Guess Who's Back

I doubt I have any true followers, but just in case I do I am sorry I haven't blogged in awhile. I have been super busy with school, I now have a job at Multisport-Zone, and training is in full swing.

This semester of school is a bit of a doosey with three courses that have a lab component, but starting in January when the training picks up I don't have any so it actually works out pretty nice that way. After this year I will only have to make up for one credit which I plan on doing online during the summer or next fall. After that I am going to have to pursue a job that will help to pay the bills while I attempt to be a professional triathlete.

On that note I just received an email from Linda Kirk at Triathlon Ontario that they have granted me my elite card for short course races starting in January 2012, and once I get my draft card I will be able to do elite draft legal races as well. All this means is that I am going to have to improve my swim a ton!!! To help with this I have hired Cliff from Transition Point Training. So far it has been amazing with a very scientific approach to training. Blood + sweat + science = perfection.

I am not going to go into to much detail on what we are doing, but after looking over the long term plan today I am actually excited for all the hard work ahead.

I did not want to write to much today so I could save some for a later date but stay posted for a tentative 2012 race schedule coming your way. 

Happy early Thanksgiving,

Alex

Back At It

My two week rest is finally over and with the return to training also brings with it the return of school. The next couple weeks I am just going to ease my way back into training. I am calling this the -ish phase where training volume doesn't matter much. If I swim 2300 or 1800 I am just calling it 2kish.

Signed up for masters swimming with Ken Fitzpatrick again this year, and it filled up super fast. Hopefully some of them will be fast swimmers and not just fast to sign up. Zorian, Chris, and Rachel didn't sign up in time, but are going to talk to him so hopefully they will get to swim also.

I am excited to start training again, and I am already looking forward to next year.

Nationals

I know its been a while since the race, but I was actually working a bit so I haven't been on the computer as much.

The race went well overall, but the run still stunk. I am not sure if I drank to much on the bike or if my expired eload finally caught up with me. I cramped big time and could hardly breathe. It sucked though because my legs were feeling great, but every time I tried to pick up I could not breath.

Compared to Knoxville I was faster on the bike and swim, but my run was 3:30 slower. I feel I could have run sub 36 and placed in the top 10. Live and learn.

I am going to take off until school starts up again so you won't have to read another race report for a long time. I might try to write some posts that actually have some substance. The plan once training starts again is to really focus on swimming until Christmas while just riding and running a bit. After Christmas I will reevaluate and start to build my bike and run. Hopefully that swim focus will get me to where I can make a pack in draft legal then I can focus on my run to try and win races.

Pre Nationals

Made it to Kelowna safely last night after a delay coming into Calgary, and most importantly the bike arrived in one piece. I put it together this morning and went for a short ride to get the legs going. I wish I wasn't here to race because this has to be one of the nicest places to ride, and I just want to go out and hammer some long rides in the mountains.

This afternoon went for a short swim and drove the bike course. I was freezing in the lake so I hope we get to wear our wetsuits. If not I might freeze on the bike. The bike course looks pretty sweet and should work to my advantage with the climbing. It is three loops and each loop seems to be uphill for most of the first half then downhill for the second. I think I will use this to hammer the first half of the last loop then let my legs recover a bit for the run. 

I can't wait to rock this. Tomorrow we get our waves at the prerace briefing. Fingers crossed I will be in an early wave so I won't have to weave my way through so many people. I wish they would let everyone contending for the overall start in the same wave. Its hard when you don't know where you are compared to guys that might have started two minutes before or after you.

I am heading to bed though the time change is killing me. I woke up at 5:30 am local time today and could not fall back asleep. Good luck to everyone racing Bulldog tri this weekend.

Windsor Race Report

WOW I never thought I would blow up that bad. Immediately after the race I wanted to pretend it never happened and just move on to the next. However, there is something you can learn from every race.
Things I learnt this weekend:

I bike like a girl (no offense I know some girls are really good but the fastest guys are faster than the fastest girls). Actually I only beat the fastest girl by 2 seconds.

