Triing in Victoria

Race pics over the last couple years

2011-09-07T17:19:00.000-07:00

New Coach, possible move...

2011-06-13T22:08:00.000-07:00

Long time no post, but not much has changed really. Still taking it easy on the training front, trying to rebuild some semblance of fitness, which is happening ever since I started working with my new coach Adam O'Meara. His training plans have been kicking my ass into shape, and the long term view for Worlds in November is starting to take focus. Should be a great summer of training and building some qualitty fitness for my biggest race ever. On the bad side of things, looks like I may be reloctaed to Denver Colorado for work. Obviously a pretty tough time on the home front as I now have a ton of things to try and sort out all while making sure I keep training rolling along strees free and take care of things at home. First race of the season is coming up this weekend, the New Balance half Iron, or as it's called now, the Victoria Half Iron. I love this race. It was my first long course race 5 years ago, and I have only missed this race once(last year due to broken wrist). Although i'm not quite in race shape it should work out to being a great training day and a good way to get back in the groove of racing. Hoping to finish under 5:15, so we'll see how that goes. Best of luck to everyone racing, hope to see you out there.

Cheers,
Mike

New Direction

2011-04-06T20:25:00.000-07:00

So, after a couple months where i've been training but not seeing any real gains in fitness i've decided to go in a different direction with my training by enlisting the help of a couple people who I really value the opinions of. Not only are these two well established in their collective knowledge of the sport, but they are also located in Victoria which is a big plus for me. Looking forward to workig with them and I will reveal them shortly once we've started our road to the World Champs together.

Cheers,
Mike

Rest week, and a quick thought or 2 on intensity

2011-02-07T19:07:00.000-08:00

This week was a rest week for me, a time to take in the first few weeks of steady training and give my body a bit of a break. I have found in the past couple years that I tend to overlook rest weeks early in my plans, and that it tends to come back to haunt me around March-April. So this year, needless to say, I plan on giving myself an easier week after 3 good training weeks. The timing for this week happened to be perfect, as I got sick on the weekend with some kind of flu where I was just ridiculously tired and lethargic for 2 straight days. Lots of co-workers have been gettig sick as well, so something is obviously going around, time to break out the Emergen-C!!!(powder vitamin C you put in a drink). So anyway, the week was relatively uneventful, I got in some strong swim sets, and I feel like i'm starting to come around in the pool as I was holding low 1:30's for my 100's this week. Good times. Running was good as well as I jumped in with a group at the track on Tuesday for some fast 200's and held my own quite well, holding 34's for 7 and finishing the 8th with a tough 31 second repeat. Seems like my speed and ability to push that this year is vastly improved over last year. Now i'd jut like to quickly touch on intensity during triathlon(training and racing). For those of you who don't know, I come from a very competitive soccer background. I was never the most gifted soccer player out there by any means, but what I lacked for in skill I made up with a very good work ethic and a sometimes ridiculuous intensity while playing the game. I grew up next to my youngest uncle(also my smallest uncle- who happened to have 6 older brothers...) and he always managed to excel at sports. I asked him once what made him so good at his chosen sports, how he competed at the level he did. His answer... Be intense. He always said if you could raise your intensity level to compete, you will always beat guys who are bigger than you and better than you if they cannot match your intensity and drive. This is something that I bought into bigtime and it worked out in everything I have done... except for triathlon. I have a hard time at being intense in this sport as everyone is so friendly. In soccer, you have guys chasing you down trying to hammer you constantly. In triathlon, you run past someone and it's "good job man" or "great form, you're killing it". How are you supposed to be an intense competitor against these guys when they're so nice to you? The answer is: Be intense with yourself. It's not as easy as it sounds. You have to motivate yourself to do your best as the motivation is not going to come from your competitors. At least not all the time see Macca vs Stadler for more info!!! If you can master being intense quietly within yourself, I think that can be just another weapon in your arsenal on race day. I will try and elaborate more on this throughout the year as I go, but I just wanted to put some of my thoughts on this into writing for now. Feel free to chime in on this ubject if you think you can contribute.

Cheers,
Mike

Weekly recap and some Random thoughts

2011-01-31T17:25:00.000-08:00

So it was another decent week on the training front, despite the rain and the cold I keep managing to get out the door, and I keep yearning for more!!! This is a really good sign for me as when I'm not liking the training I tend to find excuses not to get out, and weather would be a prime factor there. Instead I'm actually enjoying riding in the cold and rain, just happy to be putting the miles in and feeling stronger day by day. This week I backed off the running a bit to recover from the race last Sunday, those hard efforts have been a bit of a bother to me in the past few years, so I'm looking at ways to still race them, but also keep recovery in mind. So I hit up a bit more swimming and riding to keep the good training going and kept the running to closer to 50 km's for the week. Swimming was 11+ km's and riding was 200+ again as well, which is way more than I've averaged in January the last couple of years, so once again a good sign. In non training news, I managed to grab some time with Shannon this weekend to check out Les Grands Ballets Canadiens
Four Seasons + Cantata performance at the Royal theatre. It was a ballet performed to the music of Vivaldi's four seasons and then a modern dance portion called Cantata(the title of the piece I believe), which is inspired by Italian music from the 18th and 19th centuries. I have to say I enjoyed both pieces for different reasons. The ballet was really well done, I love Vivaldi's four seasons as I grew up listening to that piece quite often with my parents, and I admire the athleticism involved in doing ballet at this level. The muscle control and strength shown by the dancers is amazing, and something that you can appreciate takes years of dedication to hone. The second piece the Cantata, I enjoyed mostly for the music and humor used, it was a very upbeat and energized performance, and I felt they did a really good job engaging the crowd. All in all in very good performance. Ok, hope everyone had great a great week doing what they whether it's a sport, an art, or any other past time. Now, the weather looks awesome for this week, cold but clear, so I'll be out on the roads and trails, hope to see you out there,

Cheers,
Mike

Race report and weekly recap

2011-01-23T17:23:00.000-08:00

Race report, Cobble Hill 10k: My goal going into this race was to run faster than last years 43:21, hoping to go somewhere between 41:40-42:30. The main thing was that I didn't want to change my training this year as last year I missed too many Saturday long bike rides. So as a pre-cursor, I nailed my training all week, including a good 4 hour ride with a good training partner Jeff Savage on Saturday, and an excellent track session on Tuesday with running rival and great friend Eric Purves(Achieve Health). So I was feeling tired going into the race, but very happy with a good week of training in my legs and looking forward to what I could do. We started off with a good 20 minute warm up with a few pick ups, and were feeling good when we were jogging to the start line only to see them start the race as we were still about 500 meters from the start. Unfortunately for us, this meant weaving through the back of the field for the first kilometer and a half, which although a bit exciting, caused the first few k's to be tougher than usual. I was hoping to hold 4:15's for the first 5k, and then pick it up from there, but I just could not push my legs any harder than they were going. I got to 5 k, and just decided to make it a good hard tempo day, and settled in at the pace I was running, holding a good pace at a heart rate zone I want to hold for my half mary races later in the year. The last 5 k were pretty uneventful, I dropped Eric at about 5k, he was feeling terrible as well, and ended up running the next 4k with a kid who was at most 10 years old who was just killing it!~! This kid was pretty cool as well, he was shooting the breeze with me as we were going and asking me questions about running, it was awesome. Makes me really look fwd to one day having me own kids and taking them out running and riding. Good stuff. The last k I picked it up and ran harder, coming though the finish in a very pedestrian 43:45 on my watch(gun time was 44:20, but we missed the start...). The good news is that I had no problem settling in and holding a strong pace all day, the bad news is, I just couldn't push any harder. All in all though, I am relatively happy with getting some harder work in, and extremely satisfied with the week I put in. Approx numbers are 17+ hours of training, 10+km of swimming, 60+ km of running and 200+km of riding with 3 solid core sessions. Now the main goal going fwd is to keep this up consistently which is always a problem for me, but I know that if I can be consistent, I can be fast and competitive in my age group.

Cheers,
Mike

Week recap

2011-01-16T19:47:00.000-08:00

OK, so first week full on back at it. It was a decent week with roughly 12 hours of good solid training done. Highlights were riding outdoors despite some bad weather(nothing compared to what our friends in Calgary and Edmonton are going through i'm sure...), a couple good strong runs off the bike, and a really good hill run day. Lowlights were definetely in the pool, I seem to have lost my feeling with swimming and will need to put in a few solid weeks to rediscover my form, but no worries yet as it's early. Weather looks good for this week, so hoping to really get out there and close the week with over 15 hours and a solid Mill Bay 10k race. Last year I ran my best ever early season 10k in a modest 43:21(10k PB is 40:26), looking to improve on that as my running is feeling strong this year, goal is going to be to try and hold 4:10's to 4:15's for a finish somewhere between 41:40-42:30. Should be doable, main goal is to go hard but not all out, and work on pacing and negative splitting the race. Should be fun!!! I'll check back in Sunday and hopefully have some race results, and maybe some training pictures from the week. Happy training everyone,

Mike

2011, here we go!!!

2011-01-06T19:48:00.000-08:00

Alright, I'm actually going to try and stick with a weekly blog post this year!!! We'll see how it goes I think i've ben saying this for at least 3 years now. Last year was a great year for me personally, but as far as racing goes, I think it was my worst year since I started triathlon. I was a bit unlucky with injuries, but upon reflection, I think I was lacking mentally, and this caused most of my problems. I still somehow managed to qualify for the ITU Long Course World Cahmpionships, which is taking place Nov 5th in Henderson Nevada. I am really looking forward to my opportunity to don the Canadian uniform and represent my country in competition. My plan is to focus on some early summer racing, take a couple of easy weeks towards the end of July, then start building for the big race in November. My goal is going to be to finish in the top ten in my age group, and to do that I will need to focus bigtime on my cycling. Although it is possibly my favorite sport of the 3, it has been by far my weakest discipline the last couple of years and I mean to rectify that this year with some good early season cycling focus. My running has improved every year for the last 4 years, so I am looking for that to continue this year, and my swimming has been good as well, so I will look to mostly maintain my swimming level while focusing on the bike. OK, so here's my 3 New Years resolutions for training:
#1: Ride lots, even if weather doesn't co-operate
#2: Sub 40 minute 10k run race. It has been a goal for awhile, time to nail it this year.
#3: Have fun with the sport again. Last year was so frustrating after having set some ambitious goals that I forgot I do this mainly for fun. It's time to get that feeling back.

Happy New Years everyone, and I hope to see you out there.

Cheers,
Mike

Season over!!!

2010-09-06T19:03:00.001-07:00

Well, the season is finally over. It was a tough one for sure, it started out very promising in the Winter and Spring with some great running results that made me very stoked to see what could happen throughout the summer. Unfortunately, the injury bug hit me with a partially torn quad(twice), and a broken wrist which was the result of an unlucky cycling accident. But I still had a great year, what with marrying my beautiful wife, and starting the house hunt, it seems like things are looking up!!! Hopefully everything will be settled by the turn of the year and then I can settle back into some solid training patterns. Looks like i'm going to give Ironman a miss next year, and instead focus on finding some speed in some olympic and half iron races. Tentative schedule is Mill Bay 10k in Jan, maybe the Mount Washington snow shoe race Jan or Feb?(something new and fun), Bazan Bay 5k in March, TC 10k in April if i'm here, could be doing Italy for our delayed honeymoon, UBC or Shawnigan Olympic distance in May, New Balance half Iron or Boise 70.3 in June, either Vancouver half or Desert half in July, Lake Stevens 70.3 or Calgary 70.3 in August, and Sooke olympic in August time permitting. Then depending on how the season goes, might try and squeeze in a few more tris like the Sooke spring sprint, Juan de Fuca duathlon, and hopefully Clearwater if I can get a spot which I will take. But now, time to rest and relax, will start up with some easy training starting this week and probably ease back into it fully by October. Hope to see you out and about in Vic.

