Blah.......

I'm down and out. I took it easy last week with only a couple swims but a hard 2hr bike on Saturday and a long run on Sunday with Amber and H-dog was enough to make me sick. I hate feeling like this but this weekend was tough and I'm not too surprised. I did 'Have Mercy' with the group on Saturday and it is one of the toughest bike workouts Coach Troy has- 2hrs of leg busting sets, non-stop. Ross and Sonya were really feeling it, they also competed a 2hr swim workout right before.

I thought I was going to be okay just supporting Amber on her 40k long run, Harley and I did 25k and it was a lot of in-the-car, out-of-the-car and I think the cold was just too much. Monday night was one of the worst sleeps I've ever had and I needed to get up that morning and drive 2-1/2 hours to Whitecourt for work, that was rough. I did my two appointments and headed straight to the hotel to sleep. I'm not feeling that great today but I'll finish up the day at work and go right back bed at the hotel in Edson. I'm hopeful that I'll bounce back quickly and be okay for our weekend in Jasper, I would be incredibly depressed if I couldn't do some trail runs out there. That's really the highlight of all the travelling I have to do. We'll see tomorrow night how I'm feeling I'm not leaving Jasper without getting in at least a couple short runs, even if it means dragging my aching body over one of those mountains it's just too beautiful not to get outside.

Some Things Insipre Me and Some Things Make Me Laugh...

I've been trying to support Amber any way I can with her goal of becoming an ultramarathoner this year but this week she really inspired me. She completed a tough, tough 35km run in -17'c temps today and only took in 100 calories! I went out to run today and after 21kms I was completely spent. I was dehydrated, tired, and exhausted but I knew she was still out there, pushing through the pain and giving it everything she had to get in the distance she had planned for today. I knew Harley was done for the day so hopped on the treadmill and searched for a little inspiration in a DVD Amber bought and did another 9kms...


and somethings make me laugh...

Saturday Suffering

We had a full house with 10 of us in our basement pounding the pedals doing a tough, tough Coach Troy sprint session for an hour. I sent out my usual Wednesday e-mail inviting everyone for a spin and politely reminded them that their results in July are determined by their efforts in January. I got reply after reply stating they were coming, fear is an excellent motivator and I was a little worried that we wouldn't have enough space. I counted eight confirmations so I was pretty sure only about 5-6 would show up and we would be fine. However everyone was there ready to rock at 9am, it was a tight squeeze but we had just enough room and there was a fantastic energy before the ride. Amber just wanted to spin easy so I invited Robert to try out the computrainer and he was all over it (hit 596 watts max!).


I wanted to make sure if this many people were going to get up early, pack up their bikes, trainers and lug them down to our basement in the middle January they were going to get what they came for, and they definitely did. The sprint workout may seem a little dumb this time of year but this is exactly the time to push the VO2 to new heights and give your body the necessary time to recover and absorb the training. I'm not going to get tired or burnt-out in January so I push myself and see what is possible. If I start to feel a little more fatigued then I take an extra rest day, who cares it's January. When it's beautiful and sunny outside in June and July the last thing I want to do is sit on the couch and rest even though I know I should. Hey if Lance says he won his tours with the work he did in January then I know I'm going to have a great season with the work I've been putting in.

We started off fairly easy with some 30 second warm ups but once the workout started everyone was hurting from beginning to end. 10 second, all-out efforts on 50 seconds rest for 5 reps, 5 second lead-outs into 10 second sprints with 45 seconds rest. We were all COMPLETELY bagged by the time we hit 30 minutes to go. I looked over at Robert and he was very, very pale and I thought he was going to hurl at any moment. Then we went into the plyometric jumps for 30 seconds and we were all struggling just to get off our bikes, let alone jump off the ground. Fantastic work done by everyone and I'm very proud that so many people showed up even though I warned them that this workout would be a killer. Grande Prairie athletes are awesome! I can't wait until next Saturday.

New Year, New Goals

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year, Amber and I definitely did. We spent some time in Saskatchewan with Amber's family and it was a lot of fun. Christmas is always a time to be with the ones you love and eat and drink to excess, I sure did my fair share of that. On the long drive home it looked like Amber had a lot on her mind and I was doing my best to try and get her to open up but I think she needed to sort some things out on that trip. After about 10hrs locked in the car together she had a breakthrough, she was going to do the Death Race. I new she wanted to do it I just wasn't sure if she wanted to do it in 2010. Neither of us are big on New Year's Resolutions; that implies something is wrong in your life and you want to change it, but we are both living the life of our dreams. New Year's Goals now that is something we like to set every year and work to achieve them everyday. I was very, very happy she had found a "big goal" for the new year and I could see a huge weight was lifed off her shoulders. The Death Race seems crazy to me it's a 125km run over two major mountain passes and some incredibly tough, tough terrain. I know if anyone can do it, she can.

It was great for me too because I had a tentative schedule of races I wanted to do next year but I couldn't really commit to anything until I was sure what she wanted to do. Now that she felt like she was going to commit herself to ultramarathoning this year I could feel like I was going to commit myself to doing Ironman again. I did have the thought of going to Kona this year but I think I would rather save that for 2011 and qualify at an earlier season Ironman like Coeur d'Alene. Also 2011 has the added benefit of racing against Lance again, I got him in the Boston marathon but I think he definitely has the advantage in an Ironman. It'll be nice to just be there when he is there and see him smoke the bike course.

Here's what I've come up with for 2010, I want to stick with the theme of staying local and supporting races in and around our community. There is a great group of tough triathletes here in GP and it makes such a difference to go out for a long hard swim or ride when there are other people willing to go out there and suffer with you.

May 9th- Brian Harms 8K, Grande Prairie
May 23rd- GP Press Run 21K, Grande Prairie
June 6th- Mountainview Tri (Olympic), Hinton
June 20th- Grande Prairie Tri (Sprint)
July 4th- Great White North 1/2 IM, Stony Plain
July 18th- Peach Classic Tri (Olympic), PentictonJuly 18th- 24th- Penticton Training Camp
August 29th- Ironman Canada
November 7th- New York Marathon


It's a pretty full schedule but I'm really excited to be doing Ironman again and having a week in Penticton with Amber and friends just swimming, riding and running. The Peach Classic will be a great kick off to the week and there is some very, very good competion that shows up so it'll keep me sharp and pushing the whole time. I think riding the Ironman course a couple times will be great too, I know I've done it a few times already but I'm hoping to take my cycling to another level this year and be in the 5hr- 5:10 range.

That's it for the year, I have a challenging work schedule as well but it looks like Amber and I are going to be spending a lot of time in Jasper and Grande Cache so it's a year I'm really looking forward to!