The Mental Race

All of us who have raced for a number of years know the importance of preparing for a race mentally as well as physically. The physical preparation for a race seems rather easy and straight forward but what does it mean to prepare mentally? Being prepped for a race mentally means not letting all of the issues in life that are designed to throw you off your perfect race from derailing your plan on the day you need to be ready. Most of the excuses I hear from athletes are completely preventable, even some of those that athletes feel are out of their control. Of course when we have a bad race we look for reasons why, I ate something bad the night before... Why? You should know exactly what type of foods are going to cause you issues and stick with the ones that won't, controllable. I got a flat on the course... This happens to everyone and although it's unfortunate you should know exactly the perfect tire pressure for you and your bike that will let you go fast while being able to handle a rough course. There is never going to be a course that doesn't have some debris and your bike should be able to go over most of it, flats of course happen and you should be able to change it quickly and efficiently so as not to ruin your race. I couldn't get in the amount of training required to race to my potential. Ok why? Did you choose a race that didn't take into account your work, family, life outside of racing? You are in control of when and how often you race and you should be the one to critically evaluate what races are going to be your "A races" and what if any are going to be your "B or C races."

Things always happen in life and in racing and we have to be honest with ourselves as to what our expectations are. When I flatted in Prince George this year and I knew I couldn't continue because of a shredded tire, sure I was disappointed at the time but I after thinking about it for a few minutes I realized that racing is a privilage and getting a flat in one race is not the end of the world. Most people would love to live the life of adventure that training and racing brings me and I need to be happy that I am 1. physically able to do what I do and 2. have the mental discipline to continue to keep myself fit and fast at my age.

Mentally preparing for your season is as important as physically preparing and I think too many athletes focus on the physical and just think the mental part of it will take care of itself on race day. Visualizing your perfect race, going through your race plan before, dealing with issues as they come up quickly and efficently as well as keeping your cool are all things that are going to help you have a great race and a great season. Most of the excuses we come up with boil down to things that we can control and for those that we can't we should have a plan in place so that we know how we are going to deal with them when they happen.

Loving the Off-Season

Ryder enjoying our time at the Fairmont Palliser in Calgary

It's been a nice couple of months I've been running when I want to run, swimming occassionally and haven't been biking at all. I don't feel stressed about not training and I know I needed a break, even though I didn't do a lot of racing last year the racing I did was very intense and it took some time to recover. I've been able to spend more time with family and my back injury is finally starting to feel a bit better. I went out for a little trail run this week and all of the sudden my foot starts hurting, nice thing about this time of year though is I'm not stressing about getting it fixed and I'll just rest it and it will heal itself.

Ryder's been lots of fun but quite a challenge, he's in this 20 month sleep regression and has kept his parents up a lot recently. I'm looking forward to a time when he'll sleep in his own bed but I don't see that happening anytime soon. For now I'm going to take another week off, wait for the time change and hopefully that will help me get out of bed earlier so I can finally get to the pool on time. I've been sleeping in every morning because of a crappy night's sleep.

Time For a Change

Feeling the cold weather coming

There are certain times in your life when you know you need to make a change and for us the time has come. After nearly 7 years in Grande Prairie and experiencing all of the highlights of my life I know it's time to make the move back to Calgary, it's the best for me and my family. When Amber and I originally came up here we had the intention of staying 3-4 years, but life was so good here and we had so many close friends that it was tough to justify changing. Well now I feel like we are in a much better position than we were when we came up and we can handle a lot of the challenges that we will face by making the move. I'll be very excited to be close to my Mom and Dad and I know they are over the moon happy to be closer to Ryder. I've gotten the approval for a new Financial Planner position in Calgary and we bought a house in Tuscany.

I'm really going to struggle with leaving all my close friends/training buddies behind and they are all really sad that I'm leaving but I know this is the right move for us long term. I'll look forward to training in all the old familiar places again, Powderface climb, Cochrane to Bragg Creek, Calgary to Banff rides and some amazing trail runs in Kananakis. I have 3- 70.3s planned for next year so it'll be my year to get back into 1/2 Iron shape again and of course spend lots of quality time with Amber and Ryder in an amazing city.

