!!!!!

More to follow. Clearly I won't be able to run but I will at least do the swim and ride portion

Update

Not much going on as Guelph Olympic is this Sunday and while my hamstring is fine, I don't have the legs to run 10 km so looks like another race bites the dust.Master swimming ended last week so I'm scrambling to find times and places to swim. On Tuesday I swam at my old pool Centennial at 6 am and I forgot how horrible it is to swim there as we were sharing the pool with the Mallards (they moved from Angus Glen) and we were stuck with swimming in one lane. This was a mess as the five swimmers were all swimming at different paces and strokes so it was impossible to build up any rhythm. After 40 minutes of screwing around, we packed it in.
Fortunately Serge was coaching the Mallards and offered us to join them at 5:30 am Tuesdays and Thursdays. We complained that we were directionless as we had no drills to do and felt lost. He promised that he would have some drills to do on Thursday.

So today, Brian joined us (just like old times) and Serge gave us 7 x 75 metres of front crawl with a pull buoy and 25 metres of legs only. This was followed by 7 x 200 metres of front crawl. What a difference from the day before as this was easily accomplished whereas Tuesday, I don't think we even swam 1,000 metres.

In lieu of running, I've been water running, which is unbelievably boring but next Monday, I start running again. I'm no longer worried about my hamstring but more my left foot as a couple of weeks ago I blocked a slap shot and it went off my foot. I did a mini run last Monday and my foot ached. Oh oh

How will I ever do an Ironman and not get injured?

The Mysterious Hammy Problem Solved!

So after no improvements to my hammy, I couldn't figure out what the hell was wrong. I had wiped out my running for the last two weeks and Kevin was very surprised that it hadn't healed.

After a long talk with the coach where we kept asking if I was stretching (yes), was I doing strength training (sort of, most of the time), what the hell was I doing differently?????? NOTHING!!! I kept telling him. The only thing that is different from this year and last year is that last year I didn't put my aero bars on until around end of July and this year I'm in the aero position almost all the time except for hill climbing. Well I've must have installed them wrong. Desperate, I offered to bring my bike up for a fitting and I went up Tuesday night after hockey.

As soon as I got on the bike, coach immediately noticed I wasn't sitting right. Turns out the seat had slipped 3/4 of an inch and the saddle had moved back a full inch. What that did was I was scrunched up and my hip flexor was not being extended which in turn was pulling on my hamstring. Who knew that you were suppose to tighten the nuts and bolts on your bike? Ironically I stopped running and ramped up my riding to compensate and I ended up causing more damage. Well better finding out sooner than later. All the stretching and strength training wouldn't have prevented me from getting hurt.

Since Tuesday, I've ridden twice and noticed that my hammy is getting better and stronger. On Friday, I started to do some strength exercises for my hammy and also started to water run. In the afternoon I borrowed my friend's access pass to his condo and used the condo's pool to water run. It was a torturous 45 minute run in a salt water pool. Note: after swimming in a salt water pool, be sure to take a good shower to rinse off the salt. I didn't and it felt like I was wearing a layer of salt all day and I was very thirsty. Next week is three times of more water running.....oh god. Please let my hammy heal quickly.

This morning I had to do a two hour ride but checking the weather when I woke up, it was just nasty. It was pouring rain and windy so I opt to ride inside on the trainer. I'm sure glad I didn't have to ride in that crap!! Fortunately I rented Avatar and that helped kill the time. It was ok but reminded me of a futuristic "Dances With Wolves." One of those movies that you'd watch once and that is enough. A cheesy and predictable ending.

Next Sunday was supposed to be Guelph Olympic but as good as my hammy feels, it doesn't look like a go as its been over two weeks since I've ran. Another one bites the dust.........

Milton

Ok so maybe I'm not that unhappy.

Its raining, 12 degrees and the wind is 20 km/hr. The water temperature is warmer than the air.

So I don't get another T-shirt...................

Oh and now Guelph is in jeopardy but again another "C" race

Another One Bites The Dust

First there was Around The Bay, then Whitby Half Marathon and now Milton. I have a perfect race record in 2010.

