The coast is the most...

The past 5 days have been about recovery and I'm still taking in the experiences from last weekend.

I could hardly walk on Monday LOL but after practicing my ambulation skills the past few days I am getting around me better now!

ha!

I also can't believe how much I've eaten... constantly hungry!!! OMG

5 days of feeding has come to an end and now it's back to "normal".

I need to look forward now and focus my attention and leap frog ahead to the fall.

I'm returning to Western States Chiropractic College in Portland Oregon to restart my Chiropractic program and am leaving next week for Portland to find a place to live.

I also want to get the hell out of dodge before the craziness known as the Calgary Stampede starts! LOL ... yeah yeah some people love it, but I'm so over it! ;)

I decided to make a real trip out of this and am bringing my swim/bike/run gear and will spend 3+ weeks training and playing on the coast.

The plan calls for a quick trip out to Vancouver Island next weekend to do some riding with my friend Lisa then I'll pop down to Portland for a week to secure accommodation then it's back up to Victoria/Nanaimo for 2 weeks to train.

Maybe I can get an ocean swim in!! ;)

I'll be back in Cowtown just in time to fire it up in Canmore for Provincials on the 28/29th.

I also hope this trip out to the island is a prelude of things to come as I intend to seriously explore practice opportunities out there.

I would love to live on the coast again and am planting that seed of desire out into the Universe.

Lets see if it grows and blossoms!

~la

Edmonton BG World Cup

On Sunday I competed in the Edmonton BG World Cup Triathlon (Olympic Distance).

This was a huge day of racing not just for the Pros.

The day also consisted of The Pan Am Junior Championships, Olympic and Sprint Triathlons and a 5 mile road race all in celebration of the 10th and final year of Edmonton as the host city.

First let me say that tapering is tough.. not so much physically but I never fully appreciated the emotional and mental aspects one "endures" when experiencing a proper taper.

I was feeling great the week leading up to the race and thought many a time "oh I'll just go for a quick spin or I want to ride with my friends tomorrow"... stick with the plan!!...

"My" plan called for no activity 4 days pre race aside from stretching... lots and lots of stretching... and some core work. I wanted to come into this event with my legs fully fresh and my body fully rested.

I've never done this before... a long taper like this... and honestly it wasn't even a "proper" taper as many training programs call for.. but I wanted to listen to my body and it was telling me to rest and stretch.

As it turned out I was very happy that I did listen.

I've never done an Olympic distance Triathlon before and honestly didn't know what to expect in the way of time so as I stated in my previous post I sort of "guessed" at some time goals where I hoped to hit.

No pressure though.. this race was really about celebrating life and my journey coming full circle.

That said, what I achieved yesterday went beyond my wildest expectations.

Pre-race:
Up at 4am, ate and spent about 60 min stretching. By 6:30am I had made my way to the venue and was setting up in transition.

The Pan Am Junior Championship went at 7am so that was a great distraction and before I knew, it was time to wriggle into my wetsuit and make my way to the beach.

Swim:
Because of my shoulder tendonitis injury I was quite worried about the swim. I hadn't done any "serious" training in the pool since February and any pool time I managed to log in the past 10 weeks was relegated to just doing TI drills and working on my balance in the water etc.

Obviously resting the shoulder paid off because aside from the typical "human washing machine" of arms and elbows to the head I enjoyed a wonderful swim, no shoulder pain and posted my fastest 1500m split ever!

Swim 1500m: 00:28:13

T1: is teh suck!
Need to try and improve this time.. spent several min limping the 200m from the beach to transition (will need to see if I can wear sandals or something next time I have to walk this far.. my left foot was in spasm after this)

T1 : ~ 7 min :(

Bike:
I really wanted to lay the hammer down on the bike course as that's been my primary focus of training since April. I logged over 1000 km in May on the bike and know that right now I'm enjoying the best bike fitness of my life. Joining the Speed Theory Cycling Team has also helped with my confidence and handling skills and I just knew today would be a great day!

And it was...

I laid it down on the bike course and posted my fastest 40km split ever!

Bike 40 km: 1:08:00

Mental note: I probably didn't need to carry the extra water bottle.

So a bottle of H20 and Gatorade looks to be enough for me.

T2:
no worries, off the bike and on the run course in short order

Run:
This was the leg that worried me the most.

During my LSD runs this spring I was working on taking in Gatorade and gels. Even bought a fancy schmancy fuel belt and wore it yesterday.

My run plan called for water and Gatorade at 10 min intervals respectively then a gel at the 30 min mark.

I also stuck to my 10 and 1 plan. Run 10 min, walk 1 min.. REGARDLESS of how I feel!!

Again this worked out really well as I posted my fastest (ever... even before being injured) 10km split!!

Run 10 km: 1:04:12

In the days leading up to the race I would have been extremely happy with a 3:15 time. Considering my lack of swimming and questionable run fitness but my strength on the bike, I felt this was a realistic goal.

What I achieved went beyond my wildest dreams.

