Autumn

Back to training it is then...

After a few weeks of chill time I went into a crazed "planning" mode and set out the goals for next season and started working out how much/what kind of training I'll be doing until Christmas.

Everything looked good so a few weeks ago I started to wind things up again. 11 hours of riding in 24 hours plus some other equally crazy things were done in my "prep" week and then last Monday everything started officially.

Last week I was back in the water properly as well as putting away my first track session of the year and a few big rides. This week I'll do about 15km in the pool, 2 hours of gym work, ride around 350km and run around 4 hours. Slowly building it up, but already feeling good.

Anyway I've also been doing lots of other more interesting things...

I've been out training in Victoria for the past week and had some great weather...it was also Halloween was this weekend!

Much serious pumpkin carving was performed:

Halloween day ride, why buy an expensive GPS when you can have a $3.99 laminated map!

SCARY PUMPKINS

3 hour tempo ride today, beautiful views on the way down from Cypress mountain
4pm November sun making West Vancouver look pretty cool, transport tanker added a sufficient amount of manliness to not make the fact I wanted to take pictures seem weird

Panorama view from Cypress mountain, not a bad place to train

Anyway...this weekend I'm off marshelling at the Haney to Harrison ultramarathon Saturday then up in Whistler next week for 5 days. Will take lots more pictures and keep them coming.

Training wise things are pretty standard, just lots and lots of hard work, so will try and keep things interesting with some cool pictures :)

Hope everyone has starting training again after the end of your respective racing seasons...if you are still relaxing I want a full explanation!

Mike

The joys of streaking...

So last night was interesting...

The plan was to head off for a boys night to the BC Lions game (American football) with my old UBC buddies, which was cool as I hadn't seen a lot of them in 6 months or so.

First things first, everyone decided to get very very drunk. I was planning on having a beer or two but was more than happy to wait until the game had actually started before I went down that route. So off we go, cramming 15 guys into a limo for the 45 minute ride across town to the stadium.

Much singing, high-fiving, cheering and general "out of window" shouting ensued. Several scared bystanders later we safely arrive at the PNE. Someone had decided to give all 15 tickets to the drunkest and most rowdy member of the group so after a quick tussle I managed to get the tickets back in safe hands and everyone into the stadium in one piece.

Immediately the fun started; chanting, drinking and screaming abuse at ex and recently fired players (none of which were actually present at the game) - which was great fun for me to watch in the infinite wisdom that soberness seems to bring!

As the game got going...and I quickly realized the Canadian attempt at American football is not really the most interesting sport in the world...the rowdiness levels continued to rise, at one point the token "drum player/crowd exciter" employed by the BC Lions was stuck by one of our group's "missiles".

....many reprimands later....

"DO IT, DON'T BE A CHICKEN"...as Chris "smiddy" Smith was sitting there (remembering it was about 4 degrees out), half naked trying to decide whether or not it would be a good idea to go streaking. Then the surrounding crowd joined in...

"DO IT BUDDY"

"GO ON MAN"

...The temptation of instant fame proved too much and the very much drunk Chris flew past me, shedding the last few items of clothing as he jumped over the (very high) fence and dropped the 20 feet onto the field...unfortunately catching his foot on the railing and tumbling down almost completely on top of the 3 security guards waiting for him.

He managed to get about 30 feet before he was tackled by about 5 police men in total pinning him to the ground.

Luckily for us, and the crowd (who by this point were off their feet cheering for the now restrained streaker while sending equally passionate jeers towards the police) we had another trick up our sleeves in the form of Jordan, probably the second drunkest member of the group and more than willing to strip off in the name of streaking.

Before anyone could blink off he went, stripping off faster than anyone in history, over the 20 foot drop, completely dodging all police (who were busy with Chris), running the first half of the field completely uninterrupted, dodging a BC Lions footballer who made a half attempt to tackle him then going on to dodge all 10 police offers waiting for him at the far end of the field...successfully running into the end zone and high fiving the goal at the far end.

I have never heard a crowd cheer so loudly in my entire life, can't imagine what must have been going through his head has he ran the length of the field, completely naked (bar the fashionable look of white socks)...

Legend.

2010

Well that was fun :)

I always knew this was going to be a big year - more training than ever before, a heavier racing schedule, more travel all mixed in with my final year of Engineering to contend with.