This morning I rode for 90 minutes and everything was ok when I got back. My Hammy was a little sore but nothing major. I decided to go for a very short run just to see how it felt as I haven't been running all week. Well I got about half the distance last week, oh about 200 metres before I felt that familiar stabbing pain. Clearly I'm not built to run and I think I need to work more on strength training and stretching. Some people can get away without doing it, I ain't one of them.

I've toyed with the idea of only doing the swim and ride for Milton (seeing that I've already paid) but with the weather calling for 90% chance of rain, why bother? I'm pretty sure I can swim 75o metres and then ride 30 km so why risk crashing coming down the Sixth Line Hill in the pouring rain? Last year I hit 75 km/hr coming down the hill. Its only a "C" race. The Guelph Olympic race is only 2 weeks away and I'm not even sure if I'll be ok by that time.

Two weeks is a long time and I should be good to go right???? Grrr this hammy thing has been going on for two weeks and nothing has changed.

I am not happy

Not Good

Not Good Part I
I tried running this morning but had to stop after 0.53 km. The tweaked hammy returns. Milton is very much in jeopardy but then its only a C race.

Not Good Part II
My buddy Scobie was trying to qualify for Kona by racing Ironman Brazil yesterday. His swim time was a little off at 1.12 but something happened in T1 where he was down for 15 minutes. He must have been pissed because he came roaring out and completed the first leg of the cycling portion (49 km) for an average speed of 40 km/hr. The cycling portion was completed in 5:01 and his run was a little off at 3:48 for a total time of 10:20. No doubt he's in a very foul mood. I'll catch up with him when he gets back for the lowdown.

Tweak.....There Goes The Hammy

So after a great workout last Saturday consisting of a 45 km bike ride and a 11 km run, I felt pretty good, tired but good. Sunday I worked for 11.5 hours helping Paul build a shed and holiday Monday was gardening around the house. I was exhausted. Good thing this week is a recovery week and everything seemed to be going great for my first race on June 6 in Milton. I've been feeling really good and planned to blast through Milton sprint and Guelph olympic as the races were shorter than my actual workouts. Wednesday's workout was a 45 minute bike ride and then hit the weights. I worked on my legs and abs and everything was ok but I decided to change my Thursday workout and skip Master swim as I had to be on course (the golf course) at 7:48 am Thursday morning so I decided to run instead. But 7 minutes in the run my hamstring started to ache and after another couple of minutes I shut it down and walked back home. I was to tee off in two hours and was worried that I wouldn't be able to walk but after icing it down, my hamstring felt better so I played anyways. While I was golfing I emailed Kevin (gotta love Blackberry) and arranged for him to come over later that night for some treatment.

Wow a home visit. Awesome!!

After some pure torture, he declared it wasn't too bad and I should be able to do Milton after some rest. Whew!

As gratitude, Tammy baked him some Banana Rum cake which I figure has about 500 calories per slice and we washed it down with a cold one.

Hope the coach doesn't see this blog!!!!

I think I figured out why I was sooooo tired early this week. It was probably a result of my body trying to fight off a cold. By Wednesday I had a sore throat, slight fever, sinus congestion and very tired. I went swimming Thursday morning but stayed at the end of the line as I didn't have the energy to swim hard and was quite content to hang at the back. I didn't even finish the last drill (12 x 100 metres front crawl) as once 6:30 am came, I bailed with 500 metres to go. Once I got home I had a diet coke for the caffeine kick and in fact I had several DCs throughout the day to keep awake. Zero chance of doing my 60 minute run Thursday night.

Friday morning was a write off (strength training) as I still felt like crap but by late afternoon was feeling better. I was really unsure if I could do Saturday's workout (90 minute ride and 60 minute run) and it really came down to how I felt Saturday morning. The threat of rain in the morning didn't help either.

I woke up at the usual 4:30 in the morning and felt about 80% and it wasn't raining so I had to go. As mentioned earlier, I'm trying to push harder on the ride and get my average speed up. Today I averaged 28.5 km/hr which is 1 km/hr faster (whoo hooo) than last week's workout. One of these days I'll get it above 30 km/....like when my whole workout is downhill.

The run portion was pretty much uneventful other than the there were lots of garage sales and I stopped and did a quick check for any weights or dumbbells for my strength training. I did go 11.15 km in 60 minutes which is 0.75 km further than last week's run as well.

