TT Series - Thanks to Andre, Jordan and Sarah for coming out. Strong performances from everyone. Good Luck to Andre racing tomorrow and Sarah and Jordan in just over a week at GWN! I hope to make this an annual series every year.

Busy! - Work. Train. Eat. Sleep. Be a good husband! I haven’t blogged the last couple of weeks as I just haven’t had much time to really put anything down. Naomi underwent her surgery to remove the benign tumour from her arm. This, only 2-3 weeks after having her SI joint issues. Needless to say.. she’s been in a lot of pain and on a lot of drugs… but she’s on the mend now and feeling much better. It’s been a tough, stressful couple of weeks, but I’ll always be there for my wife.

To end the month here… I have a work deadline of July 2, and I am burning the midnight oil to get things done. I’ve been working on this project for over a year… the most complicated thing I have ever built. Satisfying sure… but I could do with more sleep and less stress.

ironguides - Lots of big things in the works with ironguides central. Stay tuned for more sponsors, partners, training camps, and more. Check out the ironguides column written by Marc Becker in the latest issue of Triathlete magazine. On my end, I’m now helping two athletes from Calgary on their way to sprint and 70.3 races.. woo!

On Saturday, Naomi and I drove out to Hinton for the Mountainview Triathlon. In the foothills of the mountains, Hinton is a spectacular setting for a triathlon. As we move into summer, I am getting ready for 1/2 iron distance racing, so Vinnie said I could taper a bit for this race and put in a serious hard effort before he switches my schedule to a long(er) course focus. Well… work and life conspired against me last week and my fatigue leading into this race was pretty high… I didn’t feel any fresher than my last couple of races.

I was originally going to sign up for the Oly distance version of this race, which includes the climb to Obed Summit… a serious amount of climbing in 20km, probably the hardest Oly distance in Western Canada!? However, when I saw that the Sprint was the AB champs.. I thought I would give the title a shot! HA! When I saw the forecast for raceday.. I knew I had made the right choice.. cold and possibility of rain.. and southern AB was getting snow!

As a sprint competitor with a faster swim time, my heat would go off last, ensuring maximum temperatures before I had to get on the bike. Never really felt a good groove on the swim, but I followed the feet of the girl who started 5s before me, who was holding a good pace, and came out right behind her. Fastest swim time overall, THAT will never happen again.

Into transition, the air temp was still hovering below 10C, so after a disastrous hypothermic DNF last year.. I put on a pair of running warmup pants and my cycling jacket. Forget aero, I wanted to be warm!

Onto the bike and I pushed it. I was a bit surprised at how flat my legs felt.. but I was moving pretty good and gave it my best. At the turnaround, I thought to myself.. wow.. sprint races are so fast.. this is fun! The downhill back into town was a blast and I ripped into transition with what I felt was a decent lead. Not knowing how fast competitors in early heats had gone.. I ripped out of transition at full sprint. The run course was awesome! A 1.2km climb up a paved path.. then another 1.3km into a forested trail to the top of a hill… very tough… but I loved it.

My time was good enough to secure me top spot on the day. My first win at a triathlon. Two wins in one season! Woo! However, now it’s time to step up to much, MUCH more competitive fields. Another 5 weeks is Desert 1/2, and then on to Calgary 70.3.

I really enjoyed this race.. the Hinton triathlon is one of the older races in Alberta.. and it has this great grass-roots feel to it. I recommend it and will be back!

On other news… I completed my Technical Delegate training at the Kids of Steel race on Saturday at Lake Summerside. It was AWESOME to watch these kids brave 13C water in no wetsuits! Transition was mayhem… parents, helmets, bikes and kids everywhere…. a lot of fun to watch… and trying to make sure everyone learned the rules and had a good time. I’m hoping to TD a couple of races next season… or be a backup for this season.

For those of you racing GWN, I have signed on as a drafting official! So beware you cheating drafters…

A quick reminder… 20km TT tonight. I rode out to the course last night… with one turn and smooth roads.. and light winds… times should be FAST.

Meet at 6:30pm at Strathcona Olympiette Centre. Starting line is ~100m west of RR 223 and twp rd 520… right next to a big pond next to the road.

Make. It. Count.

Another weekend, another great race. The Coronation triathlon is one of my favorite races on the Calendar… it’s short, it’s hard, and it’s a lot of fun ripping up and down a closed Groat Road. I like racing as much as possible… I find training fun… but I do most of it solo… racing is where I get to “play” with friends.

First…. A big thank you to my wife Naomi, who came out to cheer me on. I couldn’t do this sport without your support!

