I’ve always appreciated reviews on products that other athletes have used, as it gives you (generally) an objective and unbiased (well, in the case of sponsored athletes, maybe slightly biased,) idea of what to expect from said product. So, I thought other athletes (from elites to weekend warriors) might appreciate a review here and there, just an outline of my thoughts on some of the training tools I’ve been using lately. Bare with me here, this is my first review, so let’s get the ball rolling; today’s review is on the ‘Speed 2’ hydration belt, from Nathan Human Propulsion Laboratories (and no, I’m not biased because we just so HAPPEN to share the same name….)

The old Fuel Belt

Three years back, I was informed by my coach that it would be a good idea to purchase a hydration belt for training, and more importantly, for racing. Back then, with a tight budget, I opted for a two-bottle system by ‘Fuel Belt.’ It seemed to be everything I would need (two bottles was more than sufficient for me; as I live in a rather temperamental rainforest climate, for a run of less than 2hrs I usually do not even need water.) It was adjustable by two means (a velcro closure and adjustable buckle-straps,) also had a small gel/key pouch, and was fairly lightweight. I never really liked it, and rarely used it. I raced with it once, but the chafing it produced prevented me from ever wearing it again in a race.

Nathan Human Propulsion Laboratories ‘Speed 2’

Fast forward to today. About two months ago I purchased a Nathan ‘Speed 2’ hydration belt, as my training was ramping up for some 70.3 racing, and the temperature was increasing too. I was primarily using the belt for long runs, and longer brick running. I don’t intend to use the belt for racing, unless I visit somewhere with extreme temperatures; I’ve learned to utilize as much on-course hydration as possible. That being said, it is an extremely useful training aid, as I have experimented with different mixes and variations in the bottles to see their effect on my training, as well as on hotter days (I seem to have a knack for doing a lot of my running during the hottest parts of the day.) The ‘Speed 2’ is by far more comfortable than my previous belt; with just the one adjustment (by way of a velcro closure on the front,) it NEVER loosens off, so where I set it at the start of my run, by 30km’s in it hasn’t moved at all. I find the inner portion of the belt has a somewhat soft material, and without any vertical seams, it has yet to give me any chafing issues.

Now for the part that I like the most, what really used to bug me about my Fuel Belt: easy accessibility, both for removing the bottles, and replacing them back in to the belt. My old belt’s bottles came out decently easy enough, but it was a huge struggle trying to get them back in; you would see me dancing around while running, using both hands behind my back trying to get the bottle back in. What a pain, especially if you’re running tempo or intervals. The ‘Speed 2’ bottle holsters (I would almost refer to them as ‘cages,’) are a solid plastic design, and the bottles go in-and-out with ease, single handed (meaning NO MORE RUN DANCING!!) As much as I like dancing about, there’s no place for it while slogging out a long run (well, maybe a small victory dance at the end…..) The bottles stay very firmly in the holsters (I have had the bottles on my old belt fly out before,) and I haven’t noticed any bounce, no matter how full or empty the bottles are. Another small inconvenience some people may have noticed with their hydration bottles, is that annoyingly small amount of leakage that you get up and down your back; I didn’t have even a SINGLE drop come out of the bottles during any of my running with the belt. The human body excretes enough of a mess during a long run, you don’t need sticky electrolyte drink all over everything too!!

The rear pouch: the last small convenient part of the belt. I easily put my car keys, a few gel packets, and a small pack of tissues (those of you who run LONG know what the latter is for,) into the pouch, and it all stays nice and dry.

I’m sure there’s many places to grab one of these belts around the lower mainland, but I know you can get them at any of the three New Balance Vancouver stores (downtown Van, North Delta, or Langley.) I’m pretty sure there are also a ton of online options available too.

I hope some find this review helpful. Everything here is my own opinion, and I am sure there are other products out there that are similar to this one, but I haven’t used them. Enjoy, and Happy Training everyone!!!!

Doug and Bjoern hard at work!

An exciting development as of late is the fact that I’m now working with Jeremy Wilson and the Speed Theory Vancouver Store’s team. I am ecstatic to be working with them, and to also have received my new 2011 Cervelo P3C Dura-Ace, (affectionately named “White Lightning” by Doug and Bjoern,) only a few days ago. I went in to the shop on saturday, and Coach Bjoern, along with Doug Giles, worked late to put the final touches on it and perform a bike fit. The outcome? A sweeeeet ride, with some little ‘extra’ bits to make it that much sweeter. Let me explain:

The added ZIPP bars and cage

The bike comes with a deadly 3T carbon aero-bar set-up, but Bjoern decided to up the ante (a fair bit) by throwing a set of ZIPP Vuka aero extensions on it. They are super light, and integrate the dura-ace bar-end shift lever right into the bars; no extra weight on the end, just the small lever. As per Doug’s recommendation, I added a Profile Design arm rest bracket between the aero-bars, to hold one of my two new Arundel Dave-O bottle cages. Handy. Another little gem we’ve added, to improve my riding comfort and ability to potentially push a bit more power (plus, it looks wicked in white,) is the Cobbs V-Flow Plus saddle. Both things that will improve the overall comfort and ride.