As soon as I got in, I had to do a quick stretch, shower and eat as I had a massage at 9:00 am. After Rishi killed my for an hour he gave me exercises for my weak ankles. Great, just what I need....more exercises. I definitely need to book more time with him as I'm sure it would be a lot less painful if I got a massage on a regular basis.

Total workout
1,818 calories burned
44.5 km rode
11.15 km run

I'm ready for a nap.....................

Training At 5 AM

One of the problems about training at 5 am every day is that by the time you get to work, you're so tired that you actually don't feel like doing any work and you end up wasting the day watching stupid videos on Youtube

Nutrition and Core!

I think I need to do more core exercises as today was another Brick workout consisting of a good 75 minute ride followed by a 60 minute run. My lower back was sore throughout the run however it could have been the result of my new aero bars that my sister in law was kind enough to let me borrow. I wonder if she even noticed they were gone as Paul took them off her "back up" bike. They are better than the ones that I was using (Paul's old set) as I found I was more stable and not weaving all over the road with every pedal stroke which could be a problem in a race.

I started my run feeling very stiff and sore and hungry. Clearly I didn't eat enough before I started this morning as I had a PBJ (peanut butter and jam - well fake peanut butter as Jake is allergic to nuts) before I headed out at 5:45 am. I drank a bottle of amino vital during the ride while and one gel shot during the run. By the time I finished, I was totally starving and was feeling weak and shaky (did playing ice hockey Friday afternoon have anything to do with it?). According to my heart rate monitor, I burned 1,516 calories but I think I ate a good 900 calories for breakfast. I need to get this nutrition thing down. For my Brick work outs last year (60 minute ride and 35 minute run), I could go out on an empty stomach and take one gel shot but throughout the day I was totally starving. I felt like the Tazmanian Devil and usually wolfed down all my lunch and snacks by 11:30 am and still be hungry. Given this year's Brick workout, I need to eat more before heading out.

Overall, today's work out was ok as I tried to push harder on the bike and keep my heart rate at a consistent zone 3 while my run wasn't as strong as it could be, I'm not too worried as I'm only suppose to be running at a zone 2. Interesting when I started the run, I was going at a painful 6:05 min/km pace but I finished at a easy 5:30 pace. Talk about a negative split. I rode about 35 km and ran 10.5 km in 2 hours and 20 minutes which is pretty much an Olympic distance race.

I cut Thursday's run short as I was supposed to go out for 55 minutes but it started to pour and the wind picked up quite nasty. I was freezing cold and totally drenched so as I ran by my house, I packed it in after only 53 minutes. I felt guilty.

For both Thursday and Saturday's runs, my knee has been ok with just minor aches and pains. No massive sharp, stabbing bouts of pain....yet. Could it be that the exercises prescribed actually work????

Now about my shoulder which has begun to ache after swimming.............again.

The Build Begins (well relativity speaking)

So this is the first week of my build up. Monday was a Brick workout that called for a 60 minute bike followed by a 55 minute run. I usually go on an empty stomach but I knew there was no way I could survive this workout so I actually ate before I hit the bike. In order to get everything completed (including stretching) that meant that I had to get up at 4:30 am to eat and then I started riding at 4:55 am. Wonderful. What else is there to do at 4:55 in the morning?

Somehow our warm spring has seemed to disappear as its gotten pretty chilly at nights and Monday morning there was a frost warning so I decided to ride inside and watch the Bourne Identity...again. Dripping wet, I changed into a dry t-shirt and headed outside for 55 minutes of fun. My knee was ok but started to ache around the 45 minute mark but I pushed on for the last 10 minutes. I was a little tired but felt ok.

All in all, it was a pretty good workout and I managed to burn 1215 calories. Not bad but I must of ate 900 calories for breakfast and then lunch...........well lets just say, I finished lunch by eating seven or eight chocolate chip cookies that had to be worth at least 250 calories each....doh! Dinner was a salad and some dish with beans and broccoli. This morning I was down half a pound. Whoo hoo!

Swimming was ok but pretty uneventful. Not many swimmers and my shoulder began to ache. I wonder why? Oh right, exercise - or there lack of. How did that go again? Must do exercise, must do.......

