Time for holiday madness!

Today marks the end of the KW Koalas "fall schedule". We are now heading into two weeks of our designated "Casual Week"! Casual week is two weeks of casual training and practises. If you can get a practise in, great! If not that is ok too because you are probably out shopping or with family or friends or at a party (I know I will be!).

This past fall has been a lot of fun. We have gained some new members who bring some extra energy and enthusiasm to the club. In the new year we will be adding a new member along with one starting early while still in school. I am really excited for the new year and hopeful that we will be adding even more members to our great club! Practise attendance has understandably been a little low leading into the Christmas season but those who have made it out have shown good energy. We did have a really nice swim and run practise a few weeks ago with the run going into Waterloo park to run with the Christmas lights. Here are a couple of pics, quality not the greatest but enjoy!

This pic is a little dark because my flash didn't go off, but you can see Santa in the background! Santa liked to dance whenever you got close enough to him, a dancing Santa, too funny!

This pic the flash went off but I got rebound flash from the jackets! And it is a little blurry, I think my lens was a little damp from the run or snow, or both. Oh well, we had fun! Hohoho!

Merry Christmas everyone! Drive safely when out on the roads. Have fun and enjoy the holidays and see you in the new year!!

Koach.

Touched by fate

This past Tuesday I received an email from one of my athletes. She asked me if I would like to meet her around 3:45pm to go for a run before our scheduled swim session. Now keep in mind that we have had in place a run on Tuesday after the swim session. After I thought about it for a minute I decided I would meet up with her for a run as I thought it would be a good chance to chat with her about the upcoming few weeks leading into Christmas and some of her travel plans.
I then met her at WLU and off we went for a nice run, planning for about 45 minutes. 15 minutes into the run she started to complain of feeling like allergies were kicking in. You know the feeling? Your eyes start to feel puffy and scratchy, maybe need to sneeze etc. So we stopped running and started to walk when she asked me if her eyes were swollen. Yes they were puffy and seemed to be getting a bit worse. She then stated that her throat felt swollen and was having a hard time swallowing. By this time I was getting a little concerned and she looked a little woozy and unsteady on her feet. When she then stated that she was having difficulty breathing alarm bells went off in my head and I asked her if maybe we should go to the emergency at the hospital, which was luckily only 2-3 blocks away. We then started to walk to the hospital, made all the more challenging with her increasingly feeling worse. At one point I had to take her hand to lead her in the direction of emerg because her eyes were getting too swollen to see properly.
We finally got into emerg and signed into the triage sheet and then to sit and wait our turn. This is when she started to take a turn for the worse, feeling increasingly uncomfortable and feeling like she was going to pass out. She then wanted to lay down and I went into full "she needs to get in right now!" mode. The emerg nurse being alert took her in right away to get some info and then her blood pressure which was about 77/40, not good! The nurse called her in right away and then stepped out of the room when my athlete wanted to lay down on the floor. We then picked her back up off the floor. The nurses then got her up to the stretcher and away they took her! I was informed that the doctors will look at her and do whatever they had to do to counteract the allergic reaction. The doctors told her she had an anaphlaytic reaction and her heart was dangerously close to cardiac arrest, thus why she wanted to lay on the floor! From what exactly? Possibly some organic or natural peanut butter with test to determine the exact cause.
Being touched by fate? I believe so because I don't normally run at this time on Tuesdays and if she was out running by herself, who knows what would of happened? Scary to think that she could of laid down on the side of the road because her heart was going into cardiac arrest and been all by herself! It was starting to get dark out and who knows if a passing car would of seen her and cared to stopped to help? I was just so glad that I said yes to her request to go for a run and be their for her in her time of need! I should mentioned that I was able to place a phone call in to her mom, who then called her husband at work. He showed up shortly after and I filled him in on what happened. I then told the nurse that her husband arrived and she checked to see if we could go in. We got the ok and went in and she was doing better. I then left husband and wife knowing she was in good hands. I then received text messages from the husband keeping me updated. She was observed until 8:30pm and then released. She is now doing fine but needs to carry an epipen with her at all times! And as previously stated, getting tests to determine the exact cause of the reaction.
So there you have it! My experience with being touch by fate.

Saturday swim session and indoor biking.

This Saturday, Nov. 20th, the KW Koalas triathlon club is having our usual Saturday noon swim session at WLU pool. We have a couple of things going on with the practice. First off, Mat Reid from Hamilton, corporate owner of the Fighting Koalas triathlon club and 5 time National team triathlon coach, will be our guest coach for the practice! He is also bringing with him this years clothing, well, examples of anyways, for my members to have a look at and possibly purchase. It would be super cool to have all my members dressed in Koalas clothing for this years (2011) races. That way other people will see our name and colours and be interested in joining the club! It also builds more of a team chemistry. Nice to see your fellow members out on the race course to cheer each other on.
Mat Reid will be our guest coach for this swim session. Mat is a very good swimmer and consistently medals at the worlds for the aquathon event. Mat and I go way back now, a good 11-12 years from when my daughter first started to swim at the Hamilton downtown YMCA. Mat actually discovered her and recommended to my daughter's mother that she should be in competitive swimming. It is also at the YMCA where I discovered the world of triathlons. When my daughter was swimming they wanted the kids to go out to Guelph Lake and do a Kids of Steel triathlon. This is where it all started! By going out to watch the kids I also saw the adults racing and I believe Simon Whitfield was racing that weekend as well, although I would have to check up on that fact. Anyways, seeing the events for the first time I said to my daughter afterwards that if she did the race next year, I would too! And we did! She continued on swimming and I am still doing triathlons!
On Wednesday evenings at 6:30pm we are now doing an indoor biking session at one of our members garage. This garage is actually perfect as it has a heater, it is fully insulated and the floor has a covering on it so its not the bare concrete. Awesome! This will work out great for us throughout the winter to get some good quality base training and then some higher intensity interval workouts in before the weather gets warm and we go back outside again!!! So far the weather here in KW has been very nice but we know that will change soon enough...brrr.
Cheers and have a great weekend!

