Running to the sunrise in Toronto

Friends and Family,

The rotation from season ending to season starting has happened. Each season starts late October of the previous calendar year and this year is no different. I start with a 3 week block of workouts to get the rhythm of training back, get the muscles and joints loose, and enjoy the rigours of triathlon training. This phase is relatively light, nothing too hard. What is different this year is the levels of fitness I bring to start the "train to train phase". This year I start without a fall marathon or late summer Ironman in my legs. In fact this year, for the first time in 10 years, it starts without a single 20K+ run since May and no swimming since July!! OUCH!

It is easy to get discouraged as the motivation is super high to get going and working but the fitness is terrible, pain threshold low, and pace of sessions medium at best! So, I get myself motivated in other ways; here is a great picture of a morning run in Toronto to the sunrise. It this sweet or what!!!! This gets me motivated to run-:) I am doing 3 runs per week totally 25km, 30km, and this week 35km in distance. As you can see, not too major. Come December I will be into my regular 50-55km week rotations in my New Balance beauties building up to 2 hour long runs. Lets hope I catch more sunrises like this into winter!

I started swimming by doing 2 swims a week beginning with a 1500M swim and now, in week 3, have built up to 2200M per swim. Swimming is like riding a bike, you never forget how to but man, it takes a lot of work to go from "doing" to "doing well"! Still, given the 5 month layoff and only having done 5 swims thus far, my 100M and 200M repeats are on par to when in full swim mode. Of course, this does not translate to 3800M into open water...that is where the "doing well" part comes in after months of work. I feel good in the water and look forward to breaking the 60 minute/3K swim workout barrier next week!

I have not touched my Cervelo P3 since Provincial time trail championships, only riding myCervelo R3 road bike and doing that all base pace with a few pickups each ride up the hills. I love fall riding; leaves changing colors, arm warmers on but no need for leg warmers; fine cappa's at Cafe Domestique to finish off the ride. It's the best time to ride. But, tomorrow I will dial in my Cervelo P3 back to the triathlon position and start reacquainting myself to it's speed. Speaking of fall colors, here is a photo from the Dundas driving park looking up to where I grew up...yep, just at the crest of the hill there was my abode as a boy and in this park was where I went to high school. Good times but back then I was more interested in girls, beer, and my Ford Ranger than I was riding a bike - life changes! Below that is a picture of David Zabriskie's Cervelo P3 from the Tour de France where he broke the fastest average speed for a Tour TT. FAST BABY!

The other great thing about the train to train phase is I spend sometime looking at a race schedule. There are some clear goals for 2011. First, the bike road nationals are in my backyard in 2011, 2012. We have a good team and we will focus on winning the masters race there. Second, I won't be doing the team training camp in Tucson which leaves the door open to revisit the oldest running race in North America (yes older than Boston), the 30km torture that is Around the Bay in Hamilton on the last Sunday in March. Third, of course I want to knock out an Ironman and have a slot for my favorite race, Ironman Canada for the last Sunday in August. In between that will be opportunities to slot in some high octane bike racing, a few speed triathlons but what I cannot do is over cook it at 40...YES 40! This body is getting older daily so recovery will be the 4th sport!

This the P1 update...phase one of training 2011: Train to Train.

Thanks for checking in!