Cobbs V-Flow Plus

So what do I think so far? I haven’t put any big hard rides on it yet (by the end of the weekend it will have seen it’s share of torturous sessions,) but for the riding I have done, it has exceeded my expectations. For one thing, the bike is lighter than my last ride was. Smooth comes to mind as well, I didn’t notice a whole lot of jarring transferring through the frame, even on rougher roads. The fit, well, that’s a whole ‘nother thing! It is completely different to my last bike, I’m able to relax a lot more throughout my upper body (instead of arching my back and crushing my diaphragm to find the best seating position.) This makes transferring power through the pedals much easier, and I would suspect over a longer, harder session, less fatigue (because I expend less energy trying to hold my body in unusual positions.)

“White Lightning”

 The look of the bike really helps it’s cause as well; the all-white scheme, complete with the bar tape, cable housings, and saddle, make it rather appealing to the eye. It’ll look pretty deadly once the race wheels go on as well, a thick carbon tubular wheel ALWAYS makes for a speedy looking rig.

I’m ecstatic to have the bike for the last two races of the season, 70.3 Pocono Mountains being in only 11 DAYS!! Miami 70.3 will be at the end of October, and both races I’m feeling extremely confident about, especially with my running and swimming, which haven’t seemed to pull through in the last few races. I’ve been having increasingly positive and confidence-boosting run sessions, and my swim seems to be much more consistent lately. Combine that with what I hope will be a hill crushing bike leg, and perhaps there will be some solid results to round out my season (also, both the next two races will help me accumulate points towards racing at the 70.3 World Championships in Vegas next year, my 2012 goal race.) I’ll be leaving everything out on course, and considering my past record of late season peaking, there might be a whole bunch left out there. (My first half-ironman in my first season I went 4:52; the end of October that year I went 4:22. Last year, after no half-iron training, I managed to suffer out a 4:13 in 70.3 Austin at the end of October.)

Bjoern ensuring the bike is okay to ride!!

With the depressing fall weather upon us, I hope everyone can find some sort of sunshine to keep them going through the next few dark, cold months. Happy training everyone, and for those of you still holding your nose to the grindstone, happy racing!!

Warming up behind the buggy!

Last saturday (August 20th,) I had the pleasure of attending the Cypress Challenge, a fundraiser put on by Glotman-Simpson cycling to fundraiser for pancreatic cancer research. It was a huge success, for everyone involved (almost 400 competitors,) as over $120,000 was raised!! That’s a HUGE success! Being not only my first time climbing Cypress, but also my first attempt at RACING up a mountain, I wasn’t really sure how everything was going to pan out. But I can tell you this much: I had FUN!!! I love triathlons, don’t get me wrong, but there is something exciting about bike racing, especially the shorter, harder effort races.

Starting at the bottom near the highway, it was a neutral roll-out. We followed a BMW sponsor car for the first km on the flatter section, and once we hit the hill it was on!! I started out in the front, being a newbie to the cycling scene, and once the stronger guys started to push, they pretty much left me in the dust. I managed to stick with the front group for a while, which eventually strung out and broke into two groups. I rode in my group, but by about 1/3rd of the way up, I started to fall off the back. Riding solo for a while, pushing harder than I have in a long while up the hill, someone started to pass me. I thought, “oh damn, getting passed again….”

At the start; I’m just to the left of the guy standing, blue helmet, black/white jersey.

Then I realized it was a woman (Nik Vogler.)

Riding in my pack (that dropped me)

I’m sure many people have heard of the phrase “Getting Chicked.” I don’t think you’ll find it in any dictionary, but I’ve heard the definition as “When a dude busts a gut to pass a chick simply because she is a chick and then that chick dusts that dude later.” Well, this is where it got ugly. I’ve been chicked before, I’m not ashamed to say, and in this situation it was a pure cyclist, so I by no means felt compelled to fake an injury and drop out because I was getting passed. But, that being said, deep down (I think inside every man) there’s this neolithic machismo instinct that prevents us from completely succumbing to the fact that we’re getting ‘chicked.’ So, as the definition entails, I started to turn myself inside-out to keep up. Boy did it hurt, I tagged onto her wheel and gave it everything I had!! Alas, once my ‘gut was bust,’ I just couldn’t hang on anymore. I’m pretty sure she was increasing her power, cause not only did I get chicked, but she also caught, and passed, the two groups ahead of me (I was close enough to watch her slowly go through both.)