This week.

This past Wednesday night at 6:30pm the KW Koalas had their first indoor biking session! One of our members gratefully offered up his garage for our workout. The garage is perfect! He has a nice heater to warm the space up, it is fully insulated and the floor is covered and not bare concrete! Add in some warm bodies and we got a nice sweat going for sure. I am excited to have this space to use each week for our members and get a nice bike workout in once a week. Even in the winter time when its snowing and cold, this space will still work out and keep us warm, maybe even too warm!
Our swim sessions have been hit and miss for a lot of members these past few weeks, but all in all, still well attended. Saturday at noon I rent out two lanes just for our group and on the 20th Mat Reid will be coming to visit bringing with him our Koalas 2011 clothing for all to see. Time for the KW Koalas to fly the colours at the races next year!!
For our runs sessions, next week we will be doing the usual swim session at 5pm and then right after go for the run right from the pool instead of going over to the park. Park is still nice and there are people out running but just for convenience sake, we will run from the pool.

Is it really November 1st?

Just watching the San Francisco Giants win the World Series and it is November 1st! Wow, late for baseball and is it really November 1st already? Anyways, the KW Fighting Koalas are growing still, adding new members in October! We are currently in our fall schedule and for those who have been training all summer, this is a good time to transition. Maybe get a little rest or get caught up on chores etc. But it is also a good time to start to get ready to train. We have had some really good pool sessions working on technique and stroke correction. Nice to see the improvements and the athletes embracing the coaching that I am coaching to them!
As of this week we have a Tuesday swim followed by a run practice, Thursday swim and Saturday noon swims. We will then be adding in a Wednesday indoor biking practice next week! Very excited to add this practice into our schedule. This time of year it is going to be all about technique in the pool while building our endurance. On the bike, learning how to bike proficiently, getting the best cadence for each person and a proper pedal stroke all the while building our aerobic base. Same for the run, good cadence, proper run mechanics and mid-foot strike all the while starting to build an aerobic base. The athletes on their own have their individual training plans which includes strength and core workouts and lots of stretching!! This whole period is a great time to refine skills, gain strength and build endurance all the while staying loose through lots of stretching!!

Tardy blogger

Yes I have been tardy in my blogging! It has been too long for sure. Every time I look at the blog and think of all the information I need to put into it to get caught up, it overwhelms me right now! Suffice it to say, the end of the triathlon season was very successful for the KW Fighting Koalas triathlon club! At the Lakeside triathlon on Saturday and Sunday we had four athletes and one triathlon relay team racing. Out of the four we had three of the athletes get on the podium with a silver and two bronze medals and the tri-relay team getting a bronze medal! I was so proud of my athletes this weekend and seeing their hard work paying off! I love that it was the last triathlon of the year as well because I am a big believer in ending the season on a high note. They all are eager to continue training and looking forward to next year now! If you go to the Koalas banner on top and click on it, it will take you to our web page and there you can see some of the pictures taken at Lakeside.
You will also be able to see our fall schedule and program. We are looking to expand our junior and KOS program for the fall and have been out marketing some of the local high schools handing out our flyer. We also went around to the local bike and run stores! So look for our flyer and if you are looking for a junior and KOS triathlon program in the K-W area then this is the club to contact!

Awesome weekend

Wasn't this just an awesome weekend? Great weather, sunshine, slight breeze, no rain! The KW Koalas got out for a bike ride on Saturday morning and did a nice 63km ride. We tried to keep the ride mostly aerobic at a relaxed pace with a couple of quick stops. Here was one of the stops. As you can see full smiles all around! The route we took a haven't been on one stretch of road before and was wondering why I never have? Nice gentle rollers into a steady climb. At the end of the road is a really nice view! In the picture behind and to the right is Wellesley. This stretch of road has been repaved recently and is great for biking, along with the newly paved Hessen-Strasse road. I really love biking this time of year when it is sunny and warm. I will get out to bike far into the fall with sunny weather. Oh I've been on lots of rides in the fall with crappy weather and as long as its still a little warm out I'm good with that also! The next three weekends are going to be busy race filled weekends. First up Guelph Lake 2 this Saturday, then Wasaga Beach on the 11th, then Lakeside tri on the 18th, which i am signed up for. Looking forward to the KW Koalas rocking these upcoming races!

Training and upcoming races

The month of August, the dog days of summer! Hot and humid, sometimes rainy, sometimes not. But the Koalas have had a really good stretch of training these past 3 or 4 weeks! I'm really looking forward to the members getting out into the late season races to see how they perform. Tonight's swim and run went well. I myself had an excellent main set of 3x400m and felt very strong and was able to drop my time each 400m, especially the last one. The other Koalas are getting there with these sets. I feel that longer interval sets are needed for them to be able to feel more confident once they get out into the open water.
We then had our run practice and only a couple members were able to make it out. A lot of members are on holidays this week and next (me, we are going camping for 3 days!) so attendance is down slightly. The advantage is, that I really get to watch the runners very closely. Since the start of the year I have been preaching the benefits of proper running form, and proper form for swimming and biking as well. But with the run I see a lot of recreational runners running with really bad form. You need good form to conserve energy and to help you run faster and avoid injury. I searched online and found a very good video which describes everything I've been coaching to my members this year.

The next month or so is going to be busy time for our Koalas at the races! Chemong Lake, Guelph Lake, Wasaga Beach and Lakeside triathlons are all coming up! Plus Muskoka 70.3, a very demanding race, especially on the bike and run! Good luck Koalas and continued great workouts and races!