If I want to race to my best I need to block everything out and focus on my race. I got a bit caught up with the whole my first elite race. While I had a great swim (1:40/100m without a wetsuit) and first part of the bike (probably around 45kmh for the first 6 km) I blew up and pretty much crawled the last half of the bike and the run. Maybe had I started out a bit slower I would have been able to finish strong with a quicker total time.

Lastly, patience. Which is funny because I have seen this pop up a couple places lately like http://gerard.cc/2011/08/01/trait-6-of-champions/ from Gerard Vroomen of Cervelo. I would be crazy to think that after a year and a half of truly training for triathlons that I would be able to beat some of the fastest guys in Canada. My parents were talking to Andrew Yorke before the race and he said he has been doing triathlons for SEVEN years. If I could keep up with a guy like that after one year I would sell my training plan to everyone and become a millionaire. If I keep working like I have been and seeing the improvements I have seen so far I have no doubt I will be able to stick with the top in triathlon. Just look at my swim results from this year compared to last. Last year I did one non wetsuit swim and it was 500m in Belle River and I averaged 2:24/100m this weekend I averaged 1:40/100m for 800m.

However now it is time to focus for age group nationals. I am leaving in ten days and I have to shake off this weekend and move on. I haven't done any track workouts in a while as I have been focusing so much on the bike so Thursday I will be on the track, both Tuesdays and Saturday will be some hard zone 5 bike intervals, and I will probably get in a good swim TT either end of this week or beginning of next week with a couple other hard swims in there.

So not truly a race report, but this will probably be more helpful to anyone that reads it then if I just wrote a summary of the race. I hope everyones training is going well as the end of the season approaches. Take advantage of the warm weather because there will be snow soon enough. Cheers

K-Town Race Report

10 Seconds!!! After almost 90 minutes of racing I lost by 10 seconds. This was a heart breaker since I have been second so many times this year and to be so close to standing on the top of the podium. Starting the bike I was around 2 minutes back from the leader and knew I was going to have to work pretty hard to make up the gap. 10 seconds really made me take a close look at my race to see if there is anywhere I could have made up the time. So here is what I came up with:

The swim and T1 (12:33 9th overall). I feel like there is always some time that can be gained in the swim. Maybe if I wouldn't have sat on some feet, but maybe this would have used more energy and killed me later. Maybe if I sited better. For transition maybe I should have put my number belt and glasses on while riding.

The bike (48:36 6th overall). I think I was probably around 5th after the bike, but this is where the eventual winner put in 2:16 on me. I thought this was a tough bike course with hardly a flat spot to be found. I would compare it to Knoxville, but the climbs here were much shorter and steeper which I found harder than the long gradual climbs of the Smokey Mountains. Add to the hills a strong head wind, and I got my butt kicked. I still averaged 37kmh so I can't complain to much. Maybe if I would have pedaled harder down the hills instead of getting into a tuck I could have made up some time or if stayed in the aerobars over the sketchy bridge instead of playing it safe I could have saved a couple seconds.

The run and T2 (26:14 fastest run by 1:13) I had a great run, and everything felt like it was clicking until the final 800m. I passed a couple guys early, and could always see someone ahead of me so I just kept pushing. There were a couple hills on the course and just kept focusing on the leader. Coming down the homestretch was amazing with all the people cheering. I was giving everything I had to the point where my form became terrible and I could taste puke in my mouth, but I just ran out of room. If the race had been another kilometer I think I would have caught him.

So many little things that could have added up to the ten seconds I lost, but I don't have time to worry to much as I am racing in the elite race this weekend at the Tecumseh triathlon. Looking forward to racing some of the fastest non-drafting athletes in Ontario.

Shout out to Zorian, Daniela, and the rest of the Kingston guys it was an awesome weekend and the KCVI relay was smokin fast.

Letting you know I'm alive

Just letting everyone know I am still alive since I have not posted in a while. I have been busy training hard these last couple weeks really focusing on my bike and swim as a start to prepare for ag nationals. I have done a couple small running races, but I haven't run anything special except a 3:02 first k in the one 5k. It killed me though, and I pretty much crawled the rest of the race. Next up is the k-town tri in Kingston and then the Tecumseh triathlon where the race director is allowing me to race elite. Hopefully I can make a little paper since I am broke after not working all summer.

Peace and have a good one.