Ironman Utah

Just found out one of the guys I used to work with completed his first Ironman in Utah. His time? 10:45!! Unreal and according to my brother, his longest outdoor ride was 120 km and he did most of rides at spinning class

Now why can't I train like that? What the hell is wrong with me?

Weed

No not the kind you smoke, the kind you pull. The trouble with living on a ravine is your backyard is over run with weeds. I spent 4 hours pulling weeds.

I wonder how this counts for training? Strength training for my back or mental toughness?

Footy!!

So I was out for my run yesterday afternoon and I was running by a school field when I noticed these two guys kicking a ball around. As I got closer, I realized they were kicking a footy around!! Wow! I stopped and talked to the the guys. One of them was wearing a Hawks jumper (jersey) but it didn't look like any I've ever seen before. I was thinking my old team, the Broadview Hawks, had changed their jumper but when I started talking to the guy, he explained that it was his jumper from back home (Australia) and he was up for a month visiting someone. The other guy was a Canadian and I assume that's who he was visiting. I was dying for a kick, so I took off my water belt, ipod and foot pod and started kicking the ball around. It was great and I really miss playing Aussie Rules Football. I played for 11 years here in Toronto and most don't realize that Ontario has the biggest Footy league outside of Australia.

So what is Aussie Rules Football or otherwise known as Footy?

Footy is to Aussies what ice hockey is to Canadians

Oh how I miss playing (how about you Scobie?) Unfortunately the footy season ends in September and that's when Muskoka 70:3 is. I wonder what coach would say if he saw me playing footy given how he complains about my ice hockey? If you're interested in watching a game TSN shows the games but at 6 am Saturday morning. I would tape it but a) I would never get a chance to watch the game and b) the PVR is full of Hanna Montana and CSI....neither of my shows

On another front, my knee didn't hurt after a 40 minute run (not including the 20 minutes I spent kicking the footy around).

This morning was weight training and I made sure to nail the glutes and hammies. I'm sure they're going to be sore tomorrow

PS: I got beat by a 13 year old at swim practice on Thursday. It was the coach's daughter and she smoked me by 5 seconds in 50 metre free style race.

Must Do Exercises, Must Do Exercises, Must......

So things were looking pretty good as my new shoes and orthotics seem to be working pretty good but last week my right knee started to ache after each run. Usually around the 40 minute mark it started to ache in a couple of different spots. On Monday's run, I was suppose to go for 50 minutes but due to a miscalculation in my route I ended up going about 1:15. My knee was really sore and I knew there was something wrong. I spoke with the coach and he basically reamed me for not doing the exercises. Fortunately Tammy was going to see Kevin the chiropractor today and she arranged for me to see him after her appointment (Jake peed twice in his pants while I was watching him).

Basically Kevin said the problem was not serious but seriously I needed to do the exercises in order to strengthen my glutes and hips which were basically screwing everything else up as other muscles have to work overtime to compensate.

I already signed up for Milton sprint, Guelph Olympic and Muskoka Long Course Sprint so I'd better get this fixed asap. Must remember to do the exercises........

On another note, Tammy ran the Legacy 5K (fund raiser for Markham Souffville Hospital). She ran it last year as her first race and was looking to beat her time of 28:49 but this year they changed the timer and it was gun time and not chip time. Her time was over 32 minutes but she started way back of the pack so no idea what her real time was. What a disaster but I did see one of my old swimming buddies from Centennial pool. Derek wasn't happy with his time as he was hoping to run in under 18 minutes and he ran just over. Sick. We were swimming one time and in the time it took me to swim 50 metres, Derek passed me twice. Sick

The Return Of The One-Leg Drills

Today was a good ride as I went a little longer than scheduled. I'm continuing to do the 60 seconds hard and 60 seconds easy drills up Warden ave. Once I crossed Stouffville Side Road, I started doing the one legged drills and along Bethesda Road which is a great road to do drills as there is hardly any traffic. Once I crossed Kennedy Road, I did the out of the saddle drill until I made it to McCowan Ave (about 2.1 km). Normally I would have turned south to head home but this morning I decided to head north to Bloomington Road as there is a good hill to climb. Once I hit Bloomington I turned around and headed back down the hill but nearly crashed my bike as I was too busy trying to see how fast I was going and not realizing I was drifting over to the shoulder. That would have been a painful crash at 45 km/hr.