Updates - August 3rd

Since my last posting we had one athlete compete in the Muskoka long course swim cycle event and placed 3rd overall! This was his second swim cycle event this year along with a sprint race. I also have done two swim cycle events due to my knee problems which resulted in knee surgery July 8th. I had a torn meniscus and a little bit of arthritis in my right knee which. They performed arthroscopic surgery and it is now feeling much better, so much so that yesterday I went out and did a 50km bike ride and then a 20 minute run! And no pain! No pain today either!! I am going to run 2 or 3 times a week now for 20 minutes, maybe 30 minutes on the weekend, to build it up. As long as there is no residual pain I think I am good to go. It will take awhile to build up my running endurance and ultimately running speed, but I can be patient. After all, I've waited this long to get it fixed so what's a little bit longer?
Wow, hard to believe it is already August 3rd! July just flew by. I guess being laid up for 2-3 weeks at home took a big bite out of July for me. Super hard to sit around and recover when I'm used to getting out nearly everyday. But now all is good, or at least looking hopeful!
The next two months should be a busy time for club members, practices, holidays, races, family time, working and the dreaded back to school! Well, not for me anyways.
Some of the members are looking to do races after Labour Day weekend. This is a great idea by the triathlon series as the weather is still pretty nice, water temps are still nice and warm. So if my running comes along I too may enter in a late season sprint triathlon to end the year up. We shall see in the next couple of weeks.
We have been having some great practice sessions this past month as well. I am looking forward to seeing their race results. But we also had one set back due to injury which hopefully will heal quickly! So all the best, get out there and swim, bike and run and have fun at the races!!

Belwood and Gravenhurst and my knee!

This past Sunday we had five athletes racing at two different places. Belwood Lakes and Gravenhurst. In Belwood we had four athletes racing and they all did awesome! For the duathlon we had an age group winner in the females 30-34 and two others in the sprint triathlon placed in the top ten in their age groups! For the Gravenhurst event we had one female athlete competing in the sprint duathlon and finished 1st in her age group of 25-29! Awesome by all this past weekend and as their coach I couldn't be happier for them!
My knee. Yesterday morning I had a follow up visit with the surgeon and he said I was good to go but just go easy and ease back into all my training. I think today I will get back to the pool to start with then tomorrow try going for a super easy ride on the bike just to get the legs spinning a bit. I also have a few strenghtening exercises to do each day to help out. It is feeling better each day and so far no physio is needed but I may schedule one or two sessions to make sure the any scar tissue is eliminated.

Koalas at upcoming races and knee update!

Been alot going on since my last posting. Had my right knee scoped last Thursday and an now at home recovering. This in itself is hard to do! No biking or swimming or work, just chilling! Watching the Tour in the morning and movies later on. I have been able to get out this past Tuesday for the swim and run practice and last night for the brick workout. Mind you I just sit and watch and coach! But all three workouts were awesome and got great feedback from everyone! In my spare time I have also been working on NCCP coaching bridging material, which I finished! I think it looks and reads awesome:) Now I just have to find out from OAT whom to send it to.
As for my knee it is healing and I am feeling better but walking around is minimal ans stairs are hard. I go back to the Dr. on Tuesday for a follow up visit and will find out everything he did and what needs to be done going forward.
Now for this weekend! I have 4 athletes racing this weekend! Two doing the Belwood triathlon and one the duathlon, and one doing the Gravenhurst duathlon!! For three of them it is their first race of the year! Best of luck to the KW Fighting Koalas!!!

KW Fighting Koalas Junior Aged Triathlon Program

KW Fighting Koalas Triathlon Team is excited to announce a junior aged triathlon program for children aged 13 to 17. This is the only junior aged triathlon program in the Kitchener-Waterloo area! All of the workouts will be fully coached by Amy Mausser.

In four years of competing in Sprint and Olympic distance triathlons Amy has:
- twice qualified and competed at the ITU World Championships in Vancouver
- achieved second place in the Subaru Triathlon Series Ontario Triathlon Series, and second place in the Ontario Sprint Series for Females aged 20-24
- competed in over 25 triathlons

Amy has also:
- completed a Degree in BAHS Athletic Therapy
- gained experience by training a variety of athletic disciplines and athletes within the CIS, OFC Varsity Football, Junior B, CIS, AHL, NHL, hockey, Junior A Lacrosse, Tennis Canada, Secondary School Athletics
- completed the qualifications as a Athletic Therapy Certificate Candidate
- become certified as a First Responder
- competed as a Masters Alpine Skier

For more information on the junior aged triathlon program, contact us at rhare756 at rogers.com

Binbrook duathlon relay

This past Sunday June 13th the KW Fighting Koalas entered a duathlon relay team into the Binbrook event. It was an early 8am start on a cool, wet and slightly windy day but our team managed to win the duathlon relay event! Both of my teammates were racing for the first time this year and for one member first time ever, and we won! Everyone was very excited about having a good race, a good race experience, and winning! Having fun together as a team is awesome and I enjoyed biking hard for my mates! For a so-called flat course I was a little surprised that my average was not higher, 33.5km/h and the fastest bike was only 38.9? I can only surmise that the east wind was stronger than I thought and it being a little wet and muggy slowed us down as well. But, fun was had by our team and here are the pictures from yesterday.















Proud KW Fighting Koalas!

Open water swim practise!

Today at 10am was the KW Fighting Koalas first open water swim practise! The weather was little bit cooler than it has been with a light drizzle and east wind of less than 10km/h. We finally got into the water around 10:30am and went over some beach starts, then sighting and then rounding buoys. Then exiting the water running up the long hill and then getting the wetsuit off. All good stuff and the Koalas that came out learned a lot, especially the sighting and learning how to pace themselves at the start of the swim.

Then out for a 20km ride. Nothing like getting on the bike with tired swim legs! For some this was a new experience and one member commented on how tired they felt after just doing 20km ride! In a few weeks I will expand the practise to full on transitioning out of the water and unto the bike as quick as possible. The bike for the first 10kms was just to each stop sign. Then at the turnaround it wasget up to race speed back to the park. Still cool and drizzily and good experience for the ones who have not biked in the rain too much. We then packed up and changed into some dry clothes and that was it for today! Next up the Binbrook Du-relay tomorrow!!!