Cheers,
Mike

Otters are trouble makers

2010-07-04T21:29:00.000-07:00

So no news is bad news i'm afraid. I had a very bad cycling accident in May(could have been worse) where I hit an otter that had run out into the road while I was going 45+ kmph and ended up breaking my wrist... Pretty unbelievable I know, but what can you do, roll with the punches I say, not much else!!! So the only good news out of this is that the cast has just come off, and it is just in time for my wedding which is this coming Saturday July 10th(Very excited)!!! As far as racing goes, I raced the Oak Bay half Mary in May, just before the accident and had an average result, 1:36:xx. I was not happy or dissapointed in the time, more frustrated that I couldn't push harder in the last 3-4 km's. As far as training has gone, i'll be the first to hold up my hand and say it's been horrendous since the accident. The crash and resulting injury just left me questioning what I could take out of this year as far as racing and training went. Unfortunately I still don't really know where I stand this year, and with IMC coming up, there are certainly more question marks for me than answers. At the start of the year my goal was to build a great base, then add on to that with some speed through the summer months, with the goal of being ready to give a run at a Kona qualifying spot at IMC. As it stands right now, my best bet is going to be to push for a PB(sub 10:57:41) and I think I have set a new goal for m,yself which will be to run sub 3:45 on the run. A tough goal for sure, but something that I feel quite motivated to do. Sometimes by breaking things down to simple tasks one can achieve more than one expects!!! Anyhow, my next couple weeks will be spent enjoying getting married to my soul mate, and than come mid July my main focus will be building up my run strenght and cycling consistently to give myself the best shot I can at that run target. It's going to be an interesting and painful 2 months, with a test at the Sooke 1/2 iron on August the 8th to see where I stand. Stay tuned for more...

Man, it's been a while...

2010-05-02T17:58:00.000-07:00

So i've been terrible at keeping this thing up to date and one of my friends called me on it the other day so I thought i'd get started up again. This year has been....well.... different, there's no other way to put it. I PR'd basically every race i've done this year except for 2(Comox 1/2 mary- tore my quad a bit... and TC 10k 40:55, my 2nd fastest TC time ever). My training was going super well through mid March, but has been derailed a bit since my torn quad at Comox and with the realisation that organizing a wedding is a massive undertaking!!! My Fiancee Shannon has been absolutely amazing at getting details sorted and when we have our day in July it will be perfect thanks mostly to her efforts. I have to say i'm getting more excited for this day the closer we get, i've known Shannon was the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with for some time and to make if official is going to be a very satisfying experience for sure. For upcoming races it's looking like the Oak Bay 1/2 Mary on May 16th, the Shawnigan 1/2 Iron on May 30th, New Balance 1/2 Iron on June 20th, possibly Vancouver 1/2 Iron on July 4th(pretty close to the weddig we will see), Sooke Oly or 1/2 Iron on August 8th, then the big one, revenge mission 2010, IMC August 29th, I won in 2008(my battle against the course, not the race!!!), it won last year, this year's the tiebreaker. I will be ready. I will be strong, mentally and physically. This year nothing is getting in my way!!! The next 4 months are business months, time to get it done!!!

Top ten recent thoughts while training...

2010-02-04T22:10:00.000-08:00

10: While riding: Man, if I weighed less getting up this hill would be easier
9: While riding: How do these old guys ride this fast? Actually, I think that's a lady...
8: While running: 2 hours with no water is a long time...
7: While swimming: If I drown will anyone care?
6: While lifting weights: Body builders look disgusting and are definetely on drugs.
5: While Wii Fitting(Not really training I know): This piece of crap video game talks more smack to me than anyone ever did in competitive sports!!!
4: While running: Why do dogs always try and get in your way!!!
3: While riding: Hills f...ing suck!!!
2: While swimming doing all out intervals: If I puke in the pool will the lifeguards be angry?
1: While training in general: I'd way rather be out here than at work any day of the week!!!

Cobble Hill 10k Race report

2010-01-25T17:19:00.000-08:00

It was hard!!! Haha. It was actually pretty funny, on the way up we were discussing the course, and were saying we remembered it as a flat course. We were so wrong!!! It was a decent day though, finished in 43:19, taking 10 seconds off last year's race, so a PB on that course, and that makes back to back PB's to start out the year. Good times. I was trying to pace myself better than at the 8k, and managed that quite well, at the 8k my fastest km was a 3:45 and the slowest was a 4:44, at the 10 k this weekend my fastest was a 4:09, and slowest was a 4:33, so I am happy with the pacing as it's getting better. It was a good way to finish the week as well, hitting over 17 hours of training and finishing a good 3 week block on a high note. Looking forward to an easy week this week!!!

Mike out.

New(for me) Music

2010-01-17T14:50:00.000-08:00

Just started listening to a new band on a friends recommendation, the band is called Muse, and the album is called "the resistance". I've got to say, this album is absolutely blowing me away, it's awesome, I can't get enough of it. I've been listening to it while running, on the trainer, in the car... The list goes on. Anyway, if you have the chance, check it out. Training is going well, did some testing in all 3 sports last week, now we have some numbers to work with. Seeing some improvements already which is a good thing, and staying illness and injury free so far, which for me is slightly miraculous, just ask my coach. Haha. Next event upcoming is the Cobble Hill 10k which I did last year in 43:xx, hopefully will be able to beat that this year, we will see.

Cheers,
Mike

Prairie Inn 8k Race report

2010-01-12T17:25:00.001-08:00

SO I hit up the Prairie Inn 8km road race on Sunday for the first race of the year. Man was it tough, I forgot how hard of an effort a short race is!!! It was a good day for a race though, a cool 10 degrees and no wind or rain to speak of makes for a pretty sweet day here in January. Anyhow, finishing time was 35 flat(34:58 on my watch) which is a pb(surprisingly) at this race by 1:18(previous best was 36:18). Just goes to show how out of shape I am in January as this course is not particularly difficult, a few hills but nothing particularly steep. The plan was to go out steady and build to get the HR over 180 and keep the effort up for the whole race, I went out flying(typical pacing issues!!!) with a 1st km of 3:49 and slowly faded for the rest of the day. Still, had a good time, saw a lot of old friends and just enjoyed getting my ass kicked!!! Haha, looking forward to this week for training as last week was quite good to get back into it. This week i've got a bike test, run test, and swim test all on tap so it should be an interesting week to get some data and then work with those numbers going forward. Keep the good times rolling!!!

Mike

New Year, solid training starts now!!!

2010-01-06T18:39:00.000-08:00

So after a pretty relaxing few months, it's time to get back at it. I am still working on some main goals for this year, although to be honest they haven't changed much. Sub 40 minute 10k is still on the cards for me, I came up 21 seconds short last year, so this year I am giving myself 3 shots at cracking that time, the first will be at the end of January at the Mill Bay 10k a good course to have a crack, but pretty early in the year, I think last year there I ran a 43:xx. Then we've got the Sooke 10k in April which will be a tough course to do it on as it is quite hilly, and can be a challenge, my best time there is a 41:40. Then my favorite road race the TC 10k at the very end of April which I think will be my absolute best shot at crackig that 40 minute mark. Another goal of mine is to go sub 10 hours at Ironman Canada(and hopefully qualify for Kona at the same time!!!), to do this I will need to be better at everything I do this year, consistently better nutrition, more consistent training, and also more disciplined training. The last one is hard to quantify, but for me I think it is the most important goal I have set for this year. By disciplined training, I mean if the plan calls for an easy run, then I need to run it easy and not push myself hard(like I usually do). I have noticed that in previous years I have a tendency to deviate from my plans and push my body too hard with the result that I end up injured by July and have a hard time building to IMC. We'll have to see how this plays out this year, but I am banking on this being a major key for me to nail the sub 10 hour ironman goal this year!!! Training is coming along well, did my first set of weights this week and man am I sore, legs feel like lead!!! Oh well, it's good to be back at it, and so far although it is only week one really, i'm enjoying the training again which is good. Hope everything is going well for everyone else, and best of luck to everyone on nailing their goals in the New Year!!!

Cheers,
Mike

Time to get focused

2009-12-28T18:58:00.000-08:00

So Merry X-mas to all, and a Happy New Year to come. It's always right around this time every year that I start to assess my fitness and think about how the coming season will play out compared to the last season. I know the changes that need to be made to have a successful year, now it's time to implement them(always harder to do than to talk about!!!). My swim has improved to where I can be competitive, now I need to work on my bike and run to get them up to par. It seems odd that when I got into this sport it was my bike and run that were strong and my swim was terrible. Oh well, it goes to show that working on your weaknesses can make them a strength, but I also need to make sure I am balancing all 3 sports appropriately. This year should be an exciting year, lots of good racing to come, my wedding to my beautiful supportive fiancee in July, and then IMC going for Kona Q in August. Busy but exciting days ahead. New Years resolution number 1: Cut out useless fuel a.k.a junk food in 09. I figure I have been carrying too much weight due to poor diet choices over the last few years and my goal is to cut this out completely. We'll see how it pans out. To help myself do this I have started a food log and looking at this over the last few weeks has been an eye opener(not that it's the best time to do this around X-mas). I'm going to make an appointment with Noa @ PT Performance to discuss nutrition, and like anytime I meet with Noa, I plan on learning lots of new things. Anyhow, best wishes for a Happy New Years, and I look forward to racing and training with you all in 2010.

Cheers.

Back into the swim of things!!!

2009-11-23T17:50:00.000-08:00

So getting back into the routine, running is going quite well for now, i've been nailing roughly 50k a week for the last 3 weeks and will try and up that this week to get over 60k, swimming is coming along as well, Noa is killing me in the pool, which is a good thing even though it doesn't sound like it!!! Cycling is the one sport that I heven't done too much of, but it's time to suck it up and get on the trainer as the weather outside is frightful!!! Haha, A quick shout out to Adam O'Meara as well for his PB in Arizona yesterday, nice work Adam, lI know you wanted to do better, but you gotta love the PB regardless. Happy training everyone!!!

Mike

SIck...Ugghh

2009-11-02T18:00:00.000-08:00

So I was all ready to get back to full on training this week but I have been hit with a vicious cold and sore throat. It's been full on since Friday and I have had zero energy just trying to get up and make food has been a task. I was hoping to at least be back in the pool swimming with the team today, but no go, will have to make the comeback next week. Hopefully i'll kick it in the next couple of days but we'll have to see. Bring on the vitamin C!!!!

