Asking for your 6 minutes and 21 seconds of attention: The Blazeman - War on ALS

this is worthy of your 6+ minutes of attention. Please watch and think hard that no progress has been made on Lou Gehrig's disease since Lou died 60+ years ago.

The Story of Jon Blais HERE

thank you.

Starting 2010...Hawaii...and the Great Gatsby!

Last year I waited until January 2nd to get serious about training and it cost me 8 pounds. That extra 8 pounds took an extra 6 months to get off, I felt like Jan Ullrich. Never again, can't happen.

I just finished a 3 week "train to train" cycle. 23 days of at least 30 minutes of exercise in 24 days (not including the daily hour walking the Great Gatsby!) Some days were 5 hours like last Saturday's ride, others were a 30 minute cruise along lakeshore or 30 minutes of running on the bruce trail. I even swam, yes swim practice, and enjoyed it. This week is a down cycle recovery week and some physio. I have only gained 3% of my weight back; room for 2% more maximum. I'll save that for the holidays (or this beer).

Next week I start proper with a macro 2 month cycle through to the holidays. Strength, agility, and a whole whack of swimming. That will set me up nicely and ahead of last years cluster start and certainly not starting behind the eight ball at 172!

Hawaii always inspires me to train, I have to keep it in check so as not to burn out but man, holy running Crowie. that was really killer to watch online, truly amazing.

oh, and a picture of Gatsby 'cause really, is this not the cutest dog EVER?

Triathlon's Superbowl - Kona Hawaii Ironman 10-10-09

tomorrow is the Hawaii Ironman, the superbowl of triathlon.

Tomorrow I am riding with Tara Norton for 5 hours. Tara deserves to be in Kona but is not. Too much detail to detail here, but read about her at www.taranorton.com Her story, her comebacks, her passion; all of it is infectious. I hope I honor her day of training (vs. racing what is rightfully her race to race) with some good laughs and hard climbs.

As for Kona, I have fun trying to predict the podiums. A few years ago I even picked the top 1,2,3 men. Anyway, everyone and their cousin is picking Chrissie Wellington for the women but my patriotism is picking Samantha McGlone to steal it, look out for Rebeka Keat, and another Canadian to lead a lot of the race Tereza Macel.

For the men, hard to bet against an Aussie 1,2. Crowie then Macca is probable but look out for Stadler to put his nose in there again.

Good luck friends racing, you all rock.

And Tara, never mind, we'll ride our asses off instead.

thanks for reading.

goals and a special thanks to #1!

The other week I posted my 10 lessons from this past season, the #1 lesson being MY WIFE MEREDITH ROCKS!

You need to understand something, I know how hard it is to live with me, can you imagine how hard SHE THINKS IT IS TO LIVE WITH ME???? But seriously, I need to express publicly my thanks because sometimes people look at me square eyed curiously contemplating how we stay married with this madness that is endurance sport. So, thank you me Mere-Bear.

Now, sorry, but here are some 2010 goals that poor Meredith will have to endure. In order of the season races.

- Run a PB in a half marathon of 1:22:59 or less (qualifies for NY Marathon!)

- Win a bike race

- Compete at a very high level the Sutton, Quebec stage race (top 10 overall or podium a stage)

- PB Sydenham hill (4:13 or less) at 39 yrs old

- PB 1500M pool test (21:09 or less) at 39 yrs of age

- Top 10 Age group finish at Ironman Canada at 39 yrs old (age group 35-39)

it is mapped out, time to train. Thanks for reading.