Good week of training for the KW Fighting Koalas

Yes it has been a very good week of training for the KW Fighting Koalas! All of them have been working really hard at practises and on there own. Tuesday night run practise they ran great as we did 2 laps hard including the hill, then 4 laps of progressively faster laps. You know that they are running hard when one of the members is dry heaving off to the side! Then Wednesday nights bike was a challenge for some of them as we did cruise intervals. Started off from Rim Park and heading to Conestogo, then to Crowsfoot road, then out to Maryhill and looped back to Crowsfoot and back home. While riding this route I lead and would increase the speed slowly for about 4 to 5 minutes while we rode in a line. Object was for them to ride faster than they normally do, take them out of their comfort zone, then slow down for a couple of minutes then ramp it back up! Tough workout for a couple of them until they started to realize that they could actually ride that fast. This was then followed by a 20 minute run off the bike, gotta get those legs used to running off the bike, no question.
Then tonight at 8pm was our swim practise. I love coaching on deck. So good to show them good form and do the drills and correct their strokes and to work them to build endurance and some speed! They all our doing really well in the water and up next is this Saturday's open water swim practise. Four to five months of training in the pool for some of them is now coming to fruition as we now get outside and do the open water swims! So much fun. I know they will love it as I truly love swimming in open water. After swimming we plan to go biking for a bit. I believe one of the underrated workouts is the swim/bike brick. I don't think a lot of triathletes really focus on doing this type of workout, but I do and here is why. It can be very difficult some days to ride hard after a swim. Sometimes I get out of the water and my legs feel like lead weights, other times not. So I have been doing alot of biking this year after I have swam. It is a bit harder to get going on the bike after swimming and a lot of races have you running from the water exit to the transition area, sometimes with a hill to climb, not easy.
One of the hardest thing to do for many, including myself, is to get my wetsuit off quickly. This needs to be practised. The more you do it the easier it becomes. Transitions are a key part of races.No need to spend a lot of time in transition. Get in get out!
Bike/run bricks are huge as well and we will be doing more intense brick workouts soon. I've already given them fair warning of what to expect soon. But, they are all doing great and can not wait for them to start racing! Oh yes, this Sunday we have a duathlon relay team entered in the Binbrook tri/du! Cant wait, it will be so much fun. I am doing the bike portion and two others are doing the first and second run. Results to be posted!

Feeling a little down today.

Yep, got dem blues. Feeling a little down right now for oh so many different reasons. None of them life threatening but all the same it does effect me. Went for my noon swim at WLU pool and one-by-one Koalas started to trickle into the pool! Four in total which just made my day! The KW Koalas really are a good bunch! Fun, enthusiastic and eager to learn whether it is in the pool, on the bike, or running.
In two weeks, Sunday the 13th, HSBC triathlon series is having a race at Binbrook conservation area. I put the word out, WORD, for the KW Koalas to form a relay team and so far we have one du-relay team with two others that may want to race. Need one more runner to make it officially two teams, one each in the tri-relay and du-relay! This will be so much fun:)
Then the following weekend is Guelph Lake 1 triathlon weekend. We have our group campsite and members confirming they are camping and racing! Me, I am doing the Olympic swim/cycle on Sunday morning. Still can not run yet but to see the surgeon tomorrow morning at 8:30am to find out what the deal is. I know there is a tear in the meniscus as per the MRI results, now a course of action to fix the problem. Hopefully I can run soon but not hopeful for doing any triathlons this summer.

Good week of training

With the great hot weather that has set in, this past week or so has been great for training! Really nice to get out on the bike and not have to deal with 35km/h winds the whole time. Just hot sunshine and gentle winds, perfect! This weather saw some extremely fast times for this past Mondays Victorias Duathlon on the bike as well. One of the KW Koalas did his very first duathlon and did a respectable job indeed! His second run especially was very good and now up next will be his first ever triathlon!!
Great to see alot of the members coming out to the practises on a regular basis and seeing there improvements from week to week. Also nice to see some biking improvements for myself as well! I started off my training indoors and worked exclusively on aerobic threshold training only. This is not to be confused with going easy, zone 1 training because it's not. I rode indoors on my trainer and held my heart rate in a zone of 130 to 140 heart beats per minute and continued to do this outdoors. I have now started to do more strength training on the bike and today was a good workout. We went out to Milton and rode the Milton triathlon bike course first. This entails at about the 3km mark going up the 6th line hill. This hill is a little over 2km in total and in some parts kicks up to over 9% grade! I good test first thing in the morning, or anytime actually. Once over the hill we continued to do the rest of the route. Then I get to have a little fun going down the 6th line hill and hit 75km/h going downhill! Fun:) But then we decided to do two more hill repeats, which was good. Legs felt good and hours later still feel pretty good.
So the point I am trying to make is this; all the aerobic threshold training that I have done is starting to pay off. Because now I can add in big hill repeats and soon some speed work and my body and legs are ready for it. I am recovering quicker than before as well. My bike has a computer mounted with a HR readout and I watch it pretty close to see how quickly my HR deceases after maxing out on the big hill and I was happy that it did drop pretty quickly. I also am happy with how I am biking at point close to 40km/h and my heart rate is around the 140 to 145 range! Love it. This means I am generating lots of power, well more than in the past, and using less energy to do it because I am cycling at a lower heart rate!! Sweet. So if I continue on my training path on June 20th I will find out for sure how much faster I really am! And we shall see this summer how the rest of the KW Koalas make out in mostly their first year of racing.

Pictures from last nights bike workout!

Pictures from last nights bike workout. Here we are on the last of 3 hill repeats. For this repeat I started everyone off in a Grand Prix style start, starting every 10 seconds. It was a race to the top! I almost caught the Koala in front of me bu he biked hard to hold me off! One poor member flatted just before the climb started but still biked up the hill with a flat front tire! Good on ya mate!! Cheers to all for working hard.
Me, I just got back from the pool. Felt sluggish today so maybe a little tired from last night? Not sure but I will be finding out soon as I am off for a bike ride and meeting up with a friend. Way too nice out to sit around now isn't it!
Have a wonderful and safe May 2-4 long weekend and see you on Monday for the Victoria Day Duathlon!

