a quote a day…

This week in memorable quotes. Brought to straight out of the mouths of PTC members.

“If you hold your stroke count, you can do whatever you want.”

-Said when I asked coach if I could increase my speed if I held my stroke count. The set was 3X8X50 on 1:00, with the goal being to hold 37strokes/50m. My last round were all 33sec/50 (and I held my stroke count) and I felt in control the whole way.

“You need to HTFU.” [harden the F up]

-said by Tom due to my whining about the wind, or having to swim in the hot pool, or the cold, or not knowing the workout in advance, or any other number of things.

“This is what you’ll look back to in the race and think, ‘I can be tough’”.

-said by Coach with one 2k repeat left (after descending the previous ones 6:45, 6:36, 6:34). The last one was 6:30 with James rocking me with 400 to go. James gets an honourable mention for stating, “I had to keep you honest.”

“It’s HIM!”

-said by Angela when Craig heard a high-pitched scream coming from the 60degree lake and rightfully assumed it belonged to a girl. I should point out that there was no sun out, and it was really, really cold. I’ve included a couple pictures because this blog is sorely missing them.

And lastly: “I’m not going to get beat by any juniors!”

-Said by in me in reference to tomorrow’s Milton triathlon. Self-explanatory.

Checkya.

summer strikes

This just in: we finally got some hot weather. And as much as I like the cold (summer is actually my least favourite season), it’s been nice to be outside without a sweater on.

So, an update for you. Hmmm…things are grand right now. I have one more week of placement, and then I’m chilling for most of June, making lots of trips to Toronto, training my guts out (or at least as much as Craig will allow me to), and sleeping like a champ.

Training has been going quite well. I don’t want to give away all of Craig’s secrets, but we’ve had some solid workouts. My running is feeling solid right now, so that’s great. On Friday (after a tough swim in the morning), we did a 2k, a bunch of 400s with short rest, and then another 2k. My first 2k was 6:30 (and felt great), and the second was 6:35 (and stung like a hornet). But considering it was a fairly tough course, I was pumped.

Then today I did my longest ride ever with Tom. It was supposed to be 60minutes base, 60min steady, 30min threashold, and 30 easy. But “we” mis-calculated and ended up riding 108km (3.5hours). I’ve never been over 100before, and I’ve never had such defined suntan lines (thank you spandex bike jersey!). My garmin said I burned 4300calories. I’m not sure if I believe it, but that didn’t stop me from eating all the food when it was over.

My next race is on Sunday, in Milton. I’m wondering if we’ll get to swim…considering it hasn’t really been warm yet. Even if they make it a du, I really don’t want to get beat by any juniors (yeah, I said it). Soon enough I’ll be old and have no chance at all. So it’s on.

Peace out.

race one: (mostly) successful

First race of the year was yesterday. In it, I accomplished all of the following:

-knocked the cobwebs off
-raced in the worst conditions ever (5degrees C, rain, 40km/h wind)
-felt really strong on the first run (3:22/k)
-almost got disqualified running out of T1
-killed myself riding 15km/h into the wind
-fell asleep riding 70km/h with the wind
-had the fastest* run split (3:30/k) (I’m disqualifying Kozi due to his multiple all-Canadian running status)
-got absolutely smashed by Sharratt on the bike (although I beat him to the 1200metre mark on the first run)
-got beat by a bunch of junior aged athletes (Fear not: I’ll have my revenge).
-finished 8^th overall, 1^st in my age-group.

So yeah, good start. As I was leaving the race, I noticed all the expensive bikes. Like, really, really expensive bikes. I started thinking about my bike, and how it makes noise and isn’t all carbon fibre. And I thought that maybe I would ride faster if I bought a $6000 bike. But then I remembered something that Miguel Indurain (5-time winner of the Tour de France) said when he saw the $250,000 bike that Trek/Lance were developing. Four simple words: “don’t forget the legs.”

So I’ll go with that. My legs vs. those bikes. We’ll see what happens.

go time.

It’s go time.

My first race of the year is on Monday. It’s fairly short–4k run, 25k bike, 4k run–but it’s my first race (with a transition area) in 4 years, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t super excited about it. I’m secretly hoping to give Sharratt a run for his money (but don’t tell him that). Yesterday James and I did a repeat of last week’s 3X2k (on the muddy trails). I ran 10seconds faster/interval (6:40avg vs. 6:50 last week), and I had also riden 2 hours in the morning. So yeah…systems are a go.

It’s been 4 years since I did a race. Athletically, the last 4 years have simply been defined by an absence of a goal. I stayed in shape, but I wasn’t really committed. For example, I would furiously do a whole bunch of sit-ups right before going on the beach because I read that sit-ups deplete your ab muscles of blood, thus making the muscles look more defined. You like that? THAT is the kind of training I was doing until about 8 months ago.

