Oh Nos!!!

 Oh Nos!!!   

It's been well over a  year since my last entry and I thought since Spring is upon us, I'd fire up the old blog.

 I hope to throw down some thougths about my training riding, some cool nursing experiences I'll have in clinical and other random tid bits.

Ahhh Twitter, Facebook and Blogger. Gotta love the age of social networking.

It's all about the base baby

I'm lovin it!

Après New Year = All your BASE are belong to us TRAINING time baby!


After enjoying a nice 5 day recovery window I'm ready to kick it up a notch for this next 3 week training block. It's a pretty simple schedule actually Ride, ride and ride... oh did I mention ride? :)

I do miss training for triathlon as I love being in the pool, but focusing on bike racing this season is allowing me to "play" 5-6 days a week on the bike; something I haven't been able to do in previous years.

My next 3 week block will resemble something like this: Mon: weights, 1 hr ride (hill intervals) | Tues: 2 hr ride | Wed: active recovery day/recovery day | Thurs 3 hr ride | Fri: weights, 1 hr ride (hill intervals) | Sat: 2 hr ride | Sun: 4 hr LSD ride

I'm not too worried about distance and intensity right now as the main focus is continuing to build my base (we are in the winter base period right? hehe) so I'll be focusing on time. For this block I'll be shooting for 10 hrs on the bike in week 1, building up to 13-14 hrs by week 3.

My 2009 race season is starting to take shape. The first cycling race will be sometime in April (date TBA) and I'll be adding more events to my calendar as dates become available.

One event I am confirmed for is the Calgary Police 5km road race. I'll most likely be walking it as running is still a pita for my left foot. It will be a fun event none the less.

Looking ahead to 2009

Christmas has come and gone, we're half way through the holidays and it's only a few short days until the New Year. Living in a winter climate my garage serves as a walk in cooler, great for chilling several cases of beer. :)

MMMM beer.

This also means Peter's Big Bike Christmas holiday extravaganza is half way over. I've logged some impressive km's the past 10 days or so. I hit 288km last week and hope to ride at least 200km this week as well. It all depends how I feel in the in the few days following NYE LOL. I should be on target to log a little over 900km for the month. Not bad for December!

I've been thinking a lot about my future goals and have decided to focus mainly on bike racing for the 2009 season.

I rejoined my old team: Speed Theory and will compete in cat 5 this season (maybe I'll win enough points to move up to cat 4! LOL)



Happy New Year!

I am such a Girly Man

It's been quite some time since my last Blog entry. We last saw Petethecanuck (yours truly) finish a bloody epic month of training waaay back in April with new PB's in both cycling and swimming training volumes.

I was in great form heading into May and felt very confident about a making the podium at the 2008 Triathlon World Championships in Vancouver that June. Possibly even improving on my Silver medal finish from 2007 in Hamburg.

Unfortunately this was not meant to be. In early May I suffered a serious injury to my left foot, preventing me from competing in any races in the 2008 season. Far as racing was concerned, this year was a complete wash out.

Overcoming adversity it seems was to be my challenge for the remainder of 2008. In June I marked my 10 year anniversary of the accident (or reborn day) and had hoped for a celebratory occasion.

Instead I had a serious relapse with my PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) stemming from my accident and for several weeks I suffered flashbacks and moments of anxiety. I was so freaked out I couldn't even ride outside.

Thankfully I was able to work through this time of crisis and for the remainder of the summer I enjoyed many long beautiful rides.

I spent the off season (aka the Fall) like many age group athletes; weight lifting, cross training (in my case playing heaps of Volleyball at the Y), eating, eating and yes even more eating LOL.

The past month or so I've been back on the bike and am starting to regain my form. My Christmas plans include; aside from drinking a few bottles of wine and hoping to spend at least 14 hrs in the saddle pedaling about 350km per week for the two week break.

I started my *big bike week* today with a nice 2 hr ride while watching Navy lose to Wake Forest in the EagleBank Bowl. :(

It's going to be a great Christmas. Me, some wine and my bike.

