Remember to Take Your Time

Spring is a wonderful time and for those of us in Northern Alberta it's an incredible time! 6 long and brutal months of winter finally come to an end and all I feel like doing is getting outside on my bike and riding for hours. The problem with being a triathlete is that I start to feel pressure to be as fit as possible as soon as I start riding outside. I know it's not reasonable to go from riding inside for a couple hours to being outside, fighting the unbelievable GP wind and feeling strong and fast. Patience is a virtue that can be difficult when you're excited about something and for me it's being fast on my bike.

I've done a couple of rides with friends and it's difficult to get dropped so easily by others that I should be riding with but I have to keep telling myself that my body absorbs the training in it's own time. I think the triathlete attitide of "I should be in top shape right now!" is difficult to let go of because I always want to have incredible training sessions everytime I go out. How easily I forget that every year I suffer a really bad bonk during a 90 to 100km training ride at some point in April or May. So this year I'm remembering to take my time. I'll still push myself to hard in training and I'm sure Robert will push me to the point of 'blowing up' a few times this year but that's all a part of the process and I'm confident that by July I'll be ready to race again. I just have to remember to not worry about feeling out of race shape right now and work hard to get to where I want to be and things will fall into place.

Time to Start Getting Serious

I love this time of year, when the weather starts to change and the snow slowly (very slowly if you live in GP) begins to melt away. It seems that the winter just does not want to give up this year and we just keep getting hit with cold blast after cold blast. However I always feel that once the Boston Marathon has been run, the training season is officially underway. This year's race was absolutely incredible, Geoffrey Mutai, an unbelievable Kenyan runner stole the show clocking an incredible 2:03.02. It's hard to imagine what it means to run a time like that but to put that into perspective; when I was a University soccer player we had a running test we used to have to do- 400m intervals on a minimum time of 1:20 x 8. If you did all 8 under 80 seconds you could play, if not then forget it. Trying to get the final four intervals under 1:20 was tough, you basically had to sprint to get to the finish in time. As I started get fitter I could get my time down to about 1:15 for all the intervals but it was very, very tough I was wiped out for the rest of the week after that workout. Geoffrey ran 1:10 400m pace for 42.2kms, wow... that's very, very impressive.

There is 19 weeks until Ironman and although I don't think I'll ever be able to run that fast, I'm hoping the Easter training camp weekend Robert and I have planned will kick my butt into some hard training sessions once again. I've been a little slack since coming back from Puerto Rico but now I have to get down to business and start training seriously again. Two weeks until the first running race of the year, the Brian Harms 10 miler and I'm going to treat that as a warm up to the GP press run 1/2 marathon at the end of May. My running hasn't been as good as in previous years but I still think there is time to improve and I'm focusing more on being a well rounded triathlete as opposed to just a runner who does triathlon. Regardless of the results this year I want to have fun and enjoy training with Amber and my friends. I still feel that I have one or two more really good IM races left in me and I want to give it everything I have but more and more I'm starting to feel like being out and enjoying the things I love to do with others is definitely the most important aspect.

Triathlon Has Reached a New Level!

I was watching Man vs. Food last night and I learned of an incredible new triathlon that consists of probably the most difficult combination of events you can imagine. The Doughman!


Who would ever think of eating, running, swimming, biking, eating, biking, eating, running, eating, running, and eating. It's a four person event but still... that's a lot of eating. Yes America you've reached a new low with this one, now you've proven you can't even run 2 miles without stuffing your face with chilli cheese fries. Fortunately it's for a good cause and all in good fun but I think this event has given a new definition to race day nutrition.

Lines and Scars

Lately I've been noticing a lot of advertising about how to eliminate this scar or some magic cream or surgery that will make you look years younger. When Amber and I were in Puerto Rico we noticed an obvious American tourist couple that were sitting near us during dinner and the woman had a face that was stretched so tight that she looked deformed. I'm not saying that this trend is anything new, but more and more people (men and women) are worried about how to eliminate this scar or what they need to do to get rid of this wrinkle on their face. I think there is a lot of pressure on everyone these days to look good and I think that the pendulum has swung too far in the wrong direction. It seems that everyone is afraid to look older; a grey hair, a laugh line, a facial scar is a reason to seek professional help and have it taken care of.

I don't want to die without any lines or scars, they tell the story of my life. Every wrinkle, every scar is an event or memory that never goes away, good and bad. Imagine yourself 40- 50- 60 years from now, whenever you see yourself passing away and you are sitting at a table with all your friends telling stories about your life. Would you want to be telling exciting stories about how you rode a mountain bike so hard that you crashed on a rock down a steep drop and that gave you the scar on your face, or would you want to talk about how you were so afraid to leave your home because the sun gives you wrinkles... LAME. Everyone has a story and that story is written on your face, your hands, your feet, and the rest of your body. Don't be afraid to grow older, I love every wrinkle and scar on Amber and Harley, it tells the story of their lives so far and I hope we all collect a lot more before our time is done. I want to leave with a face like a catcher's mitt and a body full of scars, imagine the stories I'll have! Some of my favorite scars on the people I love-