Great post by Myke Labelle

2009-10-28T18:08:00.000-07:00

I normally don't like wading into political debates or anything of that nature, but I read this post by a very promising local runner on his blog and I have to say I couldn't agree more with his sentiments. Have a read here:

http://mykelabelle.blogspot.com/2009/10/frustration.html

Let's stand united as a country for once from east to west and show the world what we can do.

Season re-cap-2009

2009-10-25T17:07:00.001-07:00

Wow, this year went by fast, almost too quickly as a matter of fact. I learned lots, and made some improvements, however I still could not nail down a great race. Here are the highlights and lowlights:

HIGHLIGHTS:
TC 10k: 40:20(PB by 46 seconds)
New Balance 1/2 Iron: 4:40:34(Half iron PB by 13.5 minutes)
Improving my swim significantly(Thanks Noa)

Lowlights:
2 DNF's, both races where I had high expectations(Vancouver international half iron, Ironman Canada)
Comox 1/2 marathon(Goal was to go sub 1:28, died in the 2nd half of the race after running very well the first half and just cracked 1:35(worst half mary in 4 years...))

Well, after taking 3 weeks almost completely off(other than some decent running) I will get back at full training this week and look to build on what I learned last year. As always I like to try and hold myself to high standards, and I feel somewhat let down by last season so I will look to improve greatly this year. On another note, I finally mustered up the courage to propose to my longtime girlfriend Shannon, and she accepted!!! She has always been a strong believer in me and I would love to re-pay her belief in me with some good results in 2010. We will see how it goes. All the best to everyone,

Cheers,
Mike

Vancouver half... 1st ever DNF...

2009-07-16T00:41:00.000-07:00

So it was a pretty dissapointing race in Vancouver from a results perspective, I went in hoping to crack into the 4:30's for the first time ever in a half, instead I walked away with my first ever DNF and some frustrating thoughts as to what could have been. Starting with the swim, I was out fast and in a good position, but got to close to the person in front of me and took a solid kick to the face for my efforts. This unfortunately knocked off my goglles which took me about a minute to grab(somehow before they sank to the bottom of the Pacific!!!) and readjust. after that pretty non eventful but tough ocean swim. Felt like it took forever to get from buoy 1 to buoy 2. Still a good negative split on the swim and a total time of 31:49 which was good for 2nd in my age group(30/34). A slow T2 as I took a bit of extra time to regroup after the long run from the ocean to the bike rack and then out on the bike. My goal was to push hard on the bike, and see how it went. The first 2 laps were pretty damn good. I wasn't losing much time to the guys ahead of me, and was gaining on a few as well. Then on the start of the 3rd lap I hit a huge pothole that was not marked on the road and my left aero bar pad(which I must not have tightened properly) came loose and dropped into a position which basically made me be twisted to the left to stay in my bars. I tried to ride like this for the next 2 laps, but my back started seizing on me and my whole right side was not happy about it. I ended up having to ride roughly the last 10k of the ride out of the bars, and by then the damage had been done. My average speed dropped from 36.2 through the 1st 2 laps to 33.0 by the end of the ride. Brutal. I still came off the bike in a decent time(2:45:00) and was hoping to see if I could crack off a decent run for once this year!!! A quick T2 as usual(:54) and I was out on to the run. I decided to push the pace right from the start. I was feeling like crap, but I remember at Shawnigan speaking with a guy who had a killer run(Jeremy Hopwood) and he suggested sometimes if you feel like crap try and pick up the pace and see how your body adjusts. Well, i'll tell you what, it worked. For the first 2k. I was flying and managed to hold 4min/km pace pretty easily for the first 2k, then I started getting some shooting pain in my right knee, not good, so I slow down and check it out, and my knee was extremely swollen, so I decided to slow down the pace, and see if the pain went away. But by the time 5k rolled around it had not, and I had to start thinking about the bigger picture, which is success at IMC this year, so I pulled out(5k split was 21:03). On the plus side, I got my knee checked out, no damage done, but the massage therapist who checked me out said my right side was essentially locke dup from my back down through my IT Band, and when I showed him my bike he assured me that the reason for the tightness was riding 45 kilometers virtually lopsided!!! Oh well. Now the fun begins, the big always enjoyable always tough build up to IMC. I am really looking forward to it, and can't wait to get back in training mode this week. Best of luck to everyone in their training and racing for the rest of the season,

Cheers,
Mike

PS: A quick shout out to Nick Gottfried who won his age group yet again, and to Jermey Hopwood(who gave me the running tip) who absolutely smoked the run. Well done lads.

What a month...(June 09)

2009-07-07T22:35:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been awhile since I have posted anything, so I thought I would at least put up a quick update on how things are going, and a short race report for the New Balance 1/2 iron on June 21st. So to get started, training is going really well right now, i'm managing to get in some really solid prep for IMC in August and I am certainly feeling stronger this year than I did at any point last year. That being said there are still a good 8 weeks or so until IMC and a lot can happen as far as fitness gains and losses so there is still quite a bit of work to be done. I will be racing the Vancouver half iron this weekend, which I will be going into without any rest, so it should be interesting to see how my body responds to the hard efforts of racing. I have set back to back PB's in the 1/2 iron races i've done this year and am hoping to continue this trend in Vancouver. Something anywhere in the 4:30's would be nice!!! I have also signed up to do the swim and bike leg in a relay of a local olympic distance triathlon on August 3rd. The plan will be to see how hard I can push on the swim and the bike, and then while the rest of the people are racing the run, I will try and just do a steady run and see if I can beat my relay partner. Should be interesting as he generally finishes about 7-8 minutes behind me in 10k races. I will also be doing an open water swim race at Thetis lake at the end of July. I am really looking forward to this as I have never tried a straight up swim race before. I think it will be the 3km race that I enter. As for the New Balance race, the swim was awesome, although I am pretty sure it was short. A 25:50 swim for a half is beyond me. I would guess that it was roughly 100 meters short. I did have a good swim though, and came out only 1:45ish down to the eventual winner Jasper Blake. On the bike I knew I was in for a bit of a rough one as I was sick going into the race and just felt like my legs were gone after the first 10 minutes on the bike, but I managed to push hard and come in just over 2:34, which I have no complaints about. Out quickly onto the run and my plan was to hold 4:30's per km for the first 10k loop and then try and pick it up in the second lap. Well I held on well for the first lap, but fell apart in the second lap a bit. Still finished well with a run time of 1:36:xx and a final total time of 4:40:27(A new PB). All in all a good day, just wish I could have gone into it feeling a bit better and seeing what I could do. On a side note, a couple guys from the group I swim with had great days, Adam O'Meara finshed 4th overall going sub 4:05, and Nick Gottfried absolutely smoked this race going 4:18 and winning his age group. Nice work lads.

Shawnigan Lake 1/2: Race report

2009-05-26T19:43:00.001-07:00

What a day for a race, the weather was absolutely spectacular, the water was a good temperature, and I was feeling ready to have a good race. I woke up at around 4am, had my usual race day breakfast of oatmeal and a bagel w/ peanut butter and a coffee. Then I headed up to the race with my friend Andy who was going to be racing in the olympic distance race. We got up there nice and early, got checked in and set-up my transition area and got ready to go. Jumped in the water and got in a good 10 minute warm up and was ready for the start.

Swim:
I seeded myself about 3 rows back from the front of the swim, which looking at it now was a mistake, but somehow I always get a bit intimidated at the start of the race, and everyone looks ridiculously fast in wetsuits!!! Anyhow, the gun went off and for the first 200 meters I proceeded to get kicked and generally beaten senseless until I finally managed to break free of the group I was with and find some open water for myself. Once free I was cruising. I settled into a nice pace and focused on my sighting and keeping myself relaxed. All the swim training I have done appears to have paid off, as I had a relatively relaxed swim, and I didn't push hard until the last 500 meters when I upped the tempo just a bit in an effort to catch a few of the people who were just ahead of me. I ended up exiting the water with the 2nd pack of swimmers in a new 1/2 iron PB time for me of 29:43. I looked at the results today and I ended up winning my age group for the swim... I can't believe it, lots of thanks goes out to Noa at PT performance who has bbeen helping me with my swim this year, thanks Noa!!!

T1: I really need to work on my first transition, as I seemed to take forever here(2:49). I'm not sure what I need to change, but I just need to get more efficient at it.

Bike: I jumped on the bike with the goal of steadily getting faster each lap. I had been working on my bike pacing over the last few weeks, and felt ready to have an awesome ride. The first lap I rode nice and steady, concentrating on getting settled into my ride and taking in my nutrition. The next couple of laps went by in a blur, I was riding really well, and seemed to be holding a good pace. Towards the end of the 3rd lap I caught a few of the guys who had been ahead of me and I was feeling great. The last lap I pushed just a bit harder and managed to come in with my best bike split ever in a half iron(2:34:00). Lots of thanks here goes to my coach Trevor who came up with a good bike pacing plan for me which I actually managed to execute properly. Good times.

T2: Easy peasy. Helmet off, shoes on, good to go(1:05).

Run:

The plan was to hold it steady for the first 5k, and gradually increase the pace every 5k until the end. Well, the theory was good, and my first 10k went off without a hitch, I was pullig back some time on the guys ahead of me, and feeling pretty good. But the heat was getting to me, and the gravel trail we were running on was sappig my leg strength quicker than I thought it would. The last 11.1k was just me hanging on for survival!!! I was trying to stay cool, and keep my legs from cramping and I ended up walking most of the aid stations on the back half of the course taking in gatorade and pouring cold water over my head. I managed to come around a little bit in the last 2k and pick up the pace and cruised home in a respectable 1:43:46. Not my best run, but not my worst run either. I think the biggest thing for me on the run is being a bit more aware of what I need to take nutritionally. If I had downed some more gatorade earlier on the run I may not have had the issues I had in the second half and been able to push a little harder. Oh well, lesson learned, and I will apply it to my next race which is the New Balance 1/2 iron on June 21st. As for the overall race, I am very satisfied, as I set a new personal best of 4:51:24 and even though I wanted to go sub 4:45:00, I think I will be able to achieve that this year after seeing this result.

Cheers,
Mike

Looking for a front race wheel

2009-05-19T21:47:00.001-07:00

Hello all, I am looking for a front race wheel, ideally a 404 or something similar, tubular is preferred but anything will do. If you know anyone who is selling one let me know, as ideally I would like to have one before New Balance half iron which is on June 21st.

Cheers,
Mike

Weekend away, crazy hills!!!

2009-05-11T17:38:00.001-07:00

Wow, Saltspring is hilly!!! Just got back from a weekend away with a couple friends to train and get out of town, with the big training day being 4.5 hours of riding and a 35 minute run off the bike on Saturday, and i'll tell you, that was one of the hardest rides I have ever done in my life, including some of the 7-8 hour rides I have done. Just constant hills, and they really take it out of your legs unbelievable. The worst part was spending all of Saturday night dreaming about the hills as well!!! They were haunting me in my sleep!!! Well, Shawnigan is on the horizon, less than 2 weeks away, I am hopeful of going sub 5 hours for the half, my swimming is getting better by leaps and bounds(Thanks Noa!!!) I actually smashed by old 50 meter PB the other day(old was 39 secs, new is now 31) and I think if I swim well I should go under 30 minutes. As for the bike, I would say right now it is my weaker of the 3 disciplines which is different from the last couple of years, however I have been focusing on getting in more quality rides lately and it should pay off on race day (hoping to go sub 2:40)and the way I have felt running lately I would say it's getting to where I want it to be and I would hope to go between 1:30-1:35 for the run. That puts me at approx. 4:45 before transition times, which should be another 5 mins max. So I would say a good goal time for me would be between 4:45 and 4:50. The weather could be a factor as it has been less than stellar conditions here lately, but I am looking forward to race day quite a bit and seeing where I stand at this point in the season.