Nearing the top (solo, cursing myself yet again for putting myself through this torture,) I really started to crank out everything I had left as the pack behind was quickly bearing down on me. Thinking the climb would was never going to end, I rounded the final corner, and the finish was in sight!! Crossing, I was spent, but happy;  coming off a few weeks of heavy racing and training, a 25th overall placing (not bad for a triathlete;) haha) in a time of 38:24. Meeting with a group of friends, it was a crazy fast descent!! I set a new max speed PB on the way down, at 86.3 km/hr. They made an awesome Cypress Challenge Video, I even managed to sneak into it at 1:25, riding at the front.

Spending the rest of the day in the Kits beach area, hanging out with lots of different friends, it was the best way I can think of spending a hot summer day. Finishing the day off with an amazing burrito from Las Margaritas (which I have to make a positive mention, as they actually allowed me to bring my race bike INSIDE the restaurant while we ate, as I had nowhere else to put it.) Great service, even better food, and the best company!


This week has seen some pretty good training, all of which is a build-up to the next big race, Ironman 70.3 Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania, on Oct. 2nd. The next few weeks will be INSANE, as the World Police and Fire Games is happening right now in New York, and I’ve taken on a lot of extra shifts to support the guys who are going over there to compete. We have a lot of outstanding athletes heading over, and I’m sure they’ll be bringing home some gold:)

Enjoy the summer heat (finally,) happy training and racing!!

The first of it’s kind for me (and hopefully not the last,) the chase race format was an exciting concept to me. Letting the women start 15mins before the men, and then having the men ‘chase’ them to the finish line. I thought 15 minutes would be a ridiculous gap to try and bridge, but evidently not (at least for some of the men!) What fun it was, here’s how it all broke down:

Another early morning race start (7am,) I was up UBER early to make sure I had time to get breakfast all sorted out before the gun went off. I’ve totally forgotten that 4am actually existed, but when my alarm went off, I knew it was time to jump to action. Having some trouble sleeping lately, pre-race night was no exception. But I felt pretty good, and the only issue I was having was a nagging foot problem that caused a lot of pain when running, especially barefoot (and since we run at least twice barefoot over rough ground, I was prepared for some pain. It IS a race after-all!!) Off to the race start, I prepped my bike and T1 area, including my typical pre-race joking with my fellow racers. I knew that no matter what it would be a fun day, as many of my friends were racing, as well as spectating.

Warm-up in the water went well, and the water temperature was PERFECT for me! It was as warm as a pool, which is perfect for me. I like it warm, but I knew in the same breath that it would get pretty cold on the bike today, as it was foggy and cool out. Standing on the pontoon, minutes before the start of the mens field, the women’s field swam by to begin their second loop of the swim. With the TV cameras on us, we were prompted to heckle the women as they passed. You know, give something exciting for the cameras. So I indulged, along with some of my competitors, to give some friendly heckling to the passing swimmers (knowing full well that a lot of them were swimming far faster than I can!lol) The gun went off for us shortly after, and it was ON! My first ever pontoon start went well, I dove in and swam like mad. I held on to the pack for a bit, but my extreme lack of swimming experience saw me slowly drop off the back of the main pack. I was happy to be in my Nineteen Frequency though, it kept me buoyant and moving as fast as I could.

Coming in to T2

Into T1, I could see I was a bit behind. The thing about triathlon transitions, you can always tell how well you’ve done coming into T1 and T2, by the number of bikes either left, or returned, to their spots. Well, suffice to say, there weren’t many left, so I knew I had some catch-up to play. For some reason, I don’t bode well in the cold AT ALL. I was freezing for the first 30 minutes on the bike, my legs were just useless stumps that I couldn’t feel! I’m sure everyone’s done a race where the legs are completely useless for a while, and this was the case for me. But as I descended the final hill to the turn-around, I realized how close I was to the main pack! So, back up the hill after the turn-around, I started to turn myself inside-out to chase down some of the pack. Slowly I began reeling people in, passing one at a time, and about half-way back started catching some of the woman field. I was giving everything I had, and it was slowly paying off.

Heading out to ‘hunt!’

The hard push to the finish line!!

Into T2, my feet were hurting pretty bad. I mean, they were frozen solid, so it was a bad sign that I could feel the pain shoot through as I ran to my shoes. Struggling to get them on, I was VERY surprised to see Scott Curry just leaving T2. I thought, “Man, I must’ve ridden better than I thought I did!!” So on went the shoes (after much cursing under my breath to get them on,) and the hunt began. I ran like a man on a mission (okay, maybe a boy on a mission,) and starting closing the gap on guys right away. By the half-way mark, I was able to finally feel my feet again, which turned out to be a bad thing, as they were in HUGE amounts of pain. But I kept on pushing. I could see Carlos Lesser and Elliot Holtham a ways ahead, and I had targets on them. But they saw me coming, and I never was able to run them down. After a final hard push to the finish, I managed one more pass in the final few hundred meters, and I finished strong (actually, due to the thick wood chip patches and hill at the finish, I probably resembled a drunk ox stumbling along, more than a strong runner.) Due to my weaker swim, my race strategy is one that I playfully refer to as “hunting.” As such, I mentally put targets on the backs of my competitors and give chase the whole race. Around the 2-3km mark, I was in full-on hunt mode as I bore down on the next few racers, and as I descended a hill, a mule deer popped out of the bushes to my right. Immediately I had a laugh, as I was ‘hunting,’ and here was an animal that would normally be associated with REAL hunting! The best part was, it hopped along the side of the road, giving me a little more motivation to run faster (see: ancestral hunting instincts.) Something a little different to lighten the day:)

They helped me to a new PB!!