End of the Season

Ryder getting ready to run with Mommy

It's always a little sad when the weather starts to shift and the mornings get darker and cooler but 2014 turned out to be a fantastic season for me. Even though I didn't get to race as much as I would have liked I won every race I entered (aside from a mechanical in Prince George) and had lots of extra time with Amber and Ryder. Focusing on short course racing this year was the right thing to do and even though I wasn't training very long, the hard intense training really broke me down to the point where my body knows that there is no more racing left in it. I did want to cap off my season with the GP Fall Classic 10k but I've been struggling with a back injury for the past couple weeks so I know it's time to stop, rest and recover.

I'll take a good month off all training of any kind and then later in October or early November I'd like to start hitting the weights again, at my age doing some really good strength work in the off season is critical to staying injury free during the race season. It's absolutely amazing how unforgiving my body has been after turning 40, if I don't eat, drink, sleep, or recover right I really struggle to stay healthy and keep training and racing. I only did 4 races this year and I'm not sure I could have done any more, I would have liked to do maybe one more Olympic but the thought of travelling to Banff or Vancouver with Ryder was just not appealing.

The little man is becoming more independent though, he's incredibly fun to hang out with and to watch him grow and change so quickly just blows my mind. We are throughly loving being parents and had him at the perfect stage in our lives, sometimes we wonder why we didn't do it earlier when we had more energy but I think things worked out the way they were supposed to. Ryder and I will cheer on Amber as she races the Fall Classic this Sunday and she has been so devoted to her running that I know she is going to have a great 1/2 marathon in Calgary on October 19th. For me it's time to rest and do some off-season work when the time is right.

Peace River Tri 2014

Ryder and me pre-race enjoying the atmosphere

This is the 3rd time I've competed in the Peace River Sprint Tri and I have to say it was the best conditions yet. Normally it's too late in the season to get nice weather to race in but although it was cool, by 9:30am it had warmed up to a comfortable 13'C and it made for a great day. It's nice to attend these smaller, faster events to keep the training fresh and different- I wasn't expecting to PR here I didn't have Joe pushing me on the bike but Richard and I were doing our best to keep each other honest. I don't think my HR got below 160 all race except for the first 700m of the swim.

Having only 3 SR athletes there was a bit different, last year there were 8 of us and we all placed in the top 10. This year we placed 1st and 2nd males and 1st female with Liz there. I love the short course races for the fact that it doesn't break you down for days afterwards but I have to say that my body is probably more adept at longer distances now. It's very, very painful to hold that effort for an hour straight. The swim was pretty straightforward, I was the last to start and given Richard and I swim at about the same pace I drafted off him for the 1st 700m and when he started to get tired I took the lead and put a 30sec gap on him by the end.

The bike was a lot more comfortable this year with milder temps but I just cannot seem to push any more watts no matter how specific my training is, 254W is what I averaged. It was great having Amber and Ryder there cheering me on but Ryder is not typically up at 6am and he was a bit of a bear all day. Coming off the bike my legs felt like I had just finished 2000 squats and I almost collapsed but I eased into the run and managed to have an excellent one- 17:43, my fastest run on that course. All in all it was a fantastic race and great season, I only have the Fall Classic 10k later in September and that'll be m season. Pretty low key this year but I'm glad I took a 'down year' to spend more time with Ryder and it's such an incredible feeling to go undefeated all year, 4 wins is more than I could have hoped for at the beginning of the season.

Running to the win and a 17:43 5k

Finishing in 1:01.10 just 13sec shy of last year

Speed Rev Crew 1st, 2nd male and 1st female

Summer's End

Ryder and Dad hanging out in the park

The last race of the season is always a little bittersweet, on the one hand your body is relieved to have a bit of a break from the training regime but on the other hand you realized the warm summer weather doing the things you love is coming to an end. It's been a great summer, I've been focused on short-course training and although it doesn't take as much time it seems like my body has been breaking down with all the hard-fast efforts. My final tri is this Sunday in Peace River, a little sprint race that I've done twice before and it's always a fun affair with a lot of local athletes coming out. This year many of them have other commitments so only Richard and I are racing but Amber and Ryder are coming out to cheer me on so it'll motivate me to race hard and fast.