Cheers,
Mike

40:20 so close yet so far!!!

2009-04-26T18:42:00.000-07:00

Well, I set a new PB of 40:20, not quite what I was looking for, but still a good run. It was more an issue of bad pacing on my part and I left myself too much to do in the last kilometer so I could not quite break the 40 minute barrier. The good news is that I will be making another attempt at the HSBC 10k run on Canada day. 40 minutes is going down this year!!!

Cheers,
Mike

Sub 40 10k? Could happen this weekend.

2009-04-22T19:12:00.000-07:00

So, one of my biggest goals over the last 3 years has been trying to break 40 minutes for a 10k road race. I got really close a couple of years ago going 41:02 on a day that had some of the worst headwinds in race history and even the top guys times were a minute down from usual. Last year I was suffering through some ITB problems and couldn't run to my full potential, but still managed a respectable 42:21. This year, I have focused on more quality running(trying to avoid injury) and waited until just the start of April to work on some faster intervals at the track, and although they were painful at first, over the last week and a bit they have started to feel effortless and my pace has gotten much quicker. So as usual the goal for this race will be sub 40 minutes, but I think if conditions are mild and I have a good one I can go sub 39'. We will see, should be interesting... Hope everyone's training is going well, and best of luck to everyoe racing this weekend.
Cheers,
Mike

Good progress in the pool

2009-02-12T18:24:00.000-08:00

So today I had an interesting look at how far my swimming has come in the past year. Last year at this time, when I would do a set of steady pace 100 meter repeats, I would be able to hold consistent 1:45's per 100 meters. Today, I had a good swim with a main set that was 10x 100 meter repeats on 1:50 steady pace. I managed to hold 1:30-1:31's for every 100 repeat, and trust me the pace was nothing more than just a solid steady pace, I didn't feel shelled after at all. I can't believe how much progress I have made in the pool, and I owe a lot of thanks to Noa from PT performance who has helped me to correct some bad habits that I had developed while swimming coach free for the last 3 years. Anyhow, it will certainly be interesting to see how much more progress I can make over the next few months, I am hoping to crack an hour for an Ironman swim, and I think I am well on my way to being able to achieve this goal. Hope everyone's training is going well,

Cheers,
Mike

New Year, new goals

2009-02-09T18:09:00.000-08:00

Hey there, it's been a long time since I last posted and many things have changed while others have stayed the same. I basically just wanted to post my goals for this year, and the races I will be doing:

Goals:
Sub 40 minute 10k
Sub 4:45 1/2 Iron
Sub 1:25 1/2 mary
Sub 10 hour full Iron

Races:
Cobble Hill 10k: 43:10
UBC triathlon- March
Comox Valley 1/2 Mary- March
TC 10k- April
Shawnigan Lake 1/2 Iron- May
Victoria 1/2 Iron- June
Vancouver 1/2 Iron- July
Ironman Canada- August
Sooke 1/2 Iron- September(only if I don't qualify for Kona)
Ironman Hawaii(if I qualify at Ironman Canada)

It should be an interesting year, and i've already seen my efforts in the pool rewarded with some of my best times ever in the pool. Last week I had 2 100 meter repeats @ 1:22.2-1:22.3, when my previous best prior to the turn of the year had been a 1:30.5 for 100 meters. Running and cycling are coming along a little slower, however I feel that my cycling is coming along much better than in winter's past as my computrainer is really helping me to work on my weaknesses while riding. OK, that's it for now, I will try and do at least an update a week from now on.

Cheers,
Mike

X-mas

2008-12-22T22:41:00.000-08:00

I haven't been up to too much this month, Victoria has seen some real winter weather for once, so i've been mostly training indoors on the computrainer, on the treadmill and in the pool, mostly just low HR stuff, keeping it easy but getting in the miles. I hope everyone has a Merry X-mas and a Happy New Year, and I look forward to seeing some of you out and about in the new year.

Cheers,
Mike

Congrats Trevor

2008-11-23T20:19:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note congratulating my friend Trevor on an amazing race in Arizona today. His race was a great example of a guy having a plan and executing it perfectly. Awesome stuff Trev, way to crack the 9 hour mark!!!

Triathlon tips

2008-11-17T21:37:00.000-08:00

Hey guys, a good site to visit for triathlon tips is right here:

http://ironmantriathlontips.com/

Cheers
Mike

Good training

2008-11-12T20:08:00.000-08:00

Training has been going really well even though the efforts are pretty relaxed for now, lots of low heart rate stuff, and just staying consistent. I have joined up with a squad once a week for swimming, it is run by Noa from PT performance, and for me, this has been super beneficial already and i've only been going for 3 weeks. Having never had any proper swim instruction, Noa has been able to identify some problem areas in my swimming technique, and I am working on correcting my mistakes now. Hopefully we will see this pay off with a sub 1 hour Ironman swim sometime this year!!! The cycling has been good as well, lots of work indoors on the computrainer, and I am happy to say I keep seeing a steady increase in wattage at the same HR levels, so that is promising. Running is going OK, no massive improvements as of yet, however I am hoping that with a month of good consistency under my belt(legs) I will see some solid improvements. As it stands, I am well ahead of where my run fitness was last year at this time, so that is good. I just started hitting up the gym again as well, and I forgot how much hitting some weights can make your body hurt. However the strenght gains I believe are well worth it. Hope everyones trainig is going well,

Cheers,
Mike

Start of Base Building

2008-10-15T20:01:00.000-07:00

Hello all, well I am happy to report that I have recovered well from the accident I was involved in during the Sooke 1/2 Iron race in September. I have basically taken a month off training and just done some casual running and riding and swimming when I felt like it. I am now fully prepared to start my base mileage training for the upcoming season. I am looking forward to getting back in the pool with some structured workouts, testing out my new computrainer for my cycling, and getting in some good Fall season aerobic runs!!! I have to admit, there is something about this time of year that I love while running, the cool air is great, while the weather just doesn't seem to bother me for running. I must admit though it sucks for cycling. I am hoping that's where the purchase of the computrainer will come in handy. It should keep me honest about my cycling even while the weather is rough. So once again I have some fairly lofty goals for this season, and here they are:
Sub 40 minute 10km run race
Sub 1:25 1/2 marathon(This could be in a half iron or 1/2 mary, I wouldn't care)
Sub 4:40 1/2 Iron
Sub 10 hour Ironman
And the ultimate goal for this year is going to be to qualify for Kona, and or Clearwater.

Lofty goals, but if I can keep up the consistency, I should be good to go.

Cheers,
Mike

Recovering from Crash

2008-09-25T18:12:00.000-07:00

Hey all, just a quick update, I was involved in a crash with a car during the Sooke 1/2 Iron a couple weeks ago. My bike is toast, but I am doing OK, still no go for swimming as my right shoulder is messed up pretty good, but hopefully I will be back to training soon. It was a fairly dissapointing end to a race that was looking pretty good at the time. I had come out of the water in 8th overall in a sub 30 swim time, and I was in 10th overall on the bike after taking the first 2 loops pretty easy. I had just started to ramp up the effort and reel in some of the front guys when I was hit by a car. Looking at the overall times for this race a top 3 male overall finish was easily on the cards, and I am very dissapointed to not have been able to complete the race. As of right now I will be focusing on recovering fully from the accident, replacing my gear that was wrecked, and working on building a good solid base for next year. It's looking as though my first tri will be the UBC triathlon in March. It is a pretty cool Olympic distance race which in Vancouver which I will be competing in with a couple friends of mine. Should be fun.

Cheers,
Mike

Ironman Canada Race report

2008-09-09T17:17:00.000-07:00

Hello all, here is my race report from Ironman Canada, my goals for the race were as follows:
Total time: 11:00:00
Swim: 1:08:00
T1: 5:00
Bike: 5:45:00
T2: 5:00
Run: 3:45
Here is what happened:
Swim: I started out on the far right side as it was less congested and seeded myself just back from the front row. I took off pretty quickly with the goal of finding a good pack to swim with that would get me near the front of the swim. I managed to find some feet where the pace was exactly where I wanted to be so I sat in and tried to keep the effort nice and relaxed while making sure to not be going too easy. Rounded the first houseboat no problem, then I got whacked right on the face by a guy who was intent on swimming right over top of me. Awesome. No worries though, I just kept on going and had managed to keep the draft despite being run over!!! Had a good steady stretch for the next 500 meters or so, but lost my draft rounding the last houseboat and had to swim the last stretch by myself. Got to the shore, checked the time, saw 1:03:46, and was stoked, perfect start to the day.
T1: I took a little longer here than I wanted, I had a bit of a headache from the swim(due to being hit in the head so hard I think) but I just remained composed and got my stuff together for the ride. Total T1 time: 6:27. Not good, but oh well.
Bike: Everyone I spoke to before the race told me to take it easy to Richter before staring to push the pace, so I followed those instructions and I have to say they were bang on. So for the stretch to Richter I took it easy, made sure my hydration and nutrition were good, then once at Richter I started to up the tempo and passed a bunch of people up Richter. Up and over Richter I was riding strong and feeling really good, nutrition was on, hydration was on, and I was going well. Hit the out and back section and started to feel a little weary, but I was still going well and I kept up the positive thoughts and started the climb to Yellow lake. Man, driving this section by car does not do it justice, it is not tough if you were to just ride it by itself, but after 150km it is hard mentally, but I persevered and once over the top the ride back into Penticton was awesome, I was flying. The crowds back into town were great, and I just made sure to stay on top of my hydration and nutrition and knew I was going to have a good bike split. Bike split was 5:41:13
T2: Not much to do here, body glided my feet to ward off blisters, threw my shoes on, and off I went. Total T2 time: 3:43
Run: I started out the run with the goal of holding 5min km's for as long as possible. The problem was I went out too fast and was holding 4:30's for the 1st 5km's and no matter what I told myself I cvouldn't slow down. I knew I was going to be in trouble. Sure enough, I broke down a bit at the 6.5 km mark and had to walk run for quite some time. With about 10km to go I got a second wind and managed to pick back up the pace and hold onto it until the end, the crowd down the last stretch was absolutely unbelievable, especially considering the weather, what an experience. Final run time: 4:02:32, Final total time: 10:57:41.
I just want to take this opportunity to thanks some of the people who have helped me achieve my goals this year, Noa @ PT Performance, for an awesome bike fit, which helped me smash my previous best IM bike time, my coach Kieran for laying out a great plan that I stuck to and for good reason which my time reflects, Heather and Trevor Wurtele, for always being there with some good adviceand knowledge, and last but not least, my family, especially my girlfriend Shannon who has had to put up with me throughout training and racing!!!

Cheers,
Mike

1 week to go!!!