Post race was a happy occasion, with Rachel McBride having an outstanding race, rounding out the top 5 podium! It was awesome to see that 3 of the top 5 spots were Lifesport teammates, and two of them were also Compressport Teammates (Rachel and the increasingly amazing Jeff Symonds.) I was very surprised to see I had the 5th fastest run of the day, a 33:10 clocking (a new PB,) and the 8th fastest bike of the day. Considering my issues out there, I was VERY happy with these numbers. This also being my first race with a power meter on the bike (which I find HIGHLY useful for training, and using power numbers from the race to analyze my performance,) Coach Bjoern and I were very surprised and happy with the numbers shown. Thanks to Ivan Jelic for the use of the EDGE wheels!

Hanging out with Rachel @awards

Thanks to Laura Byrne for her hospitality in hosting me at her house during the race, and for the awesome meals she prepared!! I think the Volunteers at the race deserve the biggest thanks, they were so outstanding at every turn, working so hard to make sure that we had the best experience possible! Also thanks to Subaru and Lifesport for putting on such a fantastic race, as well as the city of Sooke; they are vying for a 70.3 title, and based on this years race, I would say they are well on their way for next year! Thanks to Jonathan Kisiloski of Compressport for all the ‘support’ (no pun intended,) as well as Eload for fueling me through this race. Thanks to all the sponsors for making everything possible, it was a TON of fun, and I look forward to next years race!

Every race is a learning experience, some more than others, and I yet again learned a lot today. I’ll be taking my lessons, good and bad, in stride, and making good use of the knowledge for Lake Stevens 70.3, and the rest of the season.

Also, cant forget to thank Coach Bjoern for coming out to support all of us, what a great day! Happy training everyone, and even happier racing:)

Local outdoor pool for some training

What a day!!!! So my debut 70.3 in the Pro field didn’t go exactly to plan, which is probably not the most unusual thing to happen in the world of Triathlon, to say the least. The learning curve this year for the long course racing has been pretty steep, but this only being my second 70.3 this year (not to mention I’m not exactly a seasoned veteran in this distance, or ANY distance actually,) I have a TON to learn. The day was a good schooling lesson for sure, but let’s start before race day:

Arriving on the wednesday before the race, I was well into my taper (the first time I’ve had more than a few days to properly taper, EVER! In fact, this is the first time this year that I’ve tapered for longer than one or two days pre-race, haha.) Landing in San Fran, it was all fog. “Great,” I thought, ” now I’ve flown from cold rainy Vancouver, to cold foggy San Fran!” I was pretty happy though, as my bus left San Fran and started to get closer to Santa Rosa, when it got mighty sunny out. My homestay for Vineman, Marion and Kent, were absolutely awesome! They were so accommodating, and their house was a beautiful old Manor, something you might see from an old movie. I loved everything about it, how even just shifting your weight on the spot created loud creaks, and sneaking around this place was not an option!lol

Echelon Cycles saved my butt!

Anyways, enough about that stuff, fast forward to saturday! Rachel McBride and myself headed out to the race expo mid-day, on bikes, for our package pick-up and pro pre-race meeting. I tell you, I was pretty relaxed and calm all the way until that meeting. When you’re sitting in a small auditorium, with the likes of Chris Lieto, Joe Gambles, Andy Potts, and Matt Reed (JUST to name only a FEW of the superstars there,) the nerves REALLY start to rattle. What really set my nerves off, was the fact that I wasn’t going to be watching these guys race tomorrow, I was racing WITH them!! Crazy. What really set me off though, was when Rachel and myself started to ride back to our respective homestays after everything was done for the day. Well, everything was done for Rachel. My excitement for the evening hadn’t even started. 5mins after leaving, I started to get that bouncy feeling. No, not in my stomach, but in my rear wheel. Looking down, I let out a few choice words, and told Rachel to keep on heading home, as I was about to start my run back to the expo to get my rear tubular replaced. I have to throw a HUGE shout-out and THANK YOU to Echelon Cycle and Multisport , as well as Trisports.com, both saved my bacon that night. Trisports.com hooked me up with a new tubular wheel, and the guys at Echelon did all the gluing and work to fix my tire!!! I’d have been pretty screwed without them, as all the local cycling shops were closed by then. Thanks guys!!