2:47:44

On top of it all, I had the incredible honour of qualifying in my category (AWAD) for the National Age Group team and will be representing Canada at the Triathlon World Championships this September in Hamburg and the 2008 World Triathlon Championships in Vancouver next June!!!

and the taper begins...........

I've recovered well from the Pigeon Lake cycling race and have begun to taper for my "A" race being held next weekend. A BG World Cup Triathlon event in Edmonton.

I want to be fully rested, refreshed and ready to race come next Sunday.

If things go well next week I should have a legitimate shot to qualify for a spot to the World Championships being held in Hamburg this Sept.

The body is feeling good, the shoulder is feeling good..

I've done no swimming in the past 6 weeks to allow my shoulder to fully recover. In addition to heaps of self care (rubber tubing strengthening, stretching... stretching.. RoM exercises) I had a soft tissue Tx done last weekend. The shoulder is ready.

My last swim TT (pool) was in Feb where I did 1500m in ~ 29 min so I'm hoping to hit around the 30 min mark next week (wet suit assisted).

My goals for the race:

Personal goals:
To really enjoy the experience, take in the atmosphere, meet some cool people and use this event as a celebration of how life has come full circle for me.

Time:
Swim: ~ 30 min
T1: < 3 min
Bike: ~1 hr 15 min
T2: < 2 min
Run: ~ 1 hr 15 min

My super target is a sub 3 hr time but honestly I'll be happy to finish the event with my legs still feeling good...

oh and and qualify for Hamburg. :)

Pigeon Lake Road Race

First let me say, one of our team mates... Ernie, was involved in a very serious crash with about 15 other riders about 3km from the finish line.

He sustained some serious injuries and was sent via ambulence to the hospital in Wetaskiwin. I had only met Ernie for the first time this morning and having been involved in a cycling accident myself, my heart goes out to him and his family.

I hope he is doing OK and I wish him the speediest of recoveries.


It was a gorgeous day up at Pigeon Lake, light winds and brilliant sunshine. A beautiful day to be on the bike.

We arrived with plenty of time to check in, gear up and do a nice 15km ez warm up ride.



Our Category (Cat 5) was the last event of the morning so we were able to watch the starts of other Cat's. Mens' 4,3,1/2 and the women.






By the time of our race start, folks were pretty jittery and the nervous energy.. err excitement was palatable.



This was evident by the initial blistering pace

for the first 10-15 min. At this early stage the peloton was averaging in excess of 50 km/h .

After the first climb things settled down to a more steady pace ~ 45-50km/h and the attacks began.

Our plan was for Speed Theory members Kirk and Carl to lead off the front making attack after attack, pushing the pace and see if any other stronger riders would try to catch the break.

This is exactly what happened.

Those guys did an excellent job in keeping the pace high and forcing other riders to work extra hard to catch them.

I must digress a moment and say that this was the first road race I've ever done and had never ridden in such a large pack at such a high speed. Man what a rush!!

At about the 25km mark our team was well positioned at the front and Carl, Kirk, myself and a few other riders made a break.

We had about 5-6 guys with us and each taking ~ 30 sec pull then sliding back.

We were hoping for a few more chasers but none came so we eased up and melted back into the peloton.

Things got a bit hairy around the 35 km mark as many riders started getting tired and concentration began to wane. A few potential crashes were avoided but you could tell it was just a matter of time before something happened.

More "whimpy" attacks were made by other riders and each time at least one Speed Theory member was right there chasing them down. No one wanted to fully commit to a total break away.

Around the 40 km mark we were coming up to a 3km climb. It was a huge ass hill. The peloton slowed right down to a crawl (~30km/h) well at least it sure did feel like a crawl!

Folks were slamming on their brakes and again.. a few more potential crashes were narrowly avoided.. ug!!

Around the 44-45 km mark the" game plan" called for me to make a serious attack to kick up the pace as many riders would be fatigued from such a long climb.

I gave it.. balls to the wall.... and no one chased!! So I kept hammering. Finally after the peloton was spread out to a single line and a few guys caught up to me and I melted back into the group. I had done my part.

Around the 50m mark (1 hr 10 min) I was pretty cooked.

I had never ridden so far so fast before and my left foot had gone numb so I decided to power down and was dropped from the peloton. My day was done.

It's interesting how things sometimes work out because a short while later I came across what could mildly be called carnage on the road. Horrible to see so many riders down, even worse to see a team mate seriously injured. Luckily the first aid responders were there right away so nothing more could be done until the ambo's arrived.

All in all it was an amazing day and an amazing event. I've never had so much fun riding so fast with so many people before!

I learned heaps about race strategy and tactics which will (I am told) directly translate over to my triathlon cycling. Not the mention some serious fitness gains from today. 60+ min of threshold training. crickey!

Now I need to recover well this week as I have 3 weeks to prepare for my "A" race, the BG Edmonton World Cup Triathlon where I hope to win a qualifying spot for Worlds in Hamburg this Sept.

~la