One Final Kick At The Can

Last weekend was GWN race weekend and it's always a tremendous time to welcome in summer; the first major race of the year, the tour starts, everyone is happy and excited to race and you get a chance to see if all the training has paid off. It was a little bitter sweet because I went into it knowing I wasn't able to run with a torn achillies but I wanted to at least have a solid swim-bike. The weekend started off great hanging out with friends going for a little ride (which of course I got a flat on) and then going to the lake for one loop of the two loop swim course. I was pretty pleased to have finished the loop in 15 minutes, it made me think that perhaps I could pull off a sub 30 minute swim.

Race morning there were dark clouds to the west of us and wouldn't you know it by the time we got to the lake it was raining, not a hard rain but enough to make it annoying. I did all my pre-race prep and lined up a couple rows from the front and hammered the swim right off the start, I kept a solid pace and drafted off as many strong swimmers as possible. I was a little disappointed later to find out I did a 31:05 swim again but I was going as hard as I possibly could and given all the swimming I've done this year that's probably the top end of my time without swimming 5 days a week.

The rain made things on the bike really frustrating, my glasses fogged up and I put them in my pocket where they fell out at some point. So I didn't have them for the downhills which made the stinging rain difficult at 60+kms/hr. The entire ride I kept feeling like I couldn't push the same power that I normally do but I heard that from everyone else too so I'm attributing it to the cold. The way back I was pushing as hard as possible I knew I wasn't running so I wanted to power through right to the end. At the final turn right before the finish my front wheel hit a soaking wet crack in the road and went right out from under me. Bam! down on my left side I went and slid for 10-15 feet. Arrgh no, I jumped up and my chain was off on the front and back so I was fiddling with that for 20-30 seconds I was only a couple hundred meters from the finish of the bike so I was just shaking my head at how I could be so stupid. The bike only suffered a little nic on the seat, which can be easily replaced so I obviously took the brunt of the impact. My left knee, thigh, forarm and back have quite a bit of road rash which I can handle just fine but my ribs must have landed on my arm because they are really bruised and moving around is difficult. Oh well, all of it will heal soon enough and I think this is the universe telling me that it's time to call it a year.

I was really hoping to have a great race in Calgary but I've decided to roll it over to next year and fully recover my achillies so I can get back into running shape again. So that is the end of the 2012 season for me, a bit disappointing but not the end. I signed up for IM Coeur D'Alene 2013 so I'll start preparing for that in December/January and get a full, deep recovery going into it. Getting older is tough but listening to my body is key to making sure I can still train and race.

Sometimes Things Work Out Exactly The Way They Are Supposed To

I guess it's no secret that my season hasn't quite worked out the way I've planned but the way I look at it I think this is what was meant to happen. No one wishes to be injured or hurt but I've been having a rough time again this year trying to stay healthy and I think it's just my body's way of telling me, slow down- we did A LOT last year and I need time to fully recover. It's true I probably went a little overboard last year, I started training hard in January for Puerto Rico 70.3 in March then geared up for the season in April, trained and raced hard right through to IMC and then continued until Kona in October. Those last few weeks between the end of IMC and Kona I was completely spent, I couldn't get through a long ride and my longest run was 28k. So I did the smart thing and planned to have a 'down year' only racing 1/2s and focusing more on speed but wouldn't you know it, the first race of the season and I tear my achillies. It's really tough to take mentally when summer comes around and I want to be out there running and riding and I just have to be patient. The type-A triathele in me is not great at waiting to heal but I'm doing the smart thing, listening to Amber and waiting until I'm back completely. It's been 4 weeks and I still can't run, I've been going to acpuncture, taping, cold and hot packs every night but the blood flow to that area is very limited so it's a long slow process.

If this injury is supposed to teach me to be patient then I've learned my lesson, the GP Tri is this weekend and I would love to go out there and kill it but I'm happy to participate as a team and do the swim- yes who would have thought that I would be the 'swimmer' on a team but it's true. Then GWN is two weeks away and I've already decided that I'll do the swim and bike but drop out after that. It sucks to not be able to compete in that race but if I want to have any hope at healing completely this year I can't go out and run a hard 1/2 IM, I'll tear my achillies completely and be out for the rest of this year and possibly next year. So maybe things are working out the way they are supposed to and this is my 'down year' and hopefully I can be ready for Calgary at the end of July and perhaps Vegas in September.

