Build phase week 12 "My Jamis Trilogy"

I had a great recovery week, the timing was good for me to allow for some extra rr from last weeks race at Sooke. All my workouts are going really good and I seem to have enough energy to get the job done!

My Jamis tri bike arrived this week and I got it all put together right away in time for a ride to Chemainus and back on Tuesday, it's so different with the pursuit bars and bar end shifting and bullhorns and all that cool tri stuff, the front end is so responsive with the Easton EC90 aero fork, I think I'm gona like this bike allot, I still have more tweaking with adjustments for fit to do on it yet and it will take a bit of time to get used to it, the seat angle is only at 76 degrees compared to the C-dale at 74.5, so it's not a huge difference in that area of the bike, that's actually relaxed for a tri bike. We got out for a nice ride of 72 km on Saturday, I figured this might end up hurting a bit with the new bike but I got it dialed in pretty good so far and I just need more time to get the hang of bar end shifting, I'm not sure if I like the cassette it came with on the rear ...I miss my coveted 15 tooth and now have a 14 and 16 ...takes time to re learn those new gears and if I don't like it fairly quick I'll throw on my old 12-23.... but then I wont have the new 11 cog which is so killer to have on those down hills...anyhow I'll figure out what to do as I go along ha ha. Our ride was 2:41 with an average of 27.5 , we had too much head and cross winds but still managed to pull of a 2:13 per km pace so it was a pretty good first ride on the JT.

I'm gona jump right to the rest of the good stuff that happened today; first was the run this morning a 10:15am slight misty rain but tolerable, we took in the back side of Holland creek trail and headed up to Davis then Via the highway to the tunnel and along the beach and docks , then back up through to the train tunnel and finished up Christie rd, I had the best run since I have started this whole training program and really enjoyed myself today, total distance was about 16 km with a time of 1:33 which wasn't bad considering about 4-5 km of that was trail, with all the hard work that goes into this it sure is nice to have these days it just makes it all the more rewarding.
The swim was in mid afternoon up at Nanaimo, I wasn't sure about the swim because it involved a timed distance today and thought I wouldn't have the energy, but I put on a brave face and decided to take up the challenge; I had a 350m warm up and the main set was 1650m timed and 350m c/d, the main set went pretty well and I completed it with a time of 32:47...not to bad for feeling a bit tired from the run in the morning, I guess my fitness level has just really come a long way now and sometimes I don't expect great things from myself but that's one of the really cool things about this type of training you surprise yourself and at times go beyond your own expectations....no award or monetary thing can ever give you that greatness you feel inside.

Build phase week 11 "Sooke spring sprint race report"

Spring? where? well on Saturday morning it wasn't and had us pretty worried having to go to Victoria and pick up race packets but we could have picked them up race morning anyway but then we would have missed the bike shop and not been able check out all the road and tri bikes...bling bling! he he! . Anyhow the record snow fall for this time of year cleared up in the nick of time leaving us dry roads for the race..whew!


4:00am Sunday morning came fast, I had a somewhat restless sleep but felt good once I had a cup of coffee and some breakfast; by 5:15 we we're out the door and headed down the hi way and of course we arrived with lots of time to spare and a good parking spot. The morning was a little crisp and clear around 3 degrees which is what I was hoping for instead of rain.


So this year I was to start in heat #3 and time went fairly fast and before long they called for our heat to report to the pool deck for a race briefing, then it was time to climb into the pool for a warm up lap and get my goggles adjusted for the swim , I was in position 3 in our lane and felt good about not having the pressure to lead ...and then I was off , I was worried about panicking again ( did the first time here) but by the time I was at 100m I knew it wasn't going to happen again and at 300m I was well settled into a nice rhythm, at about the 400m mark I was passed and shortly after I passed swimmer #4 and had passed her once more with about 100m to go, I think I was passed by swimmer #1 one time maybe two and I know for sure swimmer #2 passed me two times but that was fine with me because our lane functioned flawlessly, I still knew I was having a great swim and then my red kick board was there to signal my final lap and I just pushed through the last 50m to the end and headed for T-1.


I got to my bike and decided to put on a long sleeve jersey as most people were wearing vests and some even pants, I struggled a bit with my top for a few seconds but managed to get out of T-1 pretty fast with no real problems , the new tri shoes were slick and definitely shaved off time. I got messed up coming out to the main road, I was on the wrong side of the cones but did not cause an accident!, unfortunately latter on someone did cause one, it was just to easy to cross over because the cones were spaced to far apart....that was my gripe! . So soon after I was settling into my ride and felt my hamstrings were really cold and the pedals seemed hard to push and knew I had to get those warmed up and figured if I picked it up a bit they would, and well they did.. he he. The whole ride no one passed me and I only passed one rider going up the climb on the backside and soon left that rider in my dust (smile), so it was pretty much a solo ride again for me and soon found myself back at transition getting ready for my run.