By the time I got home I was bagged and starving. I really need to eat more before I head out as well as start taking gel shots. Once I got home I checked my heart rate monitor and found that I burned 911 calories in 1:19 minutes. Not bad as I don't ever remember burning that much in one ride which is probably a good indication of the lack of intensity in my rides.

Swimming is going great as over the last couple of practices, we've been doing 2200 metres and I haven't been as tired as I used to get.

The one thing that I am worried about is my knee. I still feel slight pain after every ride and run so I've been icing and trying to remember to do the exercises. The new shoes and orthotics definitely help but I'm always wondering when my knee will blow up and everything comes to a crashing halt.

Tomorrow is a rest day and Tammy is running in the Markham Stouffville 5 Km race. She hoping to beat last year's time of 28:49. As usual, its suppose to rain

PS: I'm totally starving and been eating like a pig

Wiped Out

I rode this morning outside and it was little chilly to say the least. With my clean and tuned up bike I was ready. With a late start due to poor organizing the night before, when I left when it was almost 6 am. Given about my concerns for a weak cycling, a couple of triathletes have commented that I should be exhausted after my rides. Clearly that's hasn't been happening as whether I ride indoors or outdoors, I haven't been riding very hard.

I decided to try a different tactic. After a 15 minutes warm up, I rode hard for 60 seconds and then easy for 60 seconds. I did this about 5 times and then rode out of the saddle for 2 minutes four times. By the time I got home I was wiped out. Its been a while since I was this tired from only riding.

Its now after lunch and I've eaten everything I brought to work and I'm still starving. Signs of a good workout

This Is An Expensive Sport!

Well today I found out that this sport continues to be expensive even after all the spending last summer to get started. In never seems to end.

I rode for 45 minutes this morning (its a down week) before taking my bike to the coach for its spring tune up but before I did, I found my knees were aching after my rides so one thing the orthotic guy said because of the way I'm built (bowlegged) I should turn the clips of my riding shoe inwards about 10 degrees so before my ride I unloosened the screws and tried to angle my cleats inwards but I think I screwed it up as my knees were aching during the ride. During the ride Tammy came downstairs and let me know she was going out for her 20 minute run so as soon as she got back I'd be finished riding and could take my bike to get it tuned up. Well by the time she got back and I had the bike loaded I was running a little late but as I was about to jump on the 404, coach called me and wanted to know where the hell I was as he had to meet another athlete somewhere else at 8:30 and he couldn't wait around for me. He would be back in an hour. Crap!! I was pissed but it was my fault I was late. I had wanted to go to Price Choppers and buy some more dirt for seeding the lawn. Yesterday I ordered one yard of dirt (about one tonne) and used it all up(does this count as strength training?) and I needed about another 20 bags (about half a tonne) more so I stopped in and got the dirt(ahh the joys of home ownership) and headed up to the coach's place.

As usual he started reaming me up about my bike maintenance (or there lack of) as I don't lube my chain, put the tire on backward etc etc etc. Then I told him about the cleats on my riding shoes, oh that was a mistake as I quickly realize that I shouldn't have changed the positions without consulting with the coach and I think he's right as the way he explained it seems to make sense so in order to realign my cleats I need to do another bike fitting which will cost $125. Crap crap crap crap crap. Chalk it up to inexperience. He also took a quick look at my running shoes with the new orthotics and after 5 steps he said the shoes didn't work with them and I needed new shoes ASAP......great more $$$$$$$$$$. So I arranged to meet him at Running Free at 3 pm and mentioned two friends also needed to be fitted for new shoes as well.

Well turns out it cost about $450 to fix the bike (I also loaded up Amino-Vital and got a free riding shirt that looks really cool) and my new shoes plus some stuff Tammy wanted cost another $200 (I guess I'm lucky that Tammy didn't need new shoes as well) and the swim coach just sent me my bill for half the year of another $230. Not a bad week. Did I mention that our bank account is in an overdraft of $1800 and I just got paid 4 days ago?

I suppose I shouldn't complain as I could be buying some cool Power tap wheels at $1000 a pop.