But now I’ve set a goal for myself: Canadian Champion for my age group. That means I can’t bluff anymore, or do sit-ups right before race time. Although it’s a very long season, and this race is fairly minor, it will give me a good indication of where my training is at. I can’t wait!

(ps. this video is what has come to be called “Ironwar”. It’s awesome)

 

 

what are you on?

I have this Lance Armstrong poster in my room. It’s got a picture of Lance riding and the words read as follows: “People always ask me what I’m on. I’m on my bike, busting my ass 6 hours a day. That’s what I’m on. What are you on?”

Aside from winning the Tour de France seven times, Armstrong has become famous for his work ethic. If you follow Armstrong at all, you’ll know that his preparation for his tour victories was meticulous. He put in 6-7 hours/day, every day on the bike, and then spent countless hours making sure every detail was perfect for him to go fast. I read once that he called Jan Urich (his biggest rival) an “f-ing chump” because Urich rode inside on a day when he was feeling slightly under the weather.

Armstrong’s secret for success is simple: the hardest worker, wins. And I think he’s got a point.

Success in sport is about hard work, day in, day out. It’s about showing up for workouts ready to work. There’s no secret pill. There’s no short cuts. Put in the work, achieve your goals. Cut corners, set yourself up for disappointment.

I’ve been trying to put in the work. Friday morning was 9X300 on 4:30 (avg. 4:08ish…I just couldn’t go any faster);  Friday night was a 70minute run (15easy (4:02/k), 15med (3:40/k), 15faster (3:35/k),  20 easy (4:20/k); Saturday was a long run and an easy swim; and Sunday was 3 hours on the bike, followed by a 40min run (tough day).

I’m learning that I’ll continue to improve if I just go my own pace. Slow and steady. Yesterday, James and Sharratt kept dropping me on our ride. I never changed my effort (or pace), and they would just blow away, and then I would catch up (or they would slow down). I wanted to go with them, but I couldn’t. So I chose to just go my own pace. Like the tortoise, and he won in the end, didn’t he? 

So what am I on? I’m on monotomy. And I sure hope it works.

money, sex, and power

Craig linked my site from his blog yesterday. I suppose that means one or two people might read my blog who normally don’t. Isofacto, I need to write something really great right now or else those people might not come back. And since writing poetic and moving prose seems to a skill I’m quickly losing, I’ll just talk about money, sex, and power.

Let’s do money first. It sure doesn’t grow on trees, or on any other plant that I’m aware of. Since I’m still in school, I have no income. I’ve got about $400 to my name as of right now, and I have a lot of big expenses: flight to Kelowna ($700), new bike shorts ($70 since apparently the “holey” look disgusts my mother), powerbars (that’s just one I’m not giving up), race registration fees ($400…no joke), coaching fees ($600 which is totally worth it…but it’s still $600), a new nalgene (since apparently the #7 kind is giving me cancer), bike repairs (two flats + new cassette + new chain + new tire + new freehub-body = lots), and, of course, gas (I paid $20 for 16litres and hardly got a third of a tank).

If you want to help me out, sign (your kids) up for swimming lessons. www.guelphsos.ca. We run a really sweet program.

Next is sex, which I’m not having any of.

After that is power, which I have very little of.

But I did have three really good workouts the last two days so I’ll end with that.

SWIM: 20X50 on :50 with paddles. I averaged 36ish for all, and felt good doing it.

BIKE: 50k ride with 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 2, 2, getting near threshold at the end (with Chris VB). We averaged over 40km/h on all the intervals (although Chris gaped me few times due to some heroic traffic maneuvering…and being more fit than I)

RUN: 1hour run with 3X2k on some soaking wet trails. I ran them all around 6:50, with James 5-10seconds ahead. Coach trailed us on the bike the whole way and made sure that I didn’t stop when James did—I had to run to where James stopped. Great coaching!

Thanks for reading.

routine

There’s something about routine that I just find so comforting.

For the next month or so, every day is going to be the same. Alarm goes at 6:25am. Eat breakfast. Make lunch. Swim from 7:15-8:30. Arrive at placement at 8:45am. Leave placement at 3:45pm. Workout #2 from 4-6ish. Eat dinner. Chill, watch Office re-runs, eat lots. Lights out by 10:30pm and sleep like a lamb. Repeat.

I’ve learned that I need to know what is going to happen or I get frustrated. Sometimes I like to go-with-the-flo, but not as much as I like go-with-the-plan. Some people do it the opposite. But not me. I like my routine. And I’m sticking with it.

Today I had one of my better swim sets in the last week or two. The main set was 1600, 800, 400, 200, 100, 50, all free. We had to descend the second half of each interval, and the next interval had to be faster than the previous one. The 1600 took a long time, and I got my 100 down to 1:14 so that was solid.

Cheerio.