Also, congrats to Jordan, who knocked a whopping 15mins off her time from last year… and she’s just getting started with ironguides training.

Thanks to the Ironwill crew for the cheers of support and pics as well.

Race day I had some GI issues. Not sure what I ate that set me off… but took a few too many trips to the toilet on race morning. During my warm up… my stomach was sloshing with liquid, and I knew that my breakfast was still sitting there… not moving. As I sat at the edge of the pool, relaxing before my wave which was 10-15min late, and was hoping it would clear, but it didn’t.

The race was what it was… a good hard workout in the buildup to another, more important race. I managed to coax my tired muscles to a decent result while (barely) keeping my stomach contents from emptying all over the finish line. And I’m extremely happy it didn’t rain! Woo!

Next up.. Hinton… a race I have never done before… can’t wait!

Enjoy your training.

It’s that time of year again… the spring training camps. They all have a variation on the theme “bike camp”, “endurance camp”, etc. The organization of these camps usually goes something like this: “We have x days…. how many big rides can we fit in with a bit of running and swimming?”. Whether they be a 3 day mini long weekend camp, or a full week long camp, the focus is on a big aerobic overload, with little thought to structure of the training sessions beyond the ineffective “long-long-easy”, or “hard, hard, easy” paradigms.

I’ve been reading a few post-camp blogs from participants in these types camps…. and have pulled together a few telling quotes:

• “skipped my morning swim, tired at work, need sleep”
• “i got sick for a few days and did no training at all”
• “had an entire easy week of recovery workouts, and still feel tired”

Chances are, you have limited holidays, which you are using for a training vacation. You travel 6-10 hours each way to/from the camp, with all the stress of packing/unpacking and putting things on hold back home. The day you get back from the camp… you have to go back to work and try and catch up on everything, while trying to work full time and getting caught up on simple things… like laundry! So you smashed yourself with 30 hours of training… bravo! The next week you do almost nothing due to fatigue and burnout. No consistency, no quality.

It doesn’t have to be this way… a training camp for the age grouper should be structured almost the same as your usual routine… just add some more volume, and more rest. A couple longer sessions can be refreshing for the soul without overly taxing the system. However, the goal is to train hard each day, yet be fresh for the next days workout by changing the training stimulus. Not only will you get more quality, you get aerobically fit as well.

All that time spent on mega-mileage training can be spent exploring, shopping, lying on the beach, reading a book… or do what most age groupers fail to do in their regular 9-5 lives.. get enough rest! It’s about time we actually took a VACATION during our vacation! Then, you come back from training camp and be are able to immediately get back to training in your regular routine, without taking excessive days of rest, get sick, and/or feel shattered at work.

Naomi and I look forward to putting together our first training camp next winter. It will include great training, food, beaches, sand, and surf!

Or… we may just have to visit Marc in his training paradise of Lagos, Portugal:

Find more videos like this on ironfolks

Well… the snow is melting as it hits the ground… but with a high of only 9C tomorrow evening.. we’ll re-schedule. I figured this might happen, given the weather we have had this fall! The race will be rescheduled for June 3 tentatively…

For those interested in joining the Method club sessions…

Due to limited hours at the NAIT pool during the summer, the Tuesday swim session will be moving to Wednesday’s for the month of July and August.

There’s nothing like the pain of a good TT on the bike to build race specific fitness for triathlon.. and of course… roadies need to TT from time to time as well.

For that reason I’ve created a Wednesday Night TT series here in Strathcona County. 5 races over 6 weeks.

May 20 - Race #1
May 27 - Race #2
June 10 - Race #3
June 17 - Race #4
June 24 - Race #5

Distance: 20km

Cost: $6 minimum donation. All proceeds to go to charity. Two equal donations from the total funds collected will go to the the fastest male/female, who compete in at least two races. Tax receipts will be in the winner’s name.

The course is a fast, flat and smooth out and back on Hwy 629 past Half Moon Lake. Parking is available at the Strathcona Olympiette Centre (Twp Rd 520, Rge Rd 224).

This is an unsanctioned event.. consider it a timed ride with friends!

I’ll post updates here.. you can also check out the ironguides Edmonton group on facebook….
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/ironguides-Edmonton/188269550537?ref=mf

A quick race report…. yesterday was my first multisport race of the season, the Sandy Beach Duathlon.

Saturday before the race, I did my usual taper, a 3 hour ride, followed by a 30min trun. I had hurt my calf dodging a clueless driver the week before, and had been unable to run more than 30mins all week. Despite feeling a bit tight still after the trun, I figured it would hold and I made the call to race on Sunday.