2008-08-14T01:38:00.001-07:00

Just a quick update, the training is done, now is the time for rest and recovery before the big day, one thing I find that doesn't get mentioned enough is that racing is fun. Training is the hard part. So no matter how your day is going on race day, enjoy yourself. I hope everyone up there realises their respective goals, and above all has fun with it. If we weren't having fun while challenging ourselves why would we do it? For me I get enjoyment out of pushing myself to higher levels through training and I enjoy seeing where I got to come race day. My goal on race day will be to go sub 11 hours. I think if I have a great day I can get closer to 10, but I will have to be almost perfect in executing my race. Anyhow, my bib number is 267, if you are interested you should be able to follow on Ironman Live. Best of luck to everyone racing,
Mike

Yeah!!!!

2008-07-28T21:00:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am feeling ready and motivated to race!!! Despite having food poisoning twice in the span of 5 days!!! I am so stoked for the 24th of August!!! Training is tough but it's going well, and my run is coming along very well from where it was after being injured in May. I had a great run today with lots of hills and I felt nice and smooth and while the run was tough I felt in control the whole way. Awesome. 2 more hard weeks of work to go before the taper begins. If I am feeling anything like I am feeling now it will be hard to contain my excitement at the thought of racing. On a side note, my friend Trevor Wurtele has done an interesting post on his blog regarding nutrition(http://wurtele.wordpress.com/). While not exactly scientific, I agree with quite a few of the aspects that he mentions. Feel free to give it a look and be sure to check out Trevor and Heather's site as it is full of good content. Happy training to you all,
Cheers,
Mike

No real news!!!

2008-07-23T20:12:00.000-07:00

So, no real news, training is going well, lots of good work being done, I will elaborate more in a future post, we have been quite lucky with the weather in Victoria, it has been 20 degrees and sunny basically every day for the past 3 weeks, so no excuses for not getting out and training. Here are some pictures from Lake Stevens to pass the time until I throw in a real post, probably by the end of this week.

Recovering well

2008-07-13T19:33:00.000-07:00

Hello all, so I am recovering well from Lake Stevens, the more I think about the race the more I am satisfied with what I accomplished. Now I get to look forward to my number 1 priority for racing this year which is Ironman Canada. First things first though. Recovery. A very important aspect of training and racing. This week it has been pretty casual, i've donw 2km swimming, 95km on the bike and 40 km running, I had a relatively big day scheduled for today but just had no energy at all left over so I called it a week early and got 13 hours of sleep in. Now I feel nice and rested and more importantly ready to tackle a big four week block of training that should have me good and ready for Penticton. OK, that is all for now, happy training everyone,

Cheers,
Mike

Lake Stevens Race Report

2008-07-08T20:57:00.000-07:00

I figured I would do this in a different format from my usual ramblings, so here is my best attempt to organise my thoughts about race weekend:

Pre Race:
Friday: So it was just me and my Dad on this trip, which was actually pretty cool. We took the Anacortes ferry down instead of taking the BC ferries over to Vancouver and driving through the border. We figured that would be the best move due to it being July 4th long weekend for our friendly neighbors to the south. We got into Everett around 3pm and found our hotel no problem. Great place to stay for race weekend. The Nest Western Navigator. Full kitchen. Magic stuff. We hit up a Trader Joe's(for those of you not in the know this is a great organic grocery store) to get some groceries and ended up having a couple great homemade meals instead of eating out at restaurants every day. We also hit up some outlet stores where I managed to get a couple good pairs of running shorts and shoes for cheap(compared to Canada). On a side note, when are businesses in Canada going to get the memo that they cannot charge an arm and a leg for something we can get for cheaper even if we have to ship it in from the States. This is very frustrating. Our dollar is no longer worth .65 USD. Come on people, get with the program.
Saturday: We went to the mandatory race briefing, which was brutal. The head ref, while sometimes amusing wasted over 30 minutes explaining rules that could have been done in 5 minutes. Seriously. They actually made this briefing mandtory, which meant we could not get our race packet unless we had attended a meeting. Terrible. After that, we drove up to the race site so I could get in a quick ride and run, dropped off my bike, and headed into Seattle for the afternoon(in retrospect not the smartest idea on my part). My Dad hadn't been in years and he wanted to check it out. He said he could go alone if I just wanted to hang out and rest, but I didn't want to ditch him, so I tagged along. 4 hours of walking around later we headed back to the hotel to have dinner and crash before the race. Managed to nod off around 10pm, not bad for night before a race.
Sunday: Woke up around 4:30 am, had a blueberry bagel with peanut butter and a peanut butter cliff bar, yum. Felt pretty good, managed roughly 5 hours sleep as I only woke up once. Nice. We packed up the car, checked out of the hotel and headed up to the race.

Warm up: Jumped in the water off to the side and managed to get in about 5 minutes of swimming before the pro's went off, felt pretty good, and the water was a good temp.
Swim: 32:51, age group rank 18.
Started out wide as the course cut outwards from where we started, this was a good plan despite being right in the middle of a larger group of athletes which made the first 200 meters more of a battle then I really wanted. It thinned out a bit at this point and just like last year you were able to see the under water buoy line so I followed that for the whole swim other than the occasional siting to make sure I wasn't going to hit a bouy. Swim was pretty uneventful, I didn't expend very much energy, and in retrospect I probably should have pushed a bit harder, but I am happy with my result here. This course definitely has the best swim course in my opinion, very easy to navigate, and the waves are well spaced. Good stuff.

T1: 2:28,
Struggled a bit to put on some socks( I have trouble cycling barefooted!!!) I just need to work on getting this faster, I have to wear socks though, otherwise I blister too easily which makes the run very painful!!!

Bike: 2:52:35, age group rank 22.
Started off with the goal of capping my heart rate at the low end. My goal was to not let my heart rate go lower than 140(bottom end of zone 2 for me). This was a good way for me to always be working on the bike, and that mentallity seemed to work well. I took the first lap way too easy though, I didn't push the big ring at all, and went through the first lap in 1:30:31. For nutrition I tried something new after discussing several options with a few sources. The first hour I took in a cliff bar(carrot cake, 240 cals, 1 bottle of gatorade endurance 125 cals and a bottle of water). The bad side of this was that the first aid staion was not until the very end of the first lap, and it was about 10 feet long so all I could manage to grab was a bottle of gatorade. I had one gel and a bottle of gatorade for the whole second lap basically. The second lap I realised I needed to work a bit harder so I decided to push the bigger gears for some extended periods of time. What a difference this made. It did not stress my legs at all and I was flying. I wish I had done this in the first lap as well. Oh well, it's good to learn something each race and I have learned that I can actually push some bigger gears this year, I need to remember that. Anyhow, the second lap was good, the aid station worked out as you ended up going through it with about 6 miles to go so I grabbed 2 gels and a bottle of water(I was parched at this point) and downed a gel and the water before transition and was feeling good. Total nutrition on the bike was 1 cliff bar: 240 cals, 2 bottles of gatorade: 250 cals and 2 gels: 200 cals, and 2 bottles of water. Total cals consumed on the bike: 690 cals, a little less than the 800 I had wanted to get in, but no damage was done. Another side note, the bike course safety wasn't the greatest, we had 3 cars who buzzed us really close, and 1 car who pulled right onto the rear wheel of a guy and honked at him almost causing him to lose control of his bike and go down. Trust me I saw the whole thing happen and he was doing nothing wrong, there was plenty of room for this jackass to pass him but he decided to scare someone involved in a licensed race. Brutal.

T2: 1:12,
Pretty good, almost screwed up my dismount, as my shoe hit the groud still clipped in and I nearly ate it, but other than that, quick run in, and quick run out. No probs.

Run: 1:38:58, age group rank 15.
The run was where I really wanted to do better. I have been running fairly well since Boise and was hoping to have a solid effort here. I took off out of transition and settled into a good comfortable pace, when I went through the 4 mile mark in 25:30 I was pretty shocked, it didn't fell like I was going that quickly, and the best part was I still felt really good, the next couple miles were a bit slower, but I was still ticking along at sub 7 minute mile pace, right through 9 miles. This is where it went a bit downhill, but not too badly at all. My recurring right hip, glute problems flared up a bit, which made me take a few walking breaks to keep from cramping up completetly, the good news is it wasn't a harsh pain like what was happening in April and early May, it was just a tightness that I couldn't quite shake. After that I had a bit of difficulty settling back into a good rythym, although I still finished the last mile hard and ended up passing a couple guys in my age group in the last mile to finish 15th and take 16:04 off of my time at this course from last year, and most people agreed that this years bike course was more difficult than the previous year and the swim was long.

Conclusion: Sorry for the long report, but in conclusion I have to say I am very happy with this result. I was just a bit off of my goal time of 5:05 for this race, but I think if I had raced the bike differently in the first lap I would have had that time. Plus the run is very encouraging for me and I hope with another months steady training I will be set for Ironman Canada. Lake Stevens is a great venue for a race, they just need to work on a couple things from an organisational standpoint and they will have a real winner here. For one, they need another aid station on the bike course. I am sure most of us managed, but people who were out there for 3.5 plus hours could have had some problems for sure. They could have easily had another aid station where the penalty tent was at 14 miles(that's where they had it last year). On the plus side, I think the officials did a great job monitoring the course. There wasn't any drafting that I observed, and the officials were coming by frequently. Good job.

Now the build for Ironman Canada starts. I will try to update more often with how my training is going, and hopefully we will pull out a cracker in Penticton in a month and a half.
Cheers,
Mike

Last 3 weeks, Lake Stevens this weekend.

2008-06-30T19:27:00.000-07:00

Hey all, hope everyones training is going well. As for myself, the last 3 weeks have been some of the best I have managed to string together since my injury in April. I have totaled 31,550 meters swimming, 1,042.85 kms biking, and 190.1 kms running. This works out to a weekly avg. of 10,516.67 meters swim, 347.62 kms biking, and 63.37 kms running per week. This is a good sign that I am slowly getting better. This week is full on taper/rest week in prep for the Lake Stevens 70.3 race this weekend. My dad and myself will be heading down to Everett on July 4th to stay for the weekend and we are looking forward to seeing some cool July 4th celebrations from our neighbors to the south. Should be fun. This rest week came at just the right time as I am feeling a little tired and this is a good sign that I am learning how to listen to my body and how it responds to training blocks.(I had originally planned to train hard right through the Lake Stevens race). My goals for this race are going to be set high as usual. Here are my times from this race last year:

Overall: 5:24:46
Swim: 32:09
T1: 2:02
Bike: 3:00:02
T2: 2:02
Run: 1:48:32

Goals for this year are:
Swim: 31:45
T1: 1:45
Bike: 2:50:00
T2: 1:15
Run: 1:38:30

Overall: 5:05:15

That would certainly be the kind of improvement that I am looking for this season, and barring injury or mechanical I think this is well within reach. Looking forward to racing, I can't wait.

Cheers,
Mike

Congrats to Heather

2008-06-23T22:04:00.000-07:00

A big shout out to Heather Wurtele who had an unbelievable race at Ironman Coeur D'Alene, winning the women's pro title in a time of 9:38:58!!! Awesome stuff!!!
As for myself, training has been going very well and my running seems to be coming along well. Numbers for this week were:
Swim: 10.4 km
Cycling: 360.58 km
Running: 63.75 km

I am looking to up these numbers again this week and then a 1 week taper before Lake Stevens which is on July 6th. Hopefully I will be able to have a good race, although at this point in the season it is all about building up to Ironman Canada, so that will remain the major focus. I think my big goal for Lake Stevens will be to try to run sub 1:40 off the bike and cut 10+ minutes from my time in Boise. We will see how it goes. It is doable, and I can make it happen.