Koalas practices this week!

This week the Koalas practices have gone really well. Tuesdays run practice was good, nicer weather does help for members to actually come out to run! But we did two loops warm up to start then 6 infield loops of build leading up to a small hill. So the idea was to start off easy, increasing your pace near the end of the loop which was also the start of the hill! Hit the hill hard, go around the building and cruise downhill and recover. Repeat 5 times then an easy loop no hill, then one last hard effort! They then did an easy big recovery loop then came back and had AM run us through some nice stretching.
Stretching is an interesting topic. It is beneficial and helps us to stay loose, but do we always do it? I know I am bad for not doing and definitely need to do wayyy more stretching.
Then last night the warm weather continues and it was our bike practice!! I got to our meeting spot a little early and managed to squeeze in an 18min warmup ride before the workout. Very windy from the north so I decided to reverse the loop so we were riding the backstretch of the loop into the wind. Started out with two loops of one-legged drills after our warm up ride, then four laps of build. So start off easy then build the pace til the backstretch with the wind going hard, no stopping so the first part of the lap is easy to recover, then a one lap recovery. We then did one lap of standing, out of the saddle and then into the hill repeats! Same idea as the build. Start out easy around the loop, increase your pace around the loop and then up hill! Then cycle easy back down the hill and start another loop easy still recovering, build, hill climb!
I then stopped them for the third repeat and sent them off Grand Prix style for the last hill climb from weakest to strongest climber every 10 seconds! Good for the stronger climbers going at the end to try and catch the ones in front, and the ones in front to try and not get caught!
Then a nice spin back to the parking lot and quick change into their running shoes and out for a quick 15 minute run. Funny to hear the comments when they first start to run..haha. But this is a key workout and one that is in all their training plans, or will be soon. After nearly every bike to do a 15 minute run along with a dedicated brick workout. Bricks can be some of the toughest triathlon workouts for many and I know some that just dont do them at all. But I have found them to be invaluable for racing. I actually enjoy doing them myself and did alot more bricks last summer than pure run workouts coming back from a leg injury.
Today it is off to the pool for a noon swim then back out for a good solid bike ride! Weather today is fantastic as it is going up into the high 20's, wind from NW is dropping to 10km's later on to make for ideal conditions!

March warmer than May?

Yesterday was another chilly, windy May day. Bizarre that March was warmer than May! So far the weather this Month has been awful, windy, cold and wet most days. But, I managed to get a 50km ride in yesterday. This was the first ride for me in over a week due to my cut in my left leg that required four stitches, and it was not a problem at all! Tried to keep the ride aerobic but didn't due so good. With the wind made it almost impossible to stay aerobic. One thing I was able to do though was to keep my cadence higher. Time to start doing more quality sessions on the bike, ie; hills and intervals! My first race is a little over a month away and my goal race is in July. So starting with this Wednesday nights Koalas bike practice, time for pump it up! For some of the members this will be their hardest bike session ever! Looking forward to this workout for sure!! Now off to the pool, then back to the pool, then Koalas run (if its not pouring down rain at that time).

Todays swim and crappy weather!

Today was our Saturday swim session. At first I thought only a few were going to show up but then we ended up with a good turnout. After the warm up we did 4x25m streamline kick/25m swim, 4x25m finger tip drill/25m swim. I then broke it up a bit and had the stronger swimmers do 2x400m with one person doing 2x200m the second 400m. The other guys I got them to work on perfect 25's. The idea for them was to concentrate on good form for just the 25m only. Working with these guys and trying to correct a few things, and at the same time get the ladies strokes down as well. Then it was time for some fun!
After a couple of months of hard work in doing drills and lap after lap, I decided to do a relay competition! I split the teams up accordingly and had the slower person go first, then the second person, third person then the anchors, me and AM! We won the first 4x50m relay!! Woohoo!! I then did a reverse order where I went first and the other team won that relay...boooo!!
I think everyone really enjoyed the friendly competition and a chance to just swim hard. Good thing it was only 50m! I then suggested the next relay will be an IM relay, ha! The group thinks they are working hard, and they are for sure. But I haven't even introduced the other strokes, back, breast or the dreaded butterfly. They don't know swimming pain until you start doing fly or IM sets, hehehehehe laughs the evil coach :)
But the weather is so crappy right now. 80km winds, tree blowing over makes for not a nice day to bike. I talked to one guy before we got into the pool and he said he had already been out biking. Not surprised. But by the afternoon it was almost snowing and raining, blah. Maybe tomorrow morning I will get on the trainer for an hour, just not today because its my BIRTHDAY!!!

Rough ride on Saturday

Today, Sunday, two of us are licking are wounds from Saturday's bike ride. Myself, not even 10 minutes in I cut my left leg on the big gear ring which ended up needing 4 stitches! Didn't really hurt when I did it but it was kind of nasty with a little blood, grease and grit in the cut. Then I find out afterwards that another of the rides went down pretty hard popping out his shoulder, hitting his hip on the pavement along with scrapes. Not a good day on the bike! So the two of us today are hurting and licking not only our wounds, but I think our pride a little bit. One thing I learned from this is when stopped to make sure I'm not in the small big ring, and, to have the clipped in foot at the bottom, not the top. If I was in the big ring and my clipped in foot and the bottom, I would not of cut my leg. Not sure what was learned from the other rider going down as I was not there to see it. Pretty easy to go down when the roads are slick from rain. One thing I do is to deflate my tires a bit. Always done this at races when it was wet. So hopefully the both of us will be back at it very shortly!

Guelph Lake 1

Guelph Lake 1, June 19th and 20th, 2010. I have officially signed up for my first ever swim/cycle event! Should be a blast. Nice that I can still compete this summer when I can not run. Hopefully by the end of the summer I will be able to run then enter a short race to test out the legs. I have also reserved a group camp site at Guelph Lake for the weekend starting Friday night til Sunday afternoon. Short walk to the transition area and all Koalas are invited to come out and camp and/or stop in visit or hang out. Really looking forward to this event and weekend!

