Do the work: 2013 is on!

Friends and family:

I wrote this excert below in my last post in November 2012 as I was a week away from sport hernia surgery:

I dream of what may be around the corner. I want to shock myself. I really want this to work and go for it.  If it does not. That is life. These aging lines on my face are not that of age; they are smile lines. I have had a good run. Sorry, a good swim, bike, run!!! But I know I have more lines to give and more lessons to teach myself in the depth that is the Ironman test.

I assure friends and family, my smile lines are deeper than ever!!

I did a very large test recently by venturing to Tucson Arizona for a 9 day triathlon camp with the Barrie Shepley Personal Best and C3 triathlon club. Over the camp I logged 500KM of cycilng including two trips up the famed Mt. Lemmon; 9KM of swimming; and 50KM or running. My total hours logged were 40. An epic punch of fitness.  Not once did I have pain. I have recovered from surgery. The results are very positive. No pain. No back pain. All systems GO!

I will provide a very detailed review of Barrie's camp in my next post as their well organized, friendly and fun camps certainly deliver a person do the far depths of DO THE WORK training!

For now, I will leave my friends and family with my three 2013 goals:

1. National Olympic Distance Triathlon Championships - Toronto Ontario July 21st
2. Ironman Mount Tremblant - Mount Tremblant Quebec August 18th
3. ScotiaBank Waterfront Marathon - October 20th

 I'm back. I'm healthy. I'm hungry.

DO THE WORK IS GAME ON!

your friend in sport, RS

Best Triathlete Follow up + Bike Test #2 of the season a success!

Friends and family,

Welcome back and thanks for catching up. There are a few good links imbedded in this post I encourage you to click to. Some of racing and some of great product (that I am not in anyway paid to endorse!!!!)

As a follow up to my previous post re: Best Triathlete ever; thanks for the few emails. Seems pretty much 50/50 - people say Simon or Macca. I will say this, the best 3 finishes I have seen in triathlon all belong to Simon; Sydney, Beijing, and with $200,000 on the line wins a 4 way sprint in Des Moines Iowa. All 3 finishes Simon was dropped and got back on, then won. Yeah, our boy from Kingston's a stud for sure! And too boot, a really approachable genuine guy.

Training update:

this morning I did my second bike test of the year. I am following the Vision Quest Coaching protocol whereby I get a really good warm up in, hit an interval up to a hard effort, recover then do a "step test" of 3 minute intervals one after the other adding 20 watts each interval. So, 3mins at 200 watts; 3 mins at 220 watts and so on until failure. Below are some snap shots from my CycleOps Joule 2.0 computer to show the progression from this morning's effort. The final interval actually felt pretty good but I don't think another 20 watt jump was available to me, I was getting pretty out there physically.

What's important to for the upcoming season is the improvement from the January 21st test. January 21 my last 3 intervals were 301, 315, and 325 watts vs. here being 300, 320, 350. In other words, I made a 7 to 7.5% jump in 6 weeks. That won't be replicated! It will look more like 1 to 2% increases I suspect through to the main races of the season.

Quite happy with the results, now it is time for some food!!!!

Centurion Cycling - Canada

Thanks for checking in again!

I have been laying low the past week+ as my body does it's best to recover from the beating that was the Village of Blue Mountains Centurion Event on September 19th. The event was put on by NA Sports, the same group that owns Ironman Canada and used to run Lake Placid, California, Wisconsin, Florida Ironman events before selling them to the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC runs/owns Kona and the brand "Ironman") I emphasize the organizer because Graham Fraser and his team put on the best events period. I have raced his events and events that are not his, and by far his are the best!

The event is set for the masses, 25, 50 and 100 mile options through the steep hillsides of the Niagara escarpment in Collingwood. The point being to bring every level of cyclist together to enjoy an epic day of bike riding. This met that goal and was impecably organized. Many of the Ontario riders I race against throughout the year, usually really tight with race fees and such, commented how they so received their money's worth from the $110 race fee vs. half that fee for Ontario Cup races. MEaning, Ontario racing really does suck. We had OPP escorts, helicopters, feed stations, safe roads, incredible roads, great course, buffet food, timing chips, swag bag, rock bands...list goes on. Ontario racing you get fined, cursed, shit courses. It's why our team goes to the US and Quebec to race a lot. Ontario racing = training!

Anyway, as for my race, it was the last of a long season and I did everything I could to try and break up the group and get away over 100 miles. I didn't succeed. I cracked so bad I almost fell off my bike at 101 miles. The race was long, I didn't account for that and cracked bad. I finished 26th on the day but should have been up front top 5. Humbled, lesson learned in bike racing...don't do the work, that's someone's else's job!

Great event, highly recommended.

Click on this link for my power file from the event: I spent 55% of the time above threshold; 20% at max...over 5 hours that adds up!!! Hence, the cracking and sudden darkness-:)

I can't wait for Graham's team to learn and grow the event. Talk is already started of a hill climb TT the day before with combined time winning stage race type format!! If anyone can do it was excellence, its his team.