ITU style bike racks

Exiting the water

Race morning was an early one. As the pro fields started at 6:30am, I was up just before 4am (after yet ANOTHER restless night.) Tired and confused, Rachel and myself got a ride down to transition. They had a separate ‘pro’ bike rack in transition (as they said, they wanted to try and ‘pimp out’ the pro race this year,) so we had ITU style rear wheel racks. The one thing was though, they had our racks about 20m’s after the swim exit, so it was going to be a lesson in FAST wetsuit removal! The swim was nothing special for me. It was a struggle the whole way, I just had trouble getting into a good rhythm. What really threw me off was the 200-300m’s on course that was about 2 feet deep, where I had to REALLY alter my stroke to avoid hitting my hands on the bottom. I thought I would get DQ’d, or at least a penalty, if I dolphin dived these sections. Apparently we don’t though, as a bunch of others were doing it (probably gaining a fair amount of time on those who didn’t!) Exiting the water in just over 26mins, I wasn’t too pleased with my swim. My Nineteen Frequency definitely helped me through the swim, it kept me afloat and gave me zero restriction through my arms/shoulders, keeping me faster than where I probably would’ve been!

Bike Start

Stung by a BEE!!!

On to the bike, it started to mist and rain (which it kept up the whole ride pretty much.) Right from the start, something didn’t feel proper. It felt like my brakes were rubbing, and no matter how many times I looked down, I couldn’t see them touching (although they looked damn close.) My new position that I changed to (just after the Vancouver race,) felt outstanding, but I was pushing so hard and felt like I wasn’t really going anywhere, even when descending. After about 20mins, Leanda Cave rode by me, along with a few other pro-men, and I lost contact with them after a while. It was frustrating, but I just kept on pushing and pushing, determined not to let anything set me back. Even the bee sting. Yup, that’s right, about 30mins into the ride, a bee stung me right on my quad, which proceeded to swell up nicely, then change color a bit. Boy did it sting like a bugger, the whole rest of the day in fact! It actually kept me up two nights in a row due to the pain/itchyness. So that probably didnt help me out too much. Being cold and wet, I didnt drink enough fluids on the bike, so I was probably in the red for hydration going into the run. I was, however, knocking back Eload Gels the whole ride, and the liquid I did have was full of Eload and FLY, which helped keep my electrolyte and fuel levels up. After a slower than anticipated ride, it was into T2 and out for a half marathon.

Pushing through the last few miles

Stong to the finish!

This was the first race that I decided to use socks for the run, as I’ve been struggling with a foot inflammation issue for the past year. I used my New Balance Baddalay 890’s, with their new Rev-Lite soles. Only 9oz each, they are very comfortable, yet very light. I started out feeling strong on the run, knocking out sub 6 minute miles for about 5 miles. I slowly watched Melissa Rollison run away, but then slowly watched Leanda Cave get closer and closer. I was still feeling good (minus the foot inflammation,) hitting the turn-around loop in the La Crema Winery, which is where I finally passed Cave. That was about the end of feeling good though, as my hamstrings started to cramp up. Altering my stride, I was forced to slow down to prevent catastrophic failure, and I was hitting everything I could at aid stations. My stomach was rebelling, my legs were not cooperating, but I just pushed through. I knew I was dehydrated, but I just kept myself in check, and embraced the pain from every step. At the 9.5mile mark, a volunteer on a bike let me know I was not too far behind another pro-male. I thought to myself, “okay, this is it, use this guy as a target and run him down!” I used this as fuel, and with each mile, he was getting closer. With just over a mile to go, I pulled up behind him, and with a surge, flew by. I just gave everything I had the last mile, which isn’t saying much, and thankfully I didn’t have to sprint the finish, as I don’t think the legs had a few hundred meter sprint left in them (although, you never know what the body will give you when you dig deep for it!!) Overworked from the bike, dehydrated, and battling a mental game (among other things,) I was fairly happy with my 1:21 half marathon, (considering the hilly, challenging course,) and my 4:16 finish, which had me as the top Canadian, something I am very proud of :)Also, number 1 MOST IMPORTANT THING, I had FUN 🙂 🙂 🙂

20lbs of post-race recovery ‘activities’

The day was a monstrous learning experience, with a TON of things learned that I will be taking into Lake Stevens 70.3 with me. I was REALLY happy with my Compressport calf guards, my calves were probably the ONLY thing that wasn’t sore!! Practically living in my compression leggings the days leading up to the race definitely helped, as they also helped with recovery the days after. I will definitely be adjusting my diet the few days leading up to the half-irons, ideally less fiber in the diet (all I ate all day was fibrous fruits before Vineman,) so that might help out the stomach issues a bit. I will continue using my Eload, FLY, and their Gels, as they provide a VERY easy to stomach flavor, and consistency. I never came close to bonking or running out of gas out there, so fuel wasn’t a issue. Congratulations to Rachel McBride and her 7th place female placing, and second female to cross the line.