Good news bad news

My life the last few years has been all about contradiction. All about the opposing end of different spectrum's. It seems that whenever I get into that middle part of the spectrum I am thrust out of it pushed back to the end. No make that ends. Like I am divided. It isn't as bad as it all sounds nor is it as good. That is the beauty of all of this, the beauty of life. So many positive things are happening like the KW Fighting Koalas and at the same time so many other aspects of my life are, shall we say, not going as great. Maturity has taught me to try, and I mean try, to see the positives in situations. What happened and what do I need to learn from this as opposed to why did this happen to me! If I can learn one new thing each and every day, if I can learn from the stuff that happens in my life, then I am richer at the end of the day. Not in a material sense but in knowledge and wisdom, in life.
Last fall I was helping out by putting some boxes into a car trunk. I guess I felt a little rushed and put the box into the trunk at the same time I banged my knee unto the bumper, hyper extending my knee which in turn turned into a tear in my meniscus. I still kept running after the initial injury because I never really thought about it. Then it started to hurt and I knew I did something to my knee but for the life of me could not remember what I did to hurt it. It is now the end of April and I found out today what we, the Dr, suspected all along. I have a tear in my right knee meniscus. Now here comes the good news bad news part. The good news is that the tear is not a flap type of tear, one that would need to be cut out. The bad news is that it is a tear, more of a slit type tear and will probably need to be stapled closed to help heal. Best case scenario, scoped, stapled, healed and within a short time frame, good to go. Worse case, 2 to 3 weeks on crutches while it heals. Therefore I am cautiously optimistic!
Now, the club this past week. Tuesday night run, good turn out. Wednesday night bike, not so good. Tuesday and Thursday swims, good coaching with the members that came out! Myself, I had a very good swim session today. And, our team looks to be gaining another member early next week. Stay posted for that update.

Day behind blogger

I should of posted this yesterday when it was fresher in my mind but here goes. I know how a day later the memories can get a little skewed but I will try my best. I was scheduled for three different practices to coach yesterday and one got cancelled last minute, so it was only two. I myself did not practice, just coached. First up was to the pool for a one on one which turned out to by two members! So all good, they swam in the same lane and I could watch them both. One member is a junior aged male and basically starting from scratch in the pool. Good thing is his age where if I keep working with him beyond this year he can make huge improvements in his swimming. He already has improved in the run placing 2nd in his age group last Sunday for a half marathon! And I know he has been working hard on the bike on Wednesday night and his other practices. Going to be interesting to see how good he can get this summer and beyond.
The other member that came out for swimming has pretty good form and more or less asked for me to crank it up! I love that. You want me to help you become faster, faster you shall train. Simple. But she is ready to start doing this and gets it, ya know? When I explain things to her she instantly understands. So now she knows she needs to swim her 50's at a certain pace, her 100's at a certain pace, etc. Not just jump in the water and swim whatever now, because her swim fitness is dictating that we ramp it up. Now, Im not going to go too crazy on her, yet. But we will push the envelop a little more each time and see how she responds. I think she will respond nicely.
Then it was quickly to the gas station and home to grab some food then to the run practice! And it was kind of chilly with a cold north wind blowing in. Nice to see more members coming out to run. As I can not run right now I am getting some help from another athlete who is looking to help out more and more with coaching. I think I caught her off guard last night by asking what workout we were going to do...lol. But I came prepared for them. Wanted to first keep them moving as much as possible and not cool down. Today I have come up with some really cool ideas for this run practice for the near future, oh yaaaa!
So tonight is our Koalas bike practice and email sent out to advise everyone coming to dress warm. Gloves, bike pants, layers and bike jacket, booties if you have them, to stay warm. I plan to shorten the time of the practice by about 15mins, then I called for a social afterwards. Cool practice indeed.
Cheers!
Swim fast, bike hard and run like the wind!!

This past weekend and the week ahead.

This past weekend saw the KW Fighting Koalas at the pool on Saturday. The turn out was excellent and everyone was working hard to improve. Our newest members came out for their first Koalas swim session and did a great job of learning the drills and listening to their coach, that's me, on how to improve in the water. The first drill that they did was kicking on their side for 10 kicks and then switch sides for another 10 kicks. I did not think it would be that hard for them but a lot did struggle with it, especially head placement and breathing into the water. But the more we worked on it the better they got with it, which will translate into better swimming for them. One of my members had a huge improvement from one week to this this week. Last week on his stroke he was pulling way across his centre line to his opposite hip! I pointed it out to him, he worked on it this past week, and this week what a huge improvement! Nice smooth strokes and pulling to his proper hip/thigh area, very nice! For a coach it is great to see these improvements in my athletes from week to week.
I missed out on some training myself on Sunday due to lack of sleep. I did not sleep very well at all and was very fatigued the rest of the day. Add in some errands that needed to be done and no way could I get any type of workout in. But today I am off to the pool shortly and then get out for a bike ride. The rest of the week looks like it is shaping up to be a good week of training and Koalas practices. Looking forward to a solid week for the KW Fighting Koalas!

Practice day and Koalas are growing again!

So today I went to the Rec centre pool for a 11am, 45min swim with a Koala followed by an hour bike ride. The swim we just did a longer type of swim for the 45mins only stopping a few times. Can't say that I enjoyed the swim due to the pool being very cloudy and it seemed to slightly burn my face, like I've been out in the hot sun all day, blah.
Then for the bike we headed towards Bamberg but not quite going all the way into Bamberg. Mostly going over gear selection and how to climb hills properly but mostly just to get out for the member to get a bit longer ride in with me leading the way to keep her motivated!
Then off for a badly needed massage. Oh the pain in my shoulders and neck, ouch! The muscles felt like boulders and took a lot of work for then to release. I also have a little tightness inside my left thigh that was very sensitive to the work but did release nicely. Now after my supper I will be icing it down. My masseuse gave me a couple of stretches for my inner thigh that I will have to do alot, then ice it down. Oh, I also have an appointment set up for next Thursday with the sports doctor to finally look at the MRI done on my right knee. Slow going but we are progressing. Lets hope its not too badly damaged and I will be able to start running this summer!!
Now, after all this the KW Fighting Koalas has grown again!! Another person has joined the club today and is very excited, as am I! So much fun coaching everyone and seeing them progress and get better and fitter and working towards the upcoming races this summer :)
Ok time to eat, I am starving. (then ice the leg).