There were many, and I mean many, times where I felt like I'd taken on too much, especially around January during final exams and then the following 4 months of heavy thesis writing. But here I am, on my final journey of the year, able to reflect on my most memorable season as an athlete yet.

Let's go back and take a look at the past 12 months :)

First off...some definitions and numbers:

The "year" and "season" are slightly abstract principles but in general the "year" begins in late September/early October and lasts, surprisingly, 12 months. Whereas the "season" is a little more open to interpretation. The winter season is the period from around the end of October - March/April where the main focus is heavy training and preparations for the next years races, the race season therefore is the rest of the year May-September where the main focus is racing and the important recovery between those races.

2010 in numbers:

64,152 - number of kilometers travelled by plane

2,570 - approx number of kilometers travelled by car

168 - kilometers of the longest training session of the year

44 - temperature of the hottest training session of the year

16 - number of races

13 - weight lost in lbs between Christmas and August

5 - the number to multiply the number of km travelled by car in order to get the number of km travelled by bike

3 - third full season in triathlon

3 - number of medals won by friends at the Commonwealth games

2 - number of race wins

0 - number of bike accidents this year!

-15 - temperature of the coldest training session of the year

Where to start...

After 2009 my main goals for this year were to start running faster, continue to swim fast and generally be consistent (and graduate from university...). The winter was long and cold but I put in some good work, Scotland suffered its coldest winter since records began so there were plenty of snowy days out on my bike and out running, but I headed out and put those days away regardless. One big change for this year was the fact I was back in Scotland and back swimming with my old team (COAST). In hindsight this helped me massively, the benefit of doing consistent week in week out heavy pool work really took my swimming to a new level this year.

Was bloody hard at times, especially pre-Christmas when I was definitely out of the groove in terms of doing regular 2 hour swim sessions, but after a few months my times were back down and I was feeling like a swimmer again.

New Year was spent in Whistler (Canada) where I was out cross country skiing every day for 10 days, in my opinion the hardest aerobic training you can do. A nice break from the bike as well, something I will be doing again this year for sure.

Back to Scotland for most of January where I was swamped with University work and 2 weeks of final exams. Happy to get them over and done with I hopped on a plane and headed for London where I put in 8 days of just plain insane training with one of my triathlon mentors and best bud Mark Yeoman. The first time I'd ever ran 7 days out of 7. In fact I think its still the only time I've ever ran 7 days out of 7!

In February I was in heavy thesis writing mode but made time for 3 25+ hour training weeks as well as a race at the Scottish Universities Duathlon. There I finished 2nd to Craig Dale, which I was happy with, but as the season progressed became increasingly more happy with as Craig went on to have one of the best age group seasons anyone could have and probably (at least in Scotland) the best age group season ever, hats off.

March included the Scottish University champs (sprint) which was a good outing, though struggled on the run, as well as another trip to Canada. This time I took my bike however and put in some long wet days training in Whistler. By this stage I was starting to feel the physical effects of the stress from training and more significantly university. Sore legs crept in and hung around from early April - the end of June and weren't fixed until the genius who is Neil Maclean-Martin at the Chamonix clinic fixed me up in July.

Racing around this time included a good blast at the Deeside Challenge (starting in Braemar, Scotland)- 54km TT on the bike averaging over 41kph, the ITU Euro Cup race in Strathclyde - where I DNF'd, part nutrition, part not yet sharp enough and a big part of not just manning up, and a 2nd place at the Stirling triathlon as well as a 2nd at the Turriff triathlon.

By this stage I had finished my thesis so could put the books away (for good) and start focusing on racing. My third successive year racing at the Windsor triathlon was a great day, not the overall finish I had hoped for but my swim/bike was a beast. 35 second lead out in the water, with all the required names in the water alongside me to give the result some decent grounding.

Then it was off to the Alps!

My 5 weeks in Chamonix working with the Chamonix clinic were hands down the most productive time I'd ever spent training. I discovered more about my body and its imbalances as well as how they have then affected my running and run training in those 5 weeks than the 21 years previous. I also put in some crazy riding, much at over 6,000 feet...that hurt.

July I raced at the Annecy International Triathlon where I broke the swim course record held by Alexander Brukhankov, raced a proper Alp style Mountain "hill climb" bike race and raced a leg of the French Open Water Swimming Cup series where I literally got punched around by a bunch of French swimmers for 5km.