Cheers,
Mike

Bike Fitting in Victoria

2008-06-12T23:28:00.001-07:00

Quick post about a great place to get a bike fit in Victoria. If you need this done contact Noa at PT performance training(http://www.ptcoaching.ca/home.htm). She has helped me out immensely and has managed to make a massive difference with my position and ability on the bike this year. Other than this quick post, training is going good, I will post some numbers for volume at the end of this week.

Cheers,
Mike

Finally, Boise 70.3 Race report

2008-06-10T20:05:00.000-07:00

So here are the numbers:
Total Time: 5:22:42 Overall: 288 Age Group: 32
Swim: 37:31 Age Group: 19
T1: 3:39
Bike: 2:48:52 Age Group: 32
T2: 1:18
Run: 1:51:22

Race recap: The swim was very choppy and cold, I ended up swallowing so much lake water in the first 100 meters that I threw up in the lake, it was pretty brutal, probably one of the hardest open water swims I have ever done bar none. The cold took your breath away and the swallowing water made the paniocking even worse. I ended up catching people from 4 waves ahead as they were really struggling. Looking back on this swim I am relatively satisfied with my performance, scrap the first couple hundred meters and it was a good swim. T1 was a long run uphill into transition, and then another long run to the bike mount. Pretty uneventful. Got on the bike and felt pretty good, I took off and started reeling in a bunch of athletes from my wave and from other waves, things were looking good. The way the course was laid out it had pretty much all the climbing in the first half of the ride, so when I went through the halfway mark at 1:16:46 I was pretty stoked that I could go close to 2:35 on the bike... This obviously did not happen as we hit the back end of the course it got very windy and tough to push the bike any harder than I was going. It was a pretty frustrating stretch of the race, but last year I was finishing mid-pack in my age group on the bike and this year I started off by finishing in the top third so I cannot complain as the improvement is there. Another thing was that I didn't really take in any electrolytes until I drank half a gatorade bottle at 47 miles into the ride. The reason for this was that I was trying to avoid gatorade as it seems to give me some GI issues, so I was going to take salt tabs but I forgot them before the race and didn't remember them until I was already riding. My legs cramped up a bit so I might be able to avoid this in the future by using Nuun or salt tabs. T2 was nice and quick, got out of my shoes while riding in the last 300 meters of the ride and had a good dismount and run into transition, racked the bike no problems, helmet off shoes on and out of transition. The run was always going to be the toughest event for me on the day as my run training has suffered due to my IT Band issues I have had over the last few months. On the plus side I didn't notice any issues while running, but on the downside I had nothing in my legs after 10km and the last half of the run was pretty much just me slogging along cheering on other competitors. A great plus to this race were the locals, the spectators and aid stations were phenominal, and for a first time race everything was very well run. Boise is a great place to have a race, and I will be abck next year for another attempt at this course. I want my revenge!!!

Dissapointing races

2008-06-04T20:19:00.000-07:00

So after racing Bois, but before doing a race report I thought I would post about dissapointing races. We all have dissapointing races, some of us have more than others but we all have those days. The thing about dissapointing races is that they give you something to build on. For myself, it usually works out that my dissapointing races are my very first races of the year. Once I get a bad race out of my system I seem to be able to build my results up to the point where I can meet my goals by the end of the year. As long as the improvements keep happening I don't think we can look at these races so much as dissapointments but as building blocks for the rest of the season. Having said all this Boise was not a massive dissapointment. I did not meet my goals that I set before the race, however when I look where I placed in the field and at some positives that I can take from the race this was a good step in the right direction to achieve my goals for this racing season. I will take a few more days to reflect on all that happened on race day and I will put together a race report as soon as I can in the next 2 days.

Cheers,
Mike

Leaving for Boise

2008-05-28T21:08:00.000-07:00

Well, race weekend is nearly upon me, first race of the year and I have to say I am getting pretty excited. It should be an interesting race for me with the low volume of run training that has been done, but having said that it should be a good test to see where I am at with my cycling and swimming. Having said that, here are my race goals:

Swim
Best Case: 30:30
Worst Case: 32:30

T1: 1-2 mins

Bike
Best Case: 2:40
Worst Case: 2:45

T2: :45-1

Run
Best Case: 1:35:00
Worst Case: 1:40:00

Total time
Best Case: 4:45:00
Worst Case: 5:00:00

Now that these are set I am accountable for what happens. I still think I can pull off a cracking race, but the real struggle will come in at around the 15km mark on the run.
Cheers,
Mike

Training, Boise, and Weather

2008-05-22T19:26:00.000-07:00

So, it's been a couple weeks since my last post, training has been going surprisingly well. I feel really good about where I am on the bike and swim, and I have been easing back into the running just to make sure my injury doesn't flare up on me again, but I am feeling good on the run. My first real race of the season is almost here, Boise 70.3 on June 1st. Looks like I will be joining the Wurteles(Trevor and Heather) on a trip down. Should be fun, although I just checked the weather they have been having and it has been thunderstorms the last few days!!! The weather here has been hit or miss, last week wa great highs of 27 and sunny, this week has been hit or miss, really windy and highs of 16. Oh well, not quite summer I guess. I got some new toys for the bike, a Hed Disk and an aero drink bottle. I will try and post a pic of my bike in full race set-up when I can. I also just ordered the new Garmin 405. I can't wait for this little badboy to show up, it should make training very enjoyable this summer. Cheers,
Mike

Last couple of days

2008-05-07T00:41:00.000-07:00

Two days, two runs with minimal issues, looks like I might be coming around. Monday was a steady ride, just over 3 hours with 4 repeats of Observatory hill in Big ring, legs felt nice and good after that!!! That night it was a 45 min treadmill run, easy effort speed of 7.5 miles per hour, total distance done was Bike: 82.25 km, Run: 9.04 km. Today(Tuesday) was just a steady run, 1 hour and 54 seconds, total distance was 13.7 km. Not too bad, felt pretty good but still a bit tight, however no soreness after which is a good sign. I am going to try for my third run in 3 days tomorrow so we will see how that goes. On a side note, congratulations to Heather Wurtele who had an awesome race down at Wildflower placing 5th amongst the pro women, and Trevor Wurtele placing 17th in the pro men in what was a very competitive field. Nice work guys.
Cheers,
Mike

Injury, some frustration, and a brief race report!

2008-05-04T20:41:00.001-07:00

So, it's been awhile since I have posted anything. I have spent most of April frustrated by this IT injury, and just when it seems to be getting better it'll flare up enough just to keep me from getting in any good training. All this has led to a pretty frustrating month, and I have gone from being almost race ready at the end of March to back to base fitness at this point. With Boise 70.3 coming up in roughly 4 weeks I am hoping I can get in a good solid block of training here and be race ready again. Fortunately the bike and swim fitness is there for me. I managed to get in enough decent days of running to feel ready for the TC 10k which at the start of the season was one of my top priority races and a race in which I wanted to break 40 minutes. Unfortunately due to the injury and subsequent lack of run training I only managed to run a 42:33. This was a major dissapointment for me, however I am happy with the time all things being considered. Hopefully with the weather starting to warm up(Finally!!!) my leg will come around and I will have a decnt month of May. My goal time for Boise will be to break 5 hours, goals are 32 mins swim, 2:45 ride, and 1:40 run. That should leave me under 5 hours and I hope I can realise these goals.
Cheers,
Mike

Start of a new block

2008-04-07T18:58:00.000-07:00

So, I have been given a 4 week block by my coach and this week was the first week. It will be a tough block, but by the end I should be very close to race ready for Boise which is on June 1st. This week I was going very well, but after my long run on Friday(31km) my knee was really sore as I had some awesome IT Band friction so I took the running easy over the weekend. If that hadn't flared up I would have cracked 100km running in a week for the first time ever. As it was I still hit some good numbers and look set to be having my biggest month ever. Good thing is I saw my massage therapist today and the knee isn't bad at all so we worked on my IT band and I should be good to go again. Here are the numbers from last week:
Swim: 12,050 meters Time: 3:52:44
Bike: 350.45 km Time: 12:45:51
Run: 78.45 km Time: 6:20:12
Total training time: 22:58:57

Keeping my fingers crossed for this week, but if my knee stays good I should crack 450km on the bike and 100km on the run. Hopefully I can crack 15km swimming as well. Stay tuned....

Fresh update

2008-03-30T18:24:00.000-07:00

So it's been awhile since I last posted. February was a fantastic month for me, I hit record numbers in every category and felt great doing it. Monthly totals were as follows:
Swim: 36,800 meters Total time: 11:59:12
Bike: 1,326.35 KM Total time: 48:06:39
Run: 309.91 KM Total time: 25:44:37
March unfortunately hasn't been as good. First week was a rest week where I took it very easy, second week was a bit harder, I was racing a half mary on Sunday and wanted to be fresh for the race so I didn't go too hard. 3rd week was a bad sick week where I only got out of bed a couple of times as I just had no energy and then finally the last week was good again( other than the crazy weather we are having) where I got in some good volume. Monthly totals as follows:
Swim: 18,600 meters Total time: 5:51:04
Bike: 686.26 KM Total time: 23:34:25
Run: 159.36 KM Total time: 12:35:33
The plus side of March was my Half marathon race in Comox. I had an absolutely awesome race, my plan was to go out relatively easy and pick up the pace in the second 10km. I finished with a time of 1:30:22 my old best time was 1:34:57 and I broke my 10km time in the second half of the race by running a 41:02 for the second 10k when my old 10k previous best was 41:06. So all in all the month wasn't a write off, and coming into April I feel like I am ready to tackle my coaches' next block of hard training which should take me up to the end of April and culminate in the TC 10k where I hope to be able to go sub 40'. Should be an interesting month. I may also do the Sooke 10k in the Island Race series depending on how the training is going.
Cheers,
Mike

Last 3 days

2008-02-24T23:49:00.000-08:00

The last 3 days have been pretty good, Friday I hit the pool and got in some decent swimming(for me) of 3200 meters broken up over several drills and efforts. Then I hit out in the evening for a nice run full of hill repeats. Managed 16.42 kms with 4 hill repeats of 7 mins each, total run time was 1h20m44s for an avg pace of 4:55km. My runs have all started falling below an average of 5 min kms over the last week and I have to think it is due to the consistency I have had with my running. On Saturday I got up early and hit the pool for my scheduled 1 hour steady swim. I was a little worried about this as the last time I swam for an hour straight was at least 6 months ago. Managed alright, 3250 meters in 59m56s. Felt pretty good throughout. Then I had a good nap and got out for my long run. My goal was just a steady bordering easy pace and I manged 24.62kms in a time of 2h00m15s for an avg pace of 4:53km pace. Pretty good considering how easy I was taking it. Then we went out to my parents for dinner, had some awesome home made chili to refuel, and we went and caught the Victoria Salmon Kings in action. It was actually some pretty sweet hockey and very fast paced stuff. Then we went home and I finished the day with a 2 hour ride on the trainer, just working through the gears and keeping the HR at a good level. Today was another busy day, up early and to the pool, where I did 3750 meters of various drills and efforts, after that it was out on the bike for a good 3h45m38s ride with 3x 30 min intervals at high cadence, managed that OK although the last set was tough, got home and hit out on my 45 min transition run where my goal was to keep a nice steady pace once I found my legs after my ride. Surprisingly I found my legs right away and my stride was realy smooth and my turnover was nice and quick. I managed to hit up one of my faster training runs of the year, 10.06kms in a time of 45m 01s for an avg pace of 4:29km. Needless to say I was pleasantly surprised with this considering it was at the end of a tough week and at the end of a tough day!!! All in all I had a killer week and probably my biggest week ever, total numbers are as follows:
Swimming: 10,200 meters, total time: 3:14:21
Cycling: 410.19 kms, total time: 14:13:44
Running: 80.98 kms, total time: 6:36:30
Total training time of 24:04:35
1 more hard week coming up, then hopefully a rest week if my coach takes pity on me!!!