The Speed Revolution family cheering at the Calgary 70.3

I've been trying very hard to keep my workouts hard and fast- interval style to keep my speed up but after a couple weeks of training like that my body was really hurting. I needed a full 4 days off just to get back to normal and fortunately this week has just been some light running and swimming. I did a 'sprint tri' with the boys on Saturday and was okay with my swim and run but a little disappointed with my bike, I was pushing as hard as I possibly could and I could barely hold on to the wheels in front of me. I haven't done as much biking as I normally would have this time of year so I shouldn't be surprised but I hope I have better legs on Sunday.

Selling the HED3's is heartbreaking

I've also decided to sell my tri-spokes, these H3's are the fastest wheel set I've ever owned and I'm a little hesitant to sell them but after getting flats in two races and having it cost me two wins I think I need to admit I just don't have good luck with them. My current wheel set is still fast and better on a hilly course but on a flat TT style course the HED 3s cannot be beat, I'm sure it adds at least an extra 1-2kms/hr. They will find a good owner I'm sure and someone that knows how to put the tires on properly! I'll update on how the race in Peace River went, I'm very excited to do it we'll see if I can pull out another win!

Sometimes You're the Hammer, Sometimes You're the Nail

The GP Boys trying to show the PG athletes how it's done

The title of this post was supposed to be 4 for 4 being my 4th race of the year and 4th win but unfortunately sometimes things don't go quite according to plan. I was super excited to go to Prince George and race again there, I did the race in 2008 and I remember it being one of the TOUGHEST tri's I've ever done and it was the same this year. Bart agreed to come with me so we made it a short weekend road trip and represent Speed Revolution in PG. We left early Saturday morning and two hyper-hydrated athletes driving 6hrs made for a lot of bathroom stops. We got there and immediately went to the bike check where I pulled my bike out of Bart's truck filled up the tires and heard the dreaded pushhhhhhhhhhhh come from my rear wheel. Ugh, well at least we were at a bike shop where I could get it fixed. Went through the bike check and package pick up and headed out to check out the lake. We previewed the bike and run and Bart was a little deflated seeing how tough it looked, the bike is constantly climbing (or at least feels like it) and the run was a 500m flat, 2k uphill, 2k downhill, 500m flat, repeat. Well we weren't going to set any speed records on this course but it is going to sort out who has been training and who hasn't.

Bart getting ready to rock! Placed 8th in 2:44

The morning of the race was fantastic, very casual we got there at 7am (which is 8am our time) and the race didn't start until 9am. There was plently of room on the bike racks, there was an announcer for the entire race (amazing for a small race), there was electronic timing where your time showed up on a TV screen as soon as you crossed the mat, and the lake, volunteers, and other racers were great. It was my first and only open water swim this year so I was hoping to have a good one in the wetsuit. There was no one around me the entire swim and with only 30 people in the Olympic there wasn't anyone to draft off of. I just maintained my rythmn and tried to stay in a straight line and was absolutely amazed to hear the announcer say I was the first 'non-team' athlete out of the water. Wow nice, well that was my weakest discipline and I just swam a 21:34, I think the course must have been a little short because even with a wetsuit a 23:00 1500m is really good for me.

Now on to the ride where I could build my lead a little. The climb out of the lake was absolutely brutal, I was in 1st gear and griding away for 2kms my heart rate was in my throat and I was thinking this is not a good way to start but you really had no choice. Finally getting on to the main road (which I never saw a car on) we decended for about 5kms, turned around and went back up past the lake and continued climbing approximately another 13kms. I passed the team swimmer that was in front of me and noticed there were still 2 Duathletes I could try to close on. As I made the 180' turn to come back to the lake I heard it again, pushhhhhhhhhh, ugh no, not now!! I pulled out the change kit and changed it quickly there were about 3 guys that passed me but I was pretty confident I could catch them on the run. I replaced my change kit before the race an was trying a new CO2 adapter and unfortunately it didn't fit in the valve cut out and I ended up wasting the 2 cartridges I had. Well the win was over for me but a bike support guy came by and filled up my tire with a pump but immediately it blew again. At that point I noticed the bead of my tire was completely shredded to pieces and I could do nothing but get a ride back and call it a day.

That's some tough riding

31km/hr over 25k, wow that's a hard ride

It's not normal for me to see numbers this low but given the course and where I was placed I'm not too surprised. I was in the perfect position for a great run but never got the chance, oh well it's all apart of racing just learn from it and come back to hopefully go for the win at the final race of the season, Peace River Sprint August 24th.