I said a sad goodbye to Chamonix on July 31st and headed straight for London where the next day I raced the Nokia Thames swim against my old rival Richard Stannard (the old guard of GB Triathlon super swimmers)...and won. A nice confidence boost and set me up well for a good race the next weekend at the London Triathlon, setting the record in 2010 for the biggest triathlon in history with 15,000 athletes racing. I stole 48th place with a solid run, once again adding to confidence.

The period between July 23rd and August 22nd I raced 5 times in 4 different countries and slept in 6 different beds (and a floor). Along with my 5 weeks at altitude this ended up making me a little tired and my race on August 22nd at the ITU Pan Am Cup race in Canada did a good job at showing me this. I had zero in the tank during the bike, after a pretty good swim, which resulted in yet another DNF for this year (which wont happen again...I promise, 4 DNF's in a career are enough to have to live with). Comforting though was my complete lack of nerves on the start line, something that has come in more this year, feeling generally comfortable racing the top guys.

After the tough day in Kelowna I took a few weeks off structured training and instead took on the role of full time Ironman support crew for IMC in Penticton the next weekend. Supporting an Ironman is awesome, but don't let anyone tell you it isn't tough. After my 22 hour day in Penticton I was VERY tired but my girl Nicole won her age group and was off to Kona so I was tired but very proud at the same time.

September was tough as by this time I was feeling better but still tired. Moved into my new apartment in Vancouver, had a relaxing weekend in Whistler, won the Vancouver triathlon, 2 trips to Victoria and started my last epic trip of the year to LA then on to Hawaii for Ironman World Championships.

LA was an awesome weekend, my race wasn't great but had a strong swim and managed to stay with Greg Bennett over the first 5miles of the bike. After this point I dropped off and didn't have anything left. Gomez and Docherty were both racing though and being able to race with those guys was pretty cool, hopefully be able to do that more in years to come.

After the race in LA I had a great day off playing "tourist" in Hollywood, checking out Warner Bros. studios and all the other sights. Was great having the legend Peter Foldy to show me around as well, not every day that you get a number 1 recording artist to be your host in Hollywood.

Off to Kona from LA for the Ironman World Championships where I was once again being race support for Nicole (her blog here), Hawaii was completely stunning, the most insane beaches and water I had ever seen. Never had I been able to go swimming for an hour in the ocean and not be in the slightest bit cold, heaven. Nic had a momentous day for World Champs battling through a killer stomach bug which halted all nutrition efforts in the last 80km of the bike and through the entire marathon. Never have I seen someone pull themselves through a race like that, 100% respect.

Once we got back to Vancouver it was time to settle back into daily life and get planning for 2011. So this is where I am now, sitting at my desk, 6 hours into working through race plans, training outlines, sponsor thank you letters and general brainstorming for next year.

It has been an amazing year, thank you to everyone who has helped me train, race, put me up at their house, given me a snack, given me a hand with a flat tire, passed me their water bottle during a race once I had run out, given me words of encouragement, given me a free race entry, put me in their magazine, said congratulations and just in general been there for me. You guys all rock.

Thanks for a great 2010 and let's do it again in 2011.

Train hard this winter, I'll see you out there.

Mike

LA Triathlon pre race

So this Thursday I'm off to California for my last race of the year. It's been a LONG season and I feel like I've raced everywhere this summer, so being in LA for my last outing seems fitting.

Excited about the race for a myriad of reasons:

1. It's LA
2. Gomez won it last year and is racing again this year
3. My hero Greg Bennett will be there
4. It's LA
5. It's the last race of the season
6. It's a point-to-point course
7. It's a 2 lap run (which I prefer to 1 or 4 lap courses)
8. It's a sea swim
9. I'm off to Kona 2 days after the race

In terms of how I'm feeling and race performance pretty simply I'm just going to go as hard and fast as I can. Literally have no idea how I will fair, seeing as it is October and has been a long year, but I have gained lots of experience this season and will try and get some more racing the big guns who will be on the start line with me.