Cheers,
Mike

Long ride, beautiful Victoria weather!!!

2008-02-21T18:34:00.000-08:00

So weather forecast was looking good, I had a 5 hour ride and 25 minute transition run on the schedule from coach so I got up at 8am, had 2 cups of coffee(much needed at this hour) had a big bowl of oatmeal w/ yogourt and 2 pieces of toast w/ peanut butter, big breakfast, but I had a big workout to look forward to. Headed out for the ride and it was about 6-7 degrees already, unreal. I was looking forward to getting in a ride in good conditions for the first time in 4 months!!! Took the first hour easy and slowly ramped up the effort level throughout the ride. Ended the ride feeling good although the legs were not too happy(good sign that I worked hard enough) Total ride time was 4:59:05 and total distance covered was 143.44 kms. No rest for the weary though so I grabbed my trainers and headed out for my run. Felt pretty crappy at the start, but when I took my first mile split I was running 7:05 mile pace(4:24km pace). Needless to say I was nicely surprised by this, I started to find my legs at around the 10 minute mark and after that I felt good. Finished the run feeling like I could haven held my pace for another hour if I had to which was a good feeling. Total run time was 25:21 and total distance covered was 5.61 kms(4:31 pace). Weather today was absolutely stunning for February. Low of 5, high of 12 degrees and sunny all day with minimal wind. This is the best part about living in Victoria in the Winter. Awesome stuff.

Good Run

2008-02-20T21:15:00.000-08:00

So todays training was pretty simple. Run easy for 1 hour and 25 minutes with a focus on staying tall and keeping the effort level moderately easy. I started out and it felt like a bit of a struggle for form over the first few km's but the effort felt good and easy. I have slowly started to feel like I am getting my run legs back after a rough year last year, and todays run was a good indication that I am getting back to some decent runnning form. Total run time was 1:25:09 and distance covered was 17.30 km's. An average of 4:55 minute km's on a run that felt very easy. I am stoked with this as this is a significant improvement over where I was a few months ago and I am looking forward to seeing more improvements as I gear up for the racing season to begin. As far as races go I decided to scrap a couple of early season races in favour of more quality training and it now looks like my first race will be the Comox Valley 1/2 marathon. Looking forward to getting out the cobwebs from the racing legs and seeing how it goes. Last years time at this race was 1:34:59, I think my goal for this year will be to go sub 1 hour 30 minutes. Race is on March 16th, so a little less than a month away, we will see how things go until then, I may revise my goal time based on how training goes.
Cheers,
Mike

Last 2 weeks

2008-02-17T20:37:00.000-08:00

Hello all, so training has been going well, last 2 weeks have been pretty tough though. Here are the numbers:
Week 1: 10km swimming, 340.74km cycling, 66.38km running, total training time: 21:06:15
Week 2: 10.5km swimming, 353.66km cycling, 68.51km running, total training time: 21:15:02
Feeling pretty tired today, but not burnt out, just ready for a good sleep. These last 2 weeks have reminded me about how important a good sleep and good nutrition are towards training. The first week my nutrition was slack and had a couple of rough days because of it. This 2nd week I had some bad sleeps, and just couldn't get going on the days I wasn't well rested. Fortunately for me I had the week off work so I managed to get all my training in, but I have to be more careful during normal working conditions. Looking forward to the next couple of weeks and seeing what it brings and hopefully I have learnt my lessons about nutrition and sleep and can put everything together for another good 2 weeks.
Cheers,
Mike

Praying for Spring!!!

2008-02-05T20:51:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post to say training is going well, I started my coach's plan on Monday and I feel more motivated than ever. Weather is absolutely terrible, we are getting rain and wind and a consistent temperature of 2 to 5 degrees celsius with windchills of -1 to -5. Not the best weather for riding. Still managed to get in a good 3.5 hour ride on Monday, but I was pretty miserable by the end. My run today was into 90 kmph winds so you can all imagine how much fun that was. Oh well, hopefully Spring is just around the corner and we will get some good double digit temperatures soon. I might race a 12km run race this coming Sunday just to give the run legs a kick, but it all depends on how training goes over the next few days. Hope everyones training is going well,

Cheers,
Mike

New News

2008-01-22T19:35:00.000-08:00

So week was OK, I took it as a rest week as I had quite a few work obligations that needed attending, still managed to get in some decent workouts:

Swim: 2 sessions, 3500 meters (1:10:15)
Bike: 3 rides, 131.83 km's (5:02:34)
Run: 3 runs, 32.17 km's (2:50:42)
Gym: 2 sessions (1:40:00)

Running seems to be coming along quite well, my avg time per km is dropping nicely and should set me up for some good spring running races. But, in some exciting news, I have a new coach. This year I will be coached by Kieran Doe. For those of you who do not know who this is, he was the Mens Professional winner at Ironman Canada in 2007, and is currently the NZD national champion. I am looking forward to this great opportunity that I have been given to work woth him, and am looking forward to achieving my goals with his help. Should be an interesting nest few months.

Cheers,
Mike

New Year, better me!!!

2008-01-14T23:04:00.001-08:00

So, like the title says, it's a New Year, and I am expecting a lot from myself this year. Here are my main goals for the season:

-Sub 40 minute 10km run race
-Sub 4:45:00 1/2 Ironman
-Sub 5:30 bike split at Ironman Canada
-Sub 10:30 Ironman at Ironman Canada

For me to achieve these somewhat lofty goals I will be forced to be better than I was last year. To re-cap my season last year, training was going very well until I got injured running in February and had to take almost a full 2 months off of consistent run training because of my injury. I missed one of my major goals which was to qualify for Ironman Canada, I also missed my goal of breaking a 40 minute 10km(although I did set PR's twice for the distance so it wasn't all bad!!!) and it looked like I was going to miss my other major goal of breaking a 5 hour Half-Ironman race until I managed to get in 4 good solid consistent weeks of training before the Vancouver International Half-Iron(my last race of the year) where I went sub 5 hours. My main training goals for this season are to be as consistent as possible while avoiding any injuries. To set this up I decided to hang up my soccer boots at the start of this year instead of playing for another season. Ultimately this should help to minimize the impact on my body and give me more specific time for training. I have a goal to make sure I do at least 4 days of training in each sport per week, while only taking a maximum of 1 day off during build weeks and 2 days off during rest weeks. I also want to maintain my weights routine for as much of the season as possible, which consists of 2 full body workouts per week focusing on low weights at high reps. And last but not least, I want to be consistent with eating more healthy foods such as fruits and vegetables, instead of eating healthy one day and eating junk the next. I am hoping that by implementing all of these into my routine that it will help me reach my race goals for the year. With all that being said, here was my week in training:

Swim: 8500 meters, 4 pool sessions, total time: 2:46:08
Bike: 188.38km's, 4 bike sessions, total time: 8:37:04(bike mileage is low as I did a 1.5 hour ride on the trainer with no mileage gauge)
Run: 50.08km's, 4 run sessions, total time: 4:45:12
Gym: 2 sessions, total time: 1:40:00
Total training time for the week: 17:48:24
Long swim day: 3000 meters(2000 straight swim, time of 35:30)
Long ride: 105.27km's time: 4:01:27
Long run: 21.44km's time: 2:00:08(double run day, 1st run was 14.65 km's time of 1:21:08, 2nd run was 6.79km's time of 39 mins)

It was a good week, and I am finally starting to feel like I am shaking this Cold/Flu that I have had for the past few weeks. If I can keep my weeks like this going I am looking forward to getting in some run races come February to kick start my running a little bit. Weather forecast for this week is...Sun, so that means some good riding. I am off.

Cheers,
Mike

Merry X-mas

2007-12-20T17:35:00.000-08:00

Hello all, sorry I haven't updated my blog lately, I have been busy trying to get stuff done in time for X-mas while attempting to fight off multiple colds and still train consistently. Unfortunately my training has gone down a bit as I have been sick numerous times in the last few weeks, and as X-mas is upon us I find my time demands are focused towards family and friends. Training has been OK, I am starting to feel quite a bit stronger on the run and the bike, swimming has been the most inconsistent of the 3 sports as our pool was closed for cleaning for 2 weeks. I am currently looking forward to getting back into a good consistent groove of training, and also looking forward to the Vancouver Island Race Series which kicks off in January and is a series of 8 running road races of varying distances. Should be good. I wish you all a Merry X-mas and a Happy New Year.

Cheers,
Mike

Rest week

2007-11-25T17:04:00.000-08:00

This week was pretty good as it was a pretty easy week for training. I took the first 2 days of the week off to recover from the end of last week which was pretty good, it's always nice to wake up after a couple days off and feel fully refreshed and ready to go again. Here are this weeks numbers:

Swimming: 6000 meters, Time: 1:58:45(Long swim of 2000 meters Time: 34:40) 3 swims
Biking: 166.99 km, Time: 6:18:50, 4 rides
Running: 30.86 km, Time: 3:02:30, 5 runs
Gym: 2 sessions, Time: 1:40:00
Total training time: 13:00:05

In other news it looks like we will finally be getting a new bed. Thank God. Or Andy from Sleep Country I am not sure really. We finally decided to go look at bedds on Saturday and got a deal we could not refuse so we decided to buy. Throw in a couple of tempure-pedic pillows and we are looking set for 15-20 years of restful sleeps instead of waking up with aching backs and necks. All I can say is that I am looking forward to it. Well, the weather guys are predicting snow this week and unfortunately they have been pretty accurate lately so training may get interesting. Hope everyone has a great week.
Cheers,
Mike

It's getting colder...