Tomorrow is a rest day and Tammy was kind enough to let me go golfing with my friend at Deer Creek. Its suppose to be four degrees in the morning. How fun will that be?

The Dog Days of.....April???

Must be something in the water as it seems a couple of fellow triathletes are running out of gas and its only April. I went thru this in February when I working 6 days a week and was just bagged. After one of my numerous injuries in early March, I shut it down for 5 days straight. This helped as I felt refreshed and hit the training schedule again.

Lately over the last week or two I've been having off (blah) days where I just seem to be going through the motions, like today's ride. Fortunately its a down week so I don't need to worry about the intensity but if I'm this tired now, how in the world could I train for an Ironman? Right now, I'm only training about 9 hours a week (including hockey) but for an Ironman I would have to double it to about 20 hours a week. How in the hell do other people (those with kids) do it? I spoke with the coach yesterday and had mentioned that because I've been riding outside since March break, I wasn't doing the riding drills and he wasn't to thrilled. The thought of doing cycling drills outside when its dark really doesn't strike me as the smartest thing to do. I mentioned to him that I am worried about Muskoka especially the cycling as I believe it to be my weakest leg. He basically said the drills are to build me up for Muskoka and I should be doing them...period so I've been riding back inside. Boringggggggggg

I also mentioned that I haven't been able doing the strength training and predictably he was unsympathetic. I like doing the workouts after I have rode or ran but lately it seems they're always trouble upstairs and someone is usually yelling or crying or both. That usually kills my workout. I am a big believer that everything in life is a trade off and while I could just ignore the screaming and yelling upstairs, it would only lead to further problems so something usually gets missed (ie strength training).

Of course my coach has no sympathy. He's single, lives alone and has no kids. As he always tells me, "you're not the only athlete with kids." True but I doubt they are as young as mine (6.5, 4 and 2.5 years old) or they have help ie nanny or in-laws. Which leads back to my original question of how could I possibly train for an Ironman without getting divorced? I guess I already know the answer that its simply not possible (especially if Tammy goes back to work) for at least several more years. That's not a bad thing as even though I've ran 5 half-marathons, I have no desire to run a full marathon unless its part of an Ironman.

Maybe I can put that on my "bucket list" of things to do before I hit 50 years old, which is how far away??????

Ohhhhh My Abs

I really haven't been doing much strength training, abs or the exercises that Kevin prescribed in the last couple of weeks. I've also been worried about my cycling as I believe its the weakest link. I talked to Scobie (IM Germany 10:04) and he said that his workouts are generally heavily weighed towards cycling which my definition is the leg that is the longest of a triathlon. He also mentioned that he does the one-legged drills (which I hate) and riding out of the saddle even when he's riding outside. Since the weather has been warm enough, I've been riding outside and ditching the drills. Well this morning it was about three degrees with a nasty wind chill so I decided to ride inside and concentrate on the drills. I really hate doing the one legged drills (did I mention that?) but did them anyways. Two minutes each leg three times as well as three times out of the saddle for two minutes (they are as bad).

After the ride I decided I needed to start working on the core muscles and strength training so i really nailed the abs and as I sit here watching the crappy Leaf's last game of the season, I can feel my abs so I have a pretty good idea what they are going to feel like tomorrow.

I emailed the coach about my concerns about cycling and he responded that I should be doing the drills inside (for safety reasons) and I also read an interesting article in Cycling Magazine

CyclingMagazine.ca � Preparing for the season: "Jourdain borrows something called 50-50 training from cross-country skiers. The athletes ride hard for 50 seconds then ease off for 50 seconds, repeating it for eight to 10 minutes. They will repeat this after a short recovery break. It's a workout that can be done in an hour.

'You choose a good terrain to do this,' Jourdain says. 'You're not doing this on the hills, you are on flat terrain, without wind if possible and without a big gear. You need to manage your intensity. 'That is the new philosophy. It means you don't have to wait a month doing slow long distances before introducing interval training to increase fitness.'"

This sounds ideal once I resume riding outside as my one hour outdoor rides are pretty tame (ah more like lame) and this sounds like a great way to build up my endurance although I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to hammer it for 50 seconds when I'm riding outside at 5:30 in the morning as I can't see anything let alone my watch.

Tomorrow is my dad's 80th birthday. Happy Birthday Dad!