I'm feeling perky today (6 days before the race) but from experience I know that rarely means anything though I am relaxed and looking forward to just going out and seeing how things go. One thing I learned from my last big US Pro race was not to litter on the course (even if unintentionally) ... see here for my post race report from the NY tri last summer. As was with New York in 2009 this race will be similar in that it is a rare chance to go up against a literally fully stacked (Javier Gomez, Bevan Docherty, Greg Bennett, Matty Reed etc) field in a non drafting format and just go head to head. Experience wise there is nothing better, just bare knuckle racing, no tactics, no drafting, no ITU transition penalties :)

Will be a fun trip, especially with my little Kona jaunt added in at the end. Being able to support at Ironman World Champs will be awesome, hopefully I'll be the one racing one day.

Enjoy winter training, I'm off to find some sun!

Mike

ps. Will try and get another Mike + GB pic at the weekend

Getting better...

Whether it be at a skill, sport or in health the process of improving is always satisfying.

Since the Vancouver Triathlon, now 2.5 weeks ago, things have been a little up and down in terms of health - picking up a minor Man cold that took a week or so to shake and just generally feeling the same "tired out" feeling I picked up in late August.

I have managed however to continue in training prep for LA, now in 10 days, and as of this time last week have started to feel pretty good again. I was out in Victoria training with "off to Kona" Nicole for 4 days and put myself through the paces more than I've done in recent weeks and definitely felt good for it. Sunday morning I felt so good I headed out for an hour and a half (of Nicole's 2.5hrs) run and just kept going until 1 hour 50, my longest run ever. Felt great during/after as well, though by Monday I could tell I had ran a wee bit further than normal.

Lots of steady work though with some generally harder stuff thrown in, nothing huge. At this stage of the year (first race was well over 7 months ago) there is so little you can do training wise anyway, it definitely becomes a war of attrition over fatigue and health. Last season I got to the first weekend in September and decided to call it quits, this year has been much bigger though and I'm still trying to battle on. LA will be fun for sure, really looking forward to it, definitely a well respected race and one of the few "point-to-point" races on the calendar. Then making the trip out to Kona after for Ironman World Champs which will be another amazing experience ... I think my "season round up" blog post in late October this year will be a big one!

To all those who have started winter training, hats off. To all those on a training break, enjoy. And to all those who, like me, still have racing to go ... you're crazy :)

Vancouver triathlon

Ah my favourite race of the year.

The past 2 years, 2008 (here) and 2009 (here), have both been cracking days and it has quickly become the most anticipated race on the calendar. This year did not disappoint, my first win as a senior in triathlon, woo.

Since my last race I've been down with fatigue issues (long long season this year) and even the day before the race I was feeling ill. Race morning and it was lashing with rain, biblical amounts of rain. Headed down to Stanley park around 6am to get set up and ready for race start at 7.

All the speed theory crew were there along with my room mate Gord, fellow UBC Mech Engineers Kelvin (biggest cheerer in the world) and Tetzel and of course my trusted assistant for the day Liz Akeroyd (best person to have along at your race for sure).

The tide was out in the bay so I had a good 100m of 30 cm deep water to get through before I could get going. This unfortunately meant there was a nice band of barnacles to run across before I set off (VERY sliced up feet/hands). Thankfully the water was so cold I quickly lost feeling in my extremities and suffered no in race pain on my cut up hands/feet.

2 lap swim, 20 second lead over the first 750m and held that until we were out, Derek was the fish behind me but luckily I had managed to put 2.10 and 4.30 into my 2 biggest chasers.

Bike was tough, just pouring rain the whole way, but I felt good, legs were firing well and I pushed on. Into T2 with a 90 second lead (4th fastest bike split).

The run was crazy. I have never felt so good in my life on a run. Legs were turning over well, the cold wasn't bothering me too much and I just continued striding out.

I knew guys were catching me and presumed I'd get caught, but once I was into the 2nd lap I knew I still had a good gap so pushed hard. At the 7.5km (small out and back) I saw the gap was holding and the race was mine for the taking. The last 2km I was sprinting, or at least it felt like a sprint.

Across the line in 1.59:56, 36:48 run split, 2nd fastest run of the day.

A memorable day for my first win as a senior, was awesome to have my friends there cheering me on as well.

It's been a long year and certainly my toughest as an athlete. I am now looking forward to my final race of the year in LA on October 3rd, maybe after that I can take some down town and chill out for a while ... maybe.

Keep training,

Mike