I went to bed late, and only managed about 3-4 hours sleep before my alarm went off. Surprisingly I felt ok. I went downstairs and moved my pedals over to my Felt from my winter training bike.. my old Cervelo P3. The Felt has sat unused since Soma 1/2 last October, and still had the race wheels on. I pumped the tires, checked the drive-train… all good to go. I have my position dialed in exactly the same on both bikes, the only difference being the slightly shorter (170 vs 172.5) crank length, so I was hoping a last minute bike switch wouldn’t lead to any issues in the race.

Race morning was cool, but the forecast was for 22C later in the day. I decided on double-jersey with arm warmers and my compression socks. A couple people asked about the benefits of these socks… worth every penny, buy them today!

Warmup.. I felt sluggish. The legs were heavy and twitchy and I had no zip. I wondered how on earth I was going to run a fast 5k… let alone 2!

The gun went off slightly after 9 and we were off. Only 23 people this time… but a few faster guys to make things interesting at the front. Eric (didn’t catch his last name), took the lead after the first km, and I just held in about 10m back. Matt was behind me… a strong runner… I think he might have been a bit tired as he usually outruns me. We all pulled back into transition in about 17min. I had the fastest transition and was on the road… but my compression sock stuck to the velcro on my bike shoe and I couldn’t get my shoe on! Doh! Matt and Eric pulled ahead of me, I fixed my shoe and jumped on the train about 15m back.

About 5km into the bike, with Eric in the lead, the gap between Matt and Eric started to open up. I made the decision that I had to stick with Eric as he seemed the stronger cyclist on the day, so I gunned it past Matt. At this time I didn’t know that Matt was having a tire issue and rode over 1/2 off the bike on an almost flat tire? I pulled behind Eric at good legal distance and let him dictate the pace. I was feeling strong now.. the bike almost felt EASY. Instead of hammering into the front and going for a gap, I gambled that Eric was working a bit harder and that I could take the lead on the second run.

We pulled into T2, 10m apart as when we started the bike. I think I had the fastest transition of my life… and bang.. I was off. The legs were feeling heavy, but I was tapping out a decent pace. At the turnaround I had a 10m gap, but at that point Eric (as he said to me later) was on the verge of cramping and had to back off. The second 5km run went by in a little over 18mins, and I cruised home for the victory. My first win at a multisport race. I am definitely biking and running my best ever this season.

Next race in three weeks…. Enjoy your training…

The rules are:
1. Fill it out
2. Change one question with one of your own
3. Add an additional question
4. Tag 3 other people to do the same

1. What are your current obsessions?
I don’t obsess.

2. Which item from your closet are you wearing most often?
My housecoat… every day.

3. Last thing you bought for yourself?
Tim Horton’s coffee.

4. What’s for breakfast?
Oatmeal with cinnamon, a tiny bit of dark brown sugar, and blueberries, eggs and toast.

5. Say something to the person who tagged you:
My wife Naomi… I love you.

6. What is one item you could not live without?
Food. Lots of it.

7. Vacation spots you must visit before you die?
There’s none I MUST visit… how about…. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teahupoo

8. What is your most immediate short term goal:
Get more sleep.

9. What are you reading right now?
My computer screen

10. What is the last movie you saw and enjoyed?
“Forgetting Sarah Marshall”. Very, very funny!

11. What’s your guilty pleasure?
Oatmeal Choco-chip cookies from Sunterra.

12. What’s your favorite smell?
Hmm… tough one. Fresh Hawaiian Papaya?

13. Whats something you look forward to?
I try to live in the moment.

14. Favorite Quote?
“Maybe it’s not too late to learn how to love and forget how to hate” - Ozzy Osbourne

15. What do you do for a profession?
I’m a computer geek… business applications. Fun.

16. Whats one thing you can’t go a day with out doing?
Breathing. Tried it once.. very difficult.

17. What do you have an addiction to?
Coffee. Wonderful coffee.

18. Whats your favorite holiday?
Canada Day! I love my country… and it feels like the official start of summer.

19. How many pairs of shoes (not just running) do you have??
10 maybe? Bike shoes, running, work, casual…

20. Tell us one random thing about you.
In junior high I was a skateboarder.

21. Why did you start your blog?
Ego. Look at me! It’s also an excuse not to call my family on the phone.. as I know they read this…. yes, I’m a bad son.

22. What is your silliest/ most embarrassing triathlete rookie story?
The first time I raced in a really cold lake, I didn’t wear earplugs. I fell over at the swim exit, and several times in transition trying to get my wetsuit off!

23. If you could do anything in the world, what would it be?
Be positive. Always.

I’m not tagging anyone… but if you want to answer these questions and say I tagged you.. go ahead…