Koalas bike practice

Wednesday night is Koalas bike practice night, 6:30 starting at Rim Park. I was there a little before 6:30 and no one was there. I was starting to think no one was going to show up then within 1 minute four people showed up! Well actually five but he did not join us on his mountain bike and went on his own. I did find out afterwards one other member showed up and then left on his own thinking we were already gone out!
Tonight's workout was harder than I thought it was going to be. Two laps of one legged drills, two laps of super spins, three laps of dropping down one gear each lap but keeping the same cadence from the starting gear to ending gear. You have to start easier because it gets harder and on the backstretch of the loop was a wicked wind. We then did two hill repeats, first one at 85% and second one full out! We did it grand prix style, sending off the weakest to strongest! Yep, that was hard! But I am really enjoying the Wednesday session, lots of fun and good company. It is fun to dish out the punishment but I did really feel it tonight on the last hill but after that I was good. Just wait til I start getting them doing hard intervals! I don't know if they realize that yet....hehehehe :)

2 a days

Two a day workouts are hard. They are also paying off. First was the noon swim. I have been having a hard time relaxing lately but I forced myself to relax today in the pool. But it wasn't until late in the session on 2x200m when I did finally relax and get my times back down to where I know I can swim. When I do this it feels so close to a major breakthrough of time dropping but I would have to swim everyday for that to happen.
Then it was off for a bike ride shortly after the swim. At first my legs were kind of screaming at me and my mind was trying to tell me sitting on the couch would be way better. But I pushed through knowing at some point it would get better, and it did. I ended up having a decent ride, fastest this year so far. I have managed to get almost 500kms of outdoor riding so far this spring and I don't even think I got out last year til this time. 17 degrees with a small west wind made for a nice riding day. Got home and did some nice stretching, trying to loosen up my legs. I think I need to book a massage for next week as my legs tend to get very thick and if I'm not careful I get cramps. Not good.
Then tonight's run practice at 6:30pm and only one member came out. Glad she did but where are the rest of the members? Something I will have to look into and see why they are not coming out to this session. Up tomorrow is the 6:30 bike practice which has been well attended! Nice weather this week so no excuses!!

Saturday WLU pool session.

Today we were back to WLU pool for our Saturday swim session which yours truly coached! Good turnout for my small but constantly growing club! The workout was 4x50m warm up, 4x25m catch up with kick board - one arm, 4x25m catch up with kick board - both arms, 4x25m swim, 4x25m board between legs, 4x25m as 25m breathe every 3 strokes, 25m 5 strokes, 25m 7 strokes, 25m 9 strokes, 100 pull, 25m/50m/75m/100m/75m/50m/25m, 8x25m 1/2 length fast 1/2 easy, 200 easy cool down. Good workout for the swimmers and for me to watch them and do some corrections and make suggestions for them. One thing I keep talking to them about is being efficient whether in the water, on the bike or running. When we get tired a lot of time our form is the first thing to suffer and we work that much harder. I said to one swimmer today that I could tell her arms were getting tired and she agreed. I then suggested she keep her elbows high and not let them drop and keep her form because no matter what, we are going to get tired! No sense making it worse having to fight bad form which could lead to an injury.
I had one new person come out that was interested in joining the club and after the swim we sat down to talk and go over everything and he is signing up! The KW Fighting Koalas has grown again!!
Cheers:)

Weather is getting nice again!

Weather is getting nice again so you know what that means? No not yard work, biking!! Yesterday I did a 50km ride around noon time. Tricky little south-east wind but not too bad. Coming back from Wellesley was a little slower but I think the wind shifted a bit before I made it home. Good ride. Tried to pick up the pace a little bit earlier in ride and I noticed my heart rate was mostly in the upper level of my aerobic threshold. I think I was a little tired still from a late Monday night.
Then it was the Koalas bike practise at 6:30pm. Beautiful night for more biking although it was a tad smelly! A farmer decided it was a good day to spread some manure onto his fields and it was terrible bad...phew. The practise went very well. We did one-legged drills, some super spins, sub-max tempo laps and finally three hill repeats. For the hill repeats the two ladies were talking a wee bit of smack to each other for the title Queen of the Hill! All in fun but maybe in a couple of weeks I will get them to race up the hill?
Afterwards, three of us went for a little after practise refreshment to wash down all the road riding. Nice way to end the day!

Koala Tuesday

Today was back to the pool and three other Koalas joined me for the noon swim. I was tired after going to the Bluejays home opener last night and not getting to bed til midnight and then having to get up at 5am...blah. But I actually felt pretty good in the pool. The main set was 12x50m on 1:02, 10x50m on 0:58, then 8x50m on 0:52. Two of us did this set, the other two did a diffrent set and did very well. Tuesday and Thursdays are usually long course and when I got into a groove at one point it was nice to keep going and not have to flip turn!
Then tonight at 6:30pm was the run practise. Three Koalas showed up to run and they all get gold stars! I'm hoping more of the members come out for this practise in the future because the ones that have been coming out are enjoying the workouts (at least that what they tell me).
In between the practises I was hard at work getting the newsletter out and putting together training plans for three members. Still have one more to finish and I am running out of steam here tonight so I think it best that I finish it tomorrow after a few morning coffees!!

MRI completed on my knee today

MRI completed on my knee today! Pretty simple deal, lay down and they start the machine up and about 20 minutes I was done. Now I wait another seven to ten days for the images to go to the doctor. Then he decides whether or not I need surgery (most likely scoping) and when that is. Wait, wait, wait. I hope I will be able to run this summer at least. I can still swim and bike just fine, just no running.