Learning Life's Lessons the Hard Way

It's been a challanging couple weeks, I've never really had to overcome an injury before and having to do it right smack in the middle of prime training season is tough to take. This achillies injury is still preventing me from doing any sort of running but that's how I know it was a bad one. I was concerned before the race about my achillies and I even asked a massage therapist what I could do to insure I wasn't going to be injured- unfortunately I did get injured and now I'm probably not going to be able to run for a full 6 weeks. At least I can be thankful I didn't experience a full tear and have to go through surgery and no running for a year! That would be unbearable. However I'm listening to my voice of reason (Amber) and not rushing my recovery, she knows what I need to do to get back to full health and hopefully I'll be able go full out at the Calgary 70.3. I've already determined that I don't think I can recover in time for Great White North 1/2 but I still want to do the swim-bike and I'll drop out at T2. At least I'll get something for my entry fee and I'll have a good time hanging out, racing part of it and watching part of it. I look at this as a good character builder and hopefully I'll come back from this stronger and be back in action later this summer.

Jasper Training Camp

May long weekend is always a great time- the weather starts to improve, the fitness that I've worked on over the winter finally is put to the test and there are great times spent out riding with friends. Traditionally Amber and I use this weekend to get in some great riding and we enjoy all the incredible scenery that Jasper has to offer. Jasper is such an awe inspiring place that it's impossible not to have a great time on all the amazing roads and trails. This year Amber is taking some time off training so unfortunately I didn't have my favorite training partner but luckily I had some of the Speed Revolution crew join me. I'm still recovering from my Achilles injury so I wasn't able to run but we got in a couple good swims and road rides.

Friday was a travel day, I worked in Edson and Jasper while Amber and Harley hung out and by the time I was done work I didn't have any motivation to do anything. 5 hours of driving and 7 hours of work will do that to you. Amber got us settled in the hotel and we hung out with some friends, we finally had a chance to meet Kevin- a great individual who's new to triathlon but I know is going to do well if he keeps up with all the tremendous training he's been doing. Saturday we all met for a swim and everyone was full of energy and ready to go! Robert and I blasted out a great 2500m felt great and were ready for a ride after an early brunch. The plan was to do Edith Cavell climb, an amazing 14km climb on a closed road with NEW pavement, switchback roads, leg burning gradients, plenty of other riders to catch and the best scenery in the world. Robert and I kept each other honest and the pace high and after 12k of climbing we hit snow, close enough to the top. We made the long and fast decent and waited for Bart and Kevin to join us. After about 15 minutes we new something was wrong and another rider told us that we had to go back up, one of our crew had a flat...ugh, really. The climb was hard the first time but doing it again... ouch. Fortunately after a couple kms of climbing we saw Bart and Kevin coming down so everything was fine and we headed back. Kevin had a sidewall puncture so his day was done but the rest of us wanted to get in our 100k for the day so we headed out towards Athabasca Falls.

The hard lung burning efforts were over after Edith Cavell but the legs were toast at that point so we just kept the pace honest and made it out to the falls. On the way back we decided to push things with the tail wind so we did a little drafting practice making sure that neither of us started to slack off. After 90k that day we were spent and we just cruised into town the last 7k. Showers and dinner at Jasper Park Lodge and everyone was ready for bed by 9pm.

Sunday was a bike-run day and the plan was another 100k up to Maline Lake. I love this climb, it's steady enough so that you're not grinding yourself into the ground but tough enough so that you get all the benefit of 50kms of climbing. Again there were a lot of cyclists on the road so Robert and I had plenty of people to catch but we kept the pace high and managed to finish the 50k up in 1:55, pretty good considering I don't think I've ever done that climb in less than 2 hours before. Lunch at the restaurant up there and a change of clothes from Amber who drove up with the girls to me us and we were set for the chilly decent back into town. Back in Jasper the plan was to do a 5k run but unfortunately my Achilles just wasn't ready for a run yet so I had to sit it out.