Post race, I discovered that the rear hub/axle, that held the bearings in the wheel, was loose by about 2-3mm’s (unscrewed.) It caused the rear brake to sometimes rub, and created resistance in the rear wheel. Yet another learning experience, ALWAYS check your equipment, especially if you have a mechanical issue.

Met a new friend on the way home:)

A huge thanks to all those that supported me, without your help, I wouldn’t have even made it to the start line in Vineman. The race organizers put on an absolutely spectacular race, I was even very impressed with the post-race food spread (always a way to an athlete’s heart, through their stomach!lol) The course was beautiful, rolling through the hills and wineries of the local vineyards.

Next on the block is the Olympic Pursuit race in Sooke, with my next kick at the 70.3 can at Lake Stevens the following weekend.

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer, with great training and outstanding racing. Happy training!!!

My last big week of training is dwindling down, all in preparation for my big debut Ironman 70.3 next sunday, at the Vineman 70.3 near Santa Rosa, California (about 66miles north of San Francisco.) It’s been a tough week, especially since I’ve just come off two weekends of racing in a row, and a few weeks of heavy training. As always, I’m totally loving the work, every big session giving me a bit of a confidence boost for this weekend’s race.

Rachel, Steph, and I at Kits Beach, practicing starts

This week had some REALLY fun sessions, including a few open water sessions at Kits beach (thanks Rachel Mcbride and Stephanie Ossenbrink for the fun,) one which saw some drama unfold mid swim: we were practicing some drafting, with myself in the lead. Just as I approached a turn buoy, I *SLAMMED* my hand into a giant log floating in the water! I repeatedly yelled out “STOP STOP STOP STOP,” to try and prevent Rachel and Stephanie from crashing into the log. Fortunately for them, they stopped. Unfortunately for me, Stephanie thought I was yelling SHARK, and proceeded to scream and try to climb on top of me to get out of the water (because, as you know, a shark can’t attack the top person in a people sandwhich! Hahaha!!) Way too funny, boy we had a good laugh with that! Then, we decided to have an on-going battle royale the rest of the swim, with many karate chops to the head (and a few well placed shots to a bit of a tender region, if you know what I mean!) We followed up the session with a trip to Burrito Brother’s just up from the beach, with Coach Bjoern. Mexican seems to be a great way to finish a swim session.

My new Vineman scare tactic, courtesy of Stephanie 🙂

Friday was a great Kits pool swim (one of a few this week,) followed up by an awesome UBC track session with Coach and the rest of the Lifesport athletes. Probably the best session ever, as we played barefoot Freeze Tag post workout (I had my heart rate monitor on, and it is quite the workout running around!) Stephanie Ossenbrink came up with some great tactics to paralyze opponents, one that I think I might employ this weekend at Vineman (running after people, arms waving, head shaking, barking like a dog, moving like a bat outta hell!!) It stopped us like a deer in the headlights, so hopefully it will work for me, to psyche out my competition 🙂

A successful Mt. Seymour climb for everyone!

Enjoying the BBQ

Yesterday capped off the week with a big group ride, which included a Mt. Seymour climb, and a stop in Deep Cove for donuts (sandwiches and muffins for some of us.) We polished off the day with a BBQ at Megan’s relative’s house on SW Marine Drive (amazing place, the kitchen was UN-believable!!!) Burgers, salads, and all the fruits we could handle, it was a fantastic time, too much fun for all the Lifesport gang! The BBQ was finished off with an absolutely amazing mini-concert by Megan (on the violin,) and her brother Nathan (on the piano.) They played many tunes, there was even some dancing going on by Anita and Stephanie! Too funny watching them rip up the dance floor, but the best part was Bjoern’s air-piano playing (think: headbanger meets Beethoven’s 5th Symphony!!) Classic (literally.)

Megan and Nathan’s mini-concert, conducted by Coach Bjoern

The rest of this week will be a ton of resting, relaxing, stretching, and getting ready for the race (with a little bit of training, just enough to keep fresh.) This will be my first full week taper, so I’m not 100% sure what’s going to happen come race-day, but hopefully there will be a great result! You can follow Rachel McBride’s race progress (she’s racing in the women’s pro race,) as well as mine, at ironman.com .

Enjoy the week of forecasted sunny, warm weather, and happy training everyone 🙂

After a disappointing race at ITU Monroe last saturday (27th overall, partially due to a horrible swim,) things are finally starting to look up for my swim after yesterday’s Subaru Vancouver Half Ironman. The day breaks down like this:

Being a 6:30am start, my day started pretty early (up at 3:45am,) which seemed even earlier after a bad night sleep (tossing and turning, seems to be a trend the last few nights.) But alas, the show must go on, so after some breakfast it was off to the race site at Jericho beach. Mum decided to brave the early morning start, and came out to watch the race. Best Mum ever, she was up before 4am too, and on a sunday no less!!!!