2007-11-18T16:46:00.000-08:00

So Winter seems to have finally caught up to Victoria. This week we were rained on constantly, had some good stormy windy days, and it's getting noticeably colder. Early morning rides are double layers now without question, and I have dusted off the old toque for my running. Thank god we can swim indoors!!! I had a pretty good week, hit my vlume in everything except for the swim(notice a pattern yet), although I managed to get in my long swim, and I was pumped to have been able to do the time I did while putting in a somewhat casual effort. Here are this weeks numbers:

Swimming: 5000 meters, Time: 1:41:05 (Long swim of 2250 meters Time: 40:14)
Biking: 272.64 km, Time: 11:08:24
Running: 40.05 km, Time: 4:00:59
Gym: 2 sessions, Time: 1:40:00
Total training time: 18:30:28

Bike mileage is a little lower than I would like but due to heavy winds I was slowed down quite a bit while out riding, however I still got all my rides done and this is probably something that wouldn't have happened last year. I vow to be stronger on the bike this year. It is one of my main goals. I have found that while doing shorter races I can mask a bad ride with a good run, but this does not hold true for longer races such as half and full ironman distance races. Anyhow, that is all for now.
Cheers,
Mike

Remembrance day, more training

2007-11-12T19:02:00.000-08:00

First off this week, i'd like to take the time to thank all the veterans of WW1 and WW2, it is because of your bravery and self sacrifice that we are all able to live with the freedom and rights and privileges that we have today. I am not able to fathom the thought process of going off to war at the tender age of 16 like my Grandfather did, but I know in his heart he did it to protect our future, and I am very glad he was one of the lucky ones who made it back to our shores safely. In other news, I got to see my cousin Jessica(Thompson Rivers University) play University B-ball the other night against UVIC, man the level that these girls play at is pretty unbelieveable. I am so proud of my little cousin, she got 13 points against a very talented UVIC squad and didn't look out of place at all even though she is just in her first year!!! Good stuff. As far as training goes, I had another very solid week although I missed another swim workout... Here are the total numbers:

Swimming: 4000 meters, Time: 1:36:50 (2 sessions)
Biking: 269.03 km, Time: 10:44:30 (5 rides)
Running: 35.76 km, Time: 3:35:00 (4 runs)
Gym: 2 sessions, Time: 1:40:00
Total Training Time: 17:36:20

Not a bad week, felt really good on the bike, a little slow on the run, but it's coming along, and I am choked that I missed my last swim of the week as it would have put me up to 7km, but I ended up going to watch my cousin play B-ball instead and this early in the season it is easily something I would do again. It's not every day I get to watch my cousin play ball. Anyhow, things are looking good, this week will be a big week and then the week after will be a bit of a rest week and that will be one month of training done. Cheers,
Mike

Base training, 6 year anniversary

2007-11-05T20:29:00.000-08:00

So, first week of base training is over. A pretty good week. Here are my training numbers:
Swimming: 2000 meters Time: 47:42
Biking: 239.60 km Time: 10:11:50
Running: 32.63 km Time: 3:33:32
Gym: 1 session Time: 55 mins
Total training time: 15:28:04
A couple notes, did not hit the swim volume I wanted as I had a couple of more important things to do which I will get to in a minute. Also, man I forgot how much it hurts to put in some long hours on the bike when you have taken more than a few days off... My ass is still killing me!!! Other than that all is well, for the most part I hit all my Heart rate targets in the first week and am well on my way to building up some good aerobic volume.
n some non tri related updates, it was Shannon(my girlfriend) and my 6 year anniversary on Saturday. She is great. She pushes me to be a better person and athlete everyday and I love her so much. I am glad I have someone who understands and supports me as much as she does and I am damn lucky to have her. I just hope I am able to support her as much as possible with her dreams to complete her nursing degree. Love you babe!!! And in other news, my brother is once again heading off on some travels, in fact he is heading back down to Australia tomorrow for another 5-8 months. Pat, I hope you have a good time mate. Enjoy yourself. Don't work too hard. Have a good week everyone.

Sick, and Start of Base Training

2007-10-29T21:42:00.000-07:00

Well, the last couple weeks have been pretty crappy. I came down with a pretty bad cold which basically floored me for 2 weeks, I had fever, sore throat, bad cough etc... It seems to have cleered up just in time to start my base training. I hit up my first swim today which was pretty basic, just 2000 meters working on kicking, some paddle work and some breathing exercises. I also did a run test today. Goal was to do 4km keeping HR below 158. I really struggled with this, I managed to keep my HR avg @ 157, but my pace was pretty bad. I finished the 4km in 30:08. Not exactly a blazing time. I have a feeling when I do this test next month it will show quite an improvement as I think the high HR at low speeds was due more to the lingering effects of my cold than a general lack of fitness.Other than that, my girlfriend Shannon and I went on a haunted Trolley tour of James Bay on the weekend, pretty good times especially when we thought we had caught a ghost in a picture only to drive back through the area and realise it was a slightly hidden decoration!!! Oh well, maybe we will get one some other time!!! Happy Halloween everyone.

Recovery

2007-10-18T18:32:00.000-07:00

So recovery from the marathon is going well. I took the whole first week after the marathon off. It was nice to have a full week of doing nothing so I could get my head in the right space to start up training again. This week has been a couple of easy rides on the trainer no effort higher than zone 2. I will try to hit the pool in the next couple of days and get in some light swims and maybe a session or 2 of water running. By the last week of October I should be ready to fully start up my base training for what I expect to be a hard year as I have some pretty lofty goals in mind, but with the right combination of training and attitude they should be achievable. Loking back on this season, I am happy to have hit one of my big goals of breaking 5 hours for a half iron. Also setting new PB's in the 10km running races was quite pleasing, however all in all I feel that my season was not really a success for two reasons. Consistency of training and nutrition. These are going to be a big focus for me this year as by nailing these 2 aspects of training and health I feel that I will be ready to make the jump to the next level of competition.

Cheers,
Mike

Yeesh...

2007-10-09T23:17:00.000-07:00

So the marathon is over(Thank god). It was a very rough day. I woke up feeling pretty good, felt energetic and my legs felt loose no worries, sun was peeking though the cloud cover it looked like it would be a great day for running. I got down to the race in plenty of time, had a good warmup jog, stretched out my legs, hit the porta potties and was ready to roll. First 10km were great, if anything a little faster than I wanted to be, I was trying to run 5 min km's and I went through 10km in 48:33. Still feeling good I decided to hold that pace instead of back off a bit and I went through the halfway point in 1:45:47, right on pace to hit a 3:30 marathon. I was starting to feel a little drained, but nothing I haven't experienced before. Another few km's down and the skies opened up. Big time. It was pretty bad. The worst part was my socks got really wet and bunched in my shoes which caused the worst case of blisters I have ever had while running. I ended up having to change my stride to cope with this, and the end result of that was brutal cramping in my quads at the 30km mark which forced me to walk/run intervals(mostly walking) for the next 5 km's. At this point in the race all my time goals got thrown out the window and I just wanted to finish. I ended up chatting to a guy who was having the same problems as me and we decided to run together until the end which was a bonus becuase it occupied our minds while we jogged it home. All in all, a very dissapointing day which left me with a finishing time of 4:06:08. Certainly nothing to sneeze at, but well short of my goals for this race. Oh well, we all have bad races, and I am glad I got one out of the way when it didn't count for anything. On a good note, I got to enjoy a nice Thanksgiving lunch with my family on Monday afternoon which was a great day after marathon feast!!! A little Turkey and mashed potatoes and all thoughts of the race were washed from my head!!! Now, a few easy weeks before getting into my base building for next season. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Mike

4 days to go...

2007-10-04T01:40:00.000-07:00

So, 4 more days left until the marathon, I am starting to get a little nervous as I am very unsure where my fitness stands at this point and I am not likely to find out until 25km in to the race on Sunday. The few runs I have done over the last couple of days have been good, just short speedy stuff to get my legs ready. As for the nutrition choices so far I feel good. Not having beef has hardly been noticed even though it was one of my more favored foods. We will see after a month if I miss it. All the best.
Mike

Off Season Nutrition Goals

2007-09-25T22:35:00.000-07:00

This off season I have decided to try some new things. First off I am going to be cutting out beef up until the end of marathon week(October 7th). After that long weekend(Thanksgiving for us Canadians) I will go completely vegetarian for a month. This will be a complete shock for those of you who know me as a burger and steak lover, but I think this approach will also help me find new food groups to try and new ways to get in my necessary daily nutrition plus help me to become more well rounded in my daily eating habits. Another goal of this experiment is too keep my weight closer to tri season weight than I did last year. Last year I hit the off-season and was content to put on 20+ pounds within 2 months. As you can imagine it was pretty hard to work off that much excess weight in the pre-season so I ended up carrying a little more weight around the courses with me this year. Not good. So with that being said, looking forward to trying some new things and seeing if they work. As far as training goes, I have managed a couple of shorter runs over the last couple of days, no watch, no logging my training, just going out and running until I felt bored or tired and then heading home. Seeing as the marathon is less than 2 weeks away I am probably going into it a little under done, but I am not too worried(This could just be me being naive). Anyhow, I will try to get in one last 15km this week at some point and have it in the middle of 6 days of running just to get consistent again and hopefully all will work out well on race day.
Cheers.
Mike

2007-09-23T21:21:00.000-07:00

This is me with about 500 meters to go in Vancouver knowing that I would break 5 hours was sweet. My friend Heather took this picture.

2007-09-23T20:27:00.000-07:00

So, haven't posted in a long time, I have been really busy and never really got around to posting. As i'm sure no one really reads this I am not too worried about it. So my season ended up being OK. I set 2 new personal bests in the 10km running distance and after lots of setbacks finally managed to break the 5 hour mark in a half ironman distance race in my last race of the year in Vancouver. All in all not a bad season, although I didn't meet all my goals which I am OK with. Leaves me lots of room to improve this upcoming season.

What's next:

Upcoming events are the Royal Victoria Marathon on October 7th, which I have not done a lot of prep for but am hoping it will be an enjoyable hard day of running, and if I feel up for it, the Shawnigan Lake Half Marathon on October 28th. Hopefully I can use these 2 races and a good end of season jolt for my running to help me for next season. After that, a nice couple weeks of rest and relaxation for me, followed by some good solid base training right up until X-mas. Should be a fun couple of months with no real pressure to push myself extremely hard. I will try to post some pictures of the summer races when I have a chance.

Good rides

2007-04-21T00:46:00.000-07:00

So I have been pretty sore since my race in Sooke, but still managed to get in a couple of good rides and a short run over the last 2 days. First ride was out to East Sooke Park, just a beautiful place to ride, minimal traffic lots of scenery and some good hills. Today I got out and hit up another good ride, out along Beach Drive and down through Cordova Bay, through Elk Lake area and into the highlands, came home and hit up a short 7km run to finish the night off good. Total distances done in the 2 days were 153km on the bike, and 7 km running. Should be a good weekend if the weather holds, plan on hitting up a 150km ride on Sunday and at least a 30km run on Saturday plus a couple 5km in the pool. Have a good weekend all!!

Training

2007-04-18T15:08:00.000-07:00

Was going to go out for a long ride today, but decided ttime would be better spent in the pool. I was right. The pool was pretty much empty and I got in a killer swim, 3500 meters, 1:09, pretty happy with that workout, hoping to hit up a run or short ride tonight, we'll see how it goes. Legs are still pretty sore from the Sooke 10km race, hopefully I will feel fully recovered by tomorrow.

2007-04-16T23:59:00.000-07:00

My first post, what to say, set a new Personal best time in a 10km road race yesterday of 41:30, 10 seconds better than my previous best and on a tougher course. I am stoked to see how well I will do in my 'A' race which is the Times Colonist 10km race on April 29th. At the start of the season I set a goal of being able to break a 40 minute 10km time, although due to some injuries I have resigned myself to only breaking 41 minutes, although I will be super happy if that happens.