Monday we were all feeling really tired, Bart's shoulder was acting up so he sat out the swim but Robert, Kevin and I went to the pool for the final workout of the weekend. Amber designed a good 3x500m, 10x50m program for us and although we were really feeling the fatigue in the 500m sets we blasted out the 50's. The weekend done we all said our goodbyes and headed off in separate directions. It was a fantastic time had by all in the most incredible place in the world to train and I'm looking forward to the next one... perhaps next year?

Not Exactly The Race I Was Expecting

Well yesterday was the first race of the season and I'm almost wondering if it's also going to be the last. I went in feeling pretty good but I knew I wasn't going to have a tremendous result. I've been battling with Achilles issues all year and with the concentration on harder-faster efforts this year it seems to have gotten worse. I know I can't ignore the fact that I'm at an age where a lot of athletes who continue to race frequently and hard eventually start to experience injuries but I guess I just keep hoping that my body will hold together for 'one more year.' Honestly last year I had the season of my dreams, finishing GWN in 4:11, IMC in 9:44 and going to Kona so I don't have a thing to complain about. However it's always a little heart-breaking when you know you're not going to perform at that level again. I'll still compete and probably compete pretty well but I know that if I keep doing what I'm doing I'm going to rupture my Achilles and I don't want to never be able to run again.

I've always loved competing not for the thrill of winning but for the love of the activity itself so if I need to slow down to be able to do it longer, then so be it. I'm limping around really badly today and it's going to take a good week for me to feel normal again so I know that I'm not going to be able to get in the training I need to have a stellar season. That's a part of life and I'll be happy to continue to be active and race when I can but I'm going to have to be a lot more selective and not race as often as I'd like to.

The race itself was a lot of fun and even though a few of us ended up making a wrong turn we still got in the required distance and I put myself in that place I don't like to go too often. With the wind yesterday it was like running into a storm but I battled through and ended up winning, great result on a tough day. I just wish I didn't suffer the after effects of pushing that hard, limping around for the next week is not what I would consider reasonable for a local running race.

Time to Face the Voices

You know the ones I'm talking about the 'voices' that tell you this hurts too much and that you just need to stop what you're doing right now. This weekend is the first race of the season for me, the Brian Harms Memorial 10 miler and although it's not an "A" race I'm still hoping to do quite well and push myself again. I had a pretty good winter with the S.R. 5 mile race series but this is twice as long and twice as much pain. I've done this race for the past three years and it's always a nice race to dust off the racing cobwebs but it hurts like hell. I'm mentally preparing to suffer out there but you're never quite ready when it happens. The past two years I've been within 2 seconds of the same time, 58:45 and 58:47 so if I can pull off anything close to under an hour I'll be happy. I know I have the ability to pull off 3:30/km (56:00), but this is a rolling course and it can knock the stuffing out of your legs especially on the second lap so I'll go out and just try to silence the voices in my head and trust in the fitness that I've been working on. We'll see how it pans out this Sunday.

Patience Friends Patience

I think if I look back at some previous blog posts I'd probably find one somewhat similar to this one in early May or late April. It seems like as soon as the snow is gone and the weather starts to feel good outside I think I should be in phenomenal shape and I should be able to put in 20hr training weeks without feeling a thing. Well the body just doesn't work like that and after 6 months of lower volume training I've been feeling the effects of some longer rides and runs.

I was able to get in a 100k ride last Saturday and I was like a kid in a candy store, I wanted to hammer right away but I've bonked really bad during an early season ride doing that so I decided it would be better if I just hung with everyone for the first 50k and rode back a little harder. The ride went really well up until the final Nordic Centre climb back into town at the 92km mark. By that time my legs had done all they were going to do that day and I was struggling just to turn the pedals over.

It was nice to final get outside and get in a long ride, well long for what I'll be doing this year. I think it was a good decision not to do Ironman this year, my body simply can't handle the long training days like it used to and I'm going to enjoy having a bit more free time this summer to do some other things. The one thing I do love about training is close ties you have to all your training buddies, getting together after a hard swim, bike or run to swap stories is a lot of fun. It doesn't matter what the training is but usually longer training days have better stories. I still have great plans for this year and the first race is in 9 days, only a 10M running race but an early season effort over 10 miles is going to have lots of good suffering stories.