Coming out of the water, RIGHT behind Martina

Arriving at the race around 5:15am, I quickly got into transition and set everything up. It was still cloudy as heck, but it had stopped raining and looked like it would start to slowly clear up. After a short warm-up run, and a bit of a swim (the water wasn’t actually too cold today either,) I was toeing the start line, in my Nineteen Frequency, ready for action! Beside me was Elliot Holtham, Anthony Toth, Scott Curry, Rachel McBride, and Martina Wan, among others (all great swimmers.) Since I’ve been having some trouble with the swim lately, my goal was to go out hard, and try to settle into a solid rhythm on someone’s feet who was pushing the pace.

With a blast of the airhorn, the race was off!!!! Smashing, bashing, kicking, and punching (typical of a triathlon swim start,) I fought hard to keep a good position. I was sprinting hard, and managed to get myself into clear water. I noticed the faster swimmers making a bit of a wide right arc, but I held my straight line to the first swim buoy. Around it I went, and I realized that I was in open water, with nobody in front of me (except for the front pack of guys, slowly pulling away.) I was feeling amazing, and settled into a great rhythm right away. After loop one, it was out of the water and around the beach buoy, and to my amazement, I was pretty far ahead, and within spitting distance of the lead pack! All I could hear was screaming and yelling of the crowd in excitement, along with coach Bjoern yelling some kind of encouragement (I think; if you’ve ever had to get out of the water mid-swim to run around a buoy, you’d know that you’re in a state of confusion and utter discombobulation, so you never really know WHAT’S going on! For all I know coach could’ve been screaming that the weather looked like it was clearing up.) Back into the water I dove, with a hard sprint to keep my time down. Closing in on the final stretch of water, I noticed someone pulling up beside me in another Nineteen wetsuit. I thought it was Andrew Powell, a friend and training partner. Then another person pulled up beside me, and I was pretty sure it was Martina Wan. I looked again, and I was really sure. “Boy,” I thought, “Martina must be having a REALLY bad swim today, if she’s been on my feet this whole time!!” Martina has been swimming extremely well lately, so I thought it weird she’d be swimming around me. Coming out of the water, all I could hear was Coach yelling “you’re only 1min 30sec down from the leaders!” I was amazed!! I thought they could swim faster than that. Then coach yelled my time out, “25:30.” That helped slam me into another gear, as that was amazingly fast for me.

out of T1, 1min30sec down from the leaders!

Finally, a great swim!!! Must’ve been my Nineteen Frequency;)

Out onto the bike, I knew I had some work to do. It was a tough bike course, 4 loops (each loop included a big hill climb and 3 turn around points,) making it 91km’s. I managed to take the lead for about half a loop (after the two leaders took a bit of a detour,) but by the 3rd loop, Toth, Curry, and Holtham had caught me and pulled by. I wasn’t feeling it on the bike, even though my nutrition was bang-on (using Eload and FLY in my bottles, as well as a hand-full of Eload GELS throughout,) I started to feel the fatigue in my legs climbing the start of the 3rd loop (from some heavy training this week, part of my build for Ironman 70.3 Vineman.) I tried my damnest to keep up with Elliot, (which I was able to accomplish for the 3rd loop,) but as I lost sight of Anthony and Scott, Elliot started to pull away starting the 4th loop (when I really started to feel the fatigue in my legs.) I decided I would try to save a bit for the run, as I was starting to hurt.

Heading out, got some work to do!!

Pushing hard through the middle of the run

Finishing the run strong, keeping up form!

Coming into T2, I got the coach’s report that I was 5mins down from Scott (the leader,) and about 1:30 down from Elliot (3rd.) My legs just didn’t seem to get into running until about 3 or 4km’s into the run, and even then, they left something to be desired. I ended up running alone the whole run (other than on the second loop, when I ran into a bunch of athletes on their first loop, which was REALLY motivating, as many were good friends of mine.) My feet started to hurt mid-run (I race sockless,) so being a learning experience, I’ll be racing halves in socks from now on. I just pushed as hard as I could the second half of the run, hitting my Eload Gels and water to keep my energy up. It was frustrating to not be gaining on the leaders, especially when a podium spot was right in front of me, and I was having a rough run. I never really got into my ‘zone’ on the run (highlighted by the fact my Mum told me I looked tired out there and wasn’t running as fast as I usually do when I race,) and I definitely found it tougher to mentally push myself without having Elliot within sight. My New Balance Minimus shoes performed brilliantly (a minimalist shoe, with only a 4mm heel to toe drop, giving me a great feel for the ground.) My goal was to keep reminding myself about form and technique, which I feel I did well. I just ran strong, and still managed to break out the second fastest run of the day (a 1:15:04 for the 20km’s.) I’m SUPER glad I wore my new Compressport Ultra Silicon calf guards today, as my calves were probably the ONLY part of my body that felt perfect the entire day! They performed their job with perfection, keeping my calves fresh. Even today, the day after the race, my calves feel outstanding!