An epic ride to end the month

April 2008 is finally in the books. Who knew you could fit all 4 seasons in a single month!!

This past week's been especially hard with the return of winter like weather but we had a short reprieve on the weekend with some decent temps. This was short lived as this morning we had another dusting of snow.

Moving forward towards May brings renewed excitement of sunny skies, warm afternoons and the majority of training happening outside!

Speaking of training.. with today's shitty weather I decided to end the month with an epic bike ride.

Unfortunately this ride was indoors but I was on the bike none the less so it's all good.

BIG BIKE DAY BABY!!

4 hrs 15 min and 110km. Today's been the longest ride of the year and will set me up for some epic long rides in the coming weeks.

I have about 5 weeks until World's and physically speaking... I feel more then ready. Mentally.. not so much... Over the next few weeks that will change as I log some quality riding and running km's outside on the road. I've only been outside on my road bike 3x this season. :(

I shouldn't be concerned though.. by the numbers I managed to get in a very solid month of training.

I took the past week off swimming as well.. just to make sure I wasn't over training.. most I've EVER swam in my Tri career to date.

April Totals.

Swimming:	27200 meters	- 11:33:00
Biking:	831 kilometers	- 33:30:00
Running:	38.5 kilometers	- 04:50:00

Looking forward to what May will bring

ahh Spring time in Calgary

Spring 2008 *sigh*

I was looking at some old entries and came across April 20th 2007

hmmm something looks oddly familiar..... cold... snow... cold.. what's this white stuff???

Last Friday we were hit with a HUGE Spring snow storm of biblical proportions.. ok ok well maybe not that bad.. but WTF we're about a week away from May!!

This morning I awoke to a balmy -19C wind chill.. Bloody hell!!

Thankfully we're in for a reprieve of "normal" weather later this week and *fingers crossed* I'll be training outside this weekend.

Speaking of training.. I am on fire this month. Fitness is progressing very nicely and last week I enjoyed my first 15hr training week of the season. I'm allowing my body proper recovery from key workouts and stuck with a methodical base training program over the winter.. even when I felt I could do more. or do things at a higher intensity... The end result... no injuries.. no carrying deep fatigue from one workout to the next and subsequently NO over training!!

I'm on track for a truly epic month of training.

Swim: 37,000 m (est)
Bike: 800 km (est)
Run: 45 km (est)

Crikey!! 64 days and a wake up 'til World's

Taking a much deserved recovery week before I start my build 2 phase of training this Sunday. I love this time of year.

After spending a long hard winter of doing the majority of my training inside (I'm a total pussy when it comes to cold weather) I'm looking forward to some Spring-like weather and getting outdoors!

Elle 3.0 arrived at the shop and she's all built up and put together! Spoke with Greg from Speed Theory and I can get in to be F.I.S.T'ed sometime next week!

I can not wait to fire it up and see what this beautiful bike is capable of.

Fitness wise I am right on target (aside from a few hiccups in March).

This is my third year in the sport and it's amazing to look back at my old training logs to see where I was 2 yrs ago compared to where I am now.

Every year builds upon the next and I am learning so much about myself and the sport from these experiences and the incredible people I'm meeting throughout this journey.

I'm finally seen some significant improvements to my freestyle stroke (notably maintaining a high elbow throughout the catch phase) and it's translating to some faster times in the pool and OMG I'm actually becoming efficient!!

Cycling... my plan to focus on the bike from Sept - Jan by maintaining a minimum 400km/month target has paid off. I'm faster and stronger on the bike then ever before and feel I'm capable of going a ~ 1:05:00 40km TT split in Vancouver.

The Run: Ug.. by far my weakest leg.. mainly due to my injuries. I'm supplementing my training with some deep water running (as I did last year) while maintaining my LSD targets.

If I can match or be very close to my 10km split from Hamburg last year (1:00:03) I will be very pleased! My goal will be to run the entire course without stopping.

Lots of goals to shoot for.. thank god there is still 64 days and a wake up to prepare!