T-2 went really well again and I even peeled of that jersey from the ride, I now have elastic laces for my runners and couldn't imagine not having them ever again, it just makes transitions so smooth! I headed out on the run with some minor stitches/cramps in my stomach..I was pushing pretty good but managed to keep things on a steady pace; at about the 800m mark I passed Tam as she was headed for the finish line and we high 5ed each other...I kept on with my current pace and thought at one point...hey I'm doing a pretty good clip here man...are these my legs?? I even had to look down for a second to make sure! ha ha . On the climb of the run I powered up the hills pretty good which seemed to increase my stitch a little so at the turn around I stopped for a second and had some water and powered off again, by the time I got back down to the bottom I was settled into a great pace and was headed for that finish line! I crossed the line sprinting to gain any few seconds I could...with Tam there to cheer me on across the line... that felt great and I knew I had a good race today.


My overall time was 44/125 1:22:10 and I managed to shave off 6:05 from last years time so I was really happy with that but I also had three Pr's, the swim of 13:16 was 2:14 faster, the bike of 45:13 was 0:50 faster and my amazing run of 23:42 was 3:01 faster and gave me a pace of 4:44 per km ...my very best to date! woo hoo! I placed 5/10 in my age and just had one of the best darn days, it was awesome to say the least.


And on that note I must say goodnight cause Monday morning is coming fast!

Build phase week 10 " injuries bite"

So the end of week 10 has arrived and only 10 more to go! , and I feel like I will make it through this training no matter what, unless I break my leg or something stupid, God forbid; finding time to even do this blog seems like a chore lately, we're so busy with tax time here and our first tri coming up on next Sunday at Sooke...all I do is work eat sleep train- work eat sleep train ..ha ha.

I have a new bike on the way, it's a 2006 Jamis Trilogy... alum frame tri specific with the wheel cut out and aero tubes, I'm excited about that but it won't be here in time to do the Sooke tri so I will be using the R500 on that race, sadly the R2000 has been put to rest and will probably become a bike for the trainer; I will however be doing the Shawnigan sprint and my first half ironman on the new bike hopefully! and who knows I may just pick up a bit more speed..(smile)

Well this weeks training went pretty good all in all ; we finally got some of the crinkles straitened out in our training schedule, on Wednesday morning we now do our track work at 6:00am so latter that evening we can do our swim up at the pool and fit in the whole workout, and on Friday at 6:00am we do our swim which is the condensed version ..a little short but hey it's all we can do; then latter after work we do our steady run, it took a few weeks to get this figured out because of the increase in training but are happy to have this working good now.

My fitness level continues to improve on all fronts , I feel strong on the bike even riding the R500 with the added weight of the bike itself..3-4 more pounds but hey I can really fly down hills...yaaaaaa!. My track work is going well and I am managing to complete the workouts lately with no real problems; but some were between Thursday and Friday afternoon I somehow pulled a tendon, It didn't interfere with Saturdays (brick) bike ride too much although I felt it a little on the run portion. I can't seem to figure out which activity I injured it on and have been trying to RICE it as much as possible. On Sunday morning I felt really good as Tammy and I got ready to do our 45min. steady run; so at about the 1.5 km mark I stoped and Tam sent me home, I had a bit more pain than I was willing to tolerate and I was so frustrated on the way home having to miss another run and feeling that I am going to go in reverse with this training instead of forward, I said why me! my soul wants to run! and my leg said no no no....argggg!!!
Latter on that afternoon we headed for fast water in Nanaimo to do our endurance swim, with a distance of 2600m to do I was hoping my tendon would at least let me swim....and well it did....the main set of 2000m I completed in 41:07 with a total swim time of 55:45 for 2600m workout, I was pretty happy about that but then again I did not get much of a run that morning and figured I just had lots of extra energy to burn. he he.

This week toward the end I'll be backing off just a hair on the workouts in preparation for Sundays race, I'm so pumped to get going and hope my tendon is better by then, a week goes too fast when your on the mend. Next week I'll be posting a race report! yippi !

Build phase week 9 " bump in the road"

I'm glad this week has finally come to an end, it has been difficult to deal with the work load of training ,work and everything else in between; it has tested me physically and mentally and I think it's just wore me out a bit and by Saturday morning it left me wondering why I was even bothering to do this half iron man,; at one point I didn't want anything to do with swimming biking or running, I was feeling it was taking far too much away from everything and I just wanted to quit! , but my Tammy wouldn't let me stop at this point and our good friend and tri buddy Gary came over just in the nick of time to convince me that these lows are all in part of this type of training , and that I've come too far to stop now; so thanks for that Gary, and although today was still a little rough I have decided that I must forge onward and try to put the past behind me and hopefully learn how to better handle these situations.

Next week we are half way through our training program and I hope to have a better week in spite of a few minor set backs; so till then that's all .