Some post-race words with announcer Jordan Back

Finishing just off the podium, in 4th place with a 4:06:13 clocking for the half ironman, I was pretty happy with my performance for a training race. I learned a ton of valuable lessons during the race (which is great, seeing as it was my first half ironman in a LONG time,) lessons that will no doubt help me in my debut professional race at Ironman 70.3 Vineman in two weeks, as well as the Subaru Sooke Half Ironman 3 weeks after that.

It was great to be out at the race, and to watch a lot of friends have some outstanding performances, many people setting PB’s for the half-iron distance. Special thanks to the volunteers, who made the race possible, as well as everyone who came out to cheer for the athletes!!! I have to thank Coach Bjoern especially, as he was in a half-dead state with the flu, but still made it out to coach us through the race, and make sure everyone was prepared!! Thanks Bjoern!!!

Also a thanks to all my sponsors, who’ve made training and racing this season a possibility. Without their support, I wouldn’t be where I am now.

That’s it for now, time to put in a solid week before the taper to the Vineman Half in two weeks. Time to get down to business, to prepare to race some of the best pro’s this sport has to offer!!! Happy training and racing people, enjoy the summer sun that’s finally arrived:)

Sitting here on race morning, looking outside the windows at the weather, I’m feeling this pit in the bottom of my stomach.

Rain.

Cold.

Being from the Lower Mainland, you would think this doesn’t phase me. Maybe it doesn’t, maybe it does. I just finished watching last weekend’s ITU World Championship Series Kitzbuhel, and THAT was rain. Kind of puts the rain here into perspective, as it most definitely isn’t raining THAT hard! It brings back a concept that someone told me, when I first started triathlon, that if it’s raining on race day, it’s not JUST raining on me, it’s raining on EVERYONE! So everyone is gonna get wet, and affected by the rain. Some deal with it well (think Alistair Brownlee in Kitzbuhel, blazing away from the field in the pouring rain,) some not so well (memories of ITU Pan Am Cup Kelowna last year, for myself!)

After watching some videos and listening to some music to get myself amped up about the race, and to ignore the fact that I’ll be getting wet, I decided to jump over to the faithful Weather Network, to see what the weather might hold in store for us later (our race doesn’t start until 2:45pm, which is generally the norm for ITU Elite Men’s races. A fellow I talked to yesterday said he’s started a race as late as 4:30pm!!!!)

Holy JUMPIN’ JEEBUS!!! What do I see, but something that put’s a smile on my face, and brightens my day (literally!!)

Approx. weather at race start!!! WOOHOO!!!!

So perhaps the weather just might cooperate after-all:)

Looking at the ITU website’s start list, and seeing the competition at the race briefing yesterday, it’s going to be a FAST field! With some of Canada’s top athletes, like Andrew Russel and Andrew McCartney, as well as some high ranked ITU elites (Hunter Kemper,) there will be some devastation on the course today for sure.

The goal for today? Try and keep my loss in the swim minimal, and keep within a certain percentage of the overall leader (try not to get lapped!lol) Realistically? With the 44 dude field, I’d like to finish top 20. We’ll see how it goes, as I pulled my right shin/calf muscle running on knobby grass two days ago, while jogging an easy 30 minutes (really, who pulls their shin muscle? What’s with that?!?!?) It really depends how it holds together on the run, as to how well the race goes. With a two loop swim, 8 loop bike (5km loops, that gives me only a small margin of error in the swim, as I can’t get lapped on the bike!!) and a 4 loop run (an absolutely beautiful run course, it’s a 10,830m course, on a perfectly paved course around a man-made lake (you can actually watch the ENTIRE RUN COURSE from transition, such a spectator friendly course.)

Time to get everything together, and get ready to head down to transition to watch the start of the Elite Women’s race (including Vancouverite and fellow Lifesport athlete Martina Wan.)

Best of luck out there to everyone today (including Elliot Holtham, a friend of mine with a TON of talent, competing in his first ITU Pan AM cup.) Happy racing, and happy training!!!

6 days away from the next big race, and I’m starting to feel the nerves a little. My next excursion to the triathlon battleground is down in Monroe, Washington, for the ITU Pan American cup next Saturday. I’ll be traveling down with Elliot Holtham (another elite competing,) and I’m getting REALLY excited! My last big ITU race was a bit of a bust, (or a huge learning experience, glass half-full 😉 haha,) so I’m hoping this race will be a bit of a different experience. The field looks a lot smaller than Kelowna was last year, but still has some amazing athletes, many of whom can swim like a fish!! This seems to be my downfall, although my swimming has been improving lately (with careful guidance from Coach Bjoern.) Fingers crossed for a wetsuit swim this time ’round!!

This should be a good week, the focus is on this race. Hopefully the weather hangs in there for us, it would be great to have a nice sunny, hot day to race on!!

I hope everyone can get out and enjoy the sun this week, and Happy Father’s Day to all the dad’s out there!!! Hope it’s a great one!

Happy Training 🙂