The Masters

Ok this post has nothing to do with triathlons but i got home today in time to watch the last 6-7 holes of The Masters. For the last few years CBS has laid it on pretty thick which made it hard for me to watch. But the Tiger factor was always lurking, you never knew when he was going to strike and CBS played up to that way too much. This year after the Tigergate, CBS toned it way down and alas, along came Phil Mickelson. The golf he played this weekend was by far some of the most inspired, most emotional golfing I have ever witnessed! Tiger captured my imagination but Mickelson captured my heart! This is why I love sports, for these moments when emotions, heart and skill all come together to make something beautiful and memorial. Thank you Phil Mickelson for showing us (and I think Tiger) in how to be a true champion!

Biking 101 and practice

On a chilly but sunny morning the KW Koalas had a biking 101 session followed by a little biking to Bamberg and back. Thanks to all the members that came out! Nice to see everyone and to give them a chance to meet each other as well.
The biking 101 we talked about the importance of aerobic based training and the huge benefits that come with building a big aerobic engine, especially for newer triathletes. Good to get them all on the same page with my training principles and a chance for them to ask some questions. We then did some basic bike fitting tips that I have learned along the way. These tips are in no way a replacement for a proper bike fit but I find that it gets you pretty close. For sure you need the measurements done before you purchase an expensive bike, you want the right size bike for you! We then went over the stuff you will need to take with you on your bike when you are biking out in the country. Nothing worse then getting a flat without a replacement tube.
Then it was off for a nice little ride in the Bamberg hills. Some of the members have never biked these hills before and they can be tough. The second hill is 12% grade. Not very long but when you are just starting to bike or get into shape it is a nasty little hill!
All in all a fun day! I am really looking forward to coaching the current group of Koalas into the spring and summer and race season!

Todays swim session

Today for Koalas hit the noon swim at WLU pool! Nice to see the members coming out this week. I especially liked the main workout that we did after a 3x200m warm up we did 100m pull, 4x25m on 0:25, 100m pull, 4x25m on 0:25, 100m pull, 4x25m on 0:25, 100m pull then 100m fast! I did it in 1:27, not bad not great. 100m pull, 100 kick then 2x100m easy. I then did a little more swimming with the other members in "Catch the coach"! Such fun :) Nice to see the ladies in the club getting out to swim and not feel intimidated by us guys..lol. Not very likely. Hopefully next week I see more of the members out for the noon swims and the scheduled Saturday swim at noon.
After the swim I heading over to the coffee shop to meet up with a potential new Koalas member! He is in university and will be finished in a couple of weeks so I invited him out for tomorrow mornings biking 101 practise and after he is done his exams will we get him started on some serious training. These young guys are great because I can really torture him even worse than I do with my buddy and they recover so much quicker then us old guys. Seriously though, endurance, skill development and consistent training is the key. Get him on the right path now and it will pay off for years to come.
Up next for tomorrow is the Biking 101 practice! Just hope it warms up and the wind dies down because it is cold and windy out today...brrrr.

Last nights bike practise and bad weather

Last night I had one member saying no go to the bike because it was raining, another saying no after I talked to them and it was raining, so I sent out an email to all the members cancelling the practise due to rain. Well one member did not get the email in time but two other chose to go out and bike anyways! Gold stars have been requested and now awarded via the KW Triathlon blog to the three keeners biking in the rain. I did post on the webpage that bike practise would be cancelled if it is raining at the start time. Geezz! Well...who am I to complain or criticize about biking in the rain. What the members did not know is that I did 30km ride earlier in the day and it was wet with off and on sprinkles..lol :) Next time I promise to at least come out to the practise to see if anyone comes on, bad coach bad!

Mondays

After taking Sunday off for some much needed R&R I was back at it today. I just had to relax and enjoy some sunshine yesterday in the backyard, too nice to pass up. So today was an hour swim at WLU. Mostly drills and 50s but felt tired. Then a few hours later I did a half hour indoor spin. I guess I'm tired so that's OK. Tonight I was working on and finishing two new athlete programs! Lots of work for sure and now its time for them to get into action! So now I think I will go to bed and read for awhile then go to sleep. Goodnight all!

Southern winds

Today was another beautiful warm albeit windy day. South winds of 24 to 35km/h made for a very warm April day, 26c. My friend and Koalas member Brent (seen here in the picture, all yellow) and I biked out to Milverton and back. We started out not 100% sure which direction we were going and just let our bikes take us down the road. So Milverton it was which worked out good because we were able to stop at the local convenience store for food and drinks for the ride back. The ride back is when we encountered the southern winds. Not full on but more of a cross wind. I was very much watching my heart rate and keeping in my training zone while also keeping my cadence high.

So if I was in a gearing where the heart rate started to climb out of the zone I would gear down. Here are my stats from today's ride. Total distance was 81.4kms, average pace 27.2km/h, average heart rate 134, calories burned 2343, average cadence 95. Very happy with this ride as most of my riding time was in zone 2, felt strong uphill and into the wind. Also is was so warm and sunny how can you complain for April 3rd!

27c!

Good Friday and it is 27c outside! So the three of us did a nice bike ride today through Bamberg and down Sandhills Rd which was pretty much into the wind of 20+ km/h from the s/w. The s/w wind made from some tricky cross winds along Sandhills and not as much of a tailwind as I thought we would get. One of our riders had smashed his knee at work earlier in the week and started to feel it hurt part way through. We slowed down to not leave him miles behind and my overall pace was only a little over 25 km/h with a low average heart rate, which was totally fine with me as I was still feeling tired from the previous day.
Very lucky too have this type of weather this early in the year and if the rest of the weekend is this nice I will get out again tomorrow and Sunday. Last year I did over 3000 kms of outdoor riding and I plan to get as much early season outdoor mileage as I can. I must say though that I did have a really nice power nap after I got home!
Tomorrow morning I will be going to meet another person that wants to sign up for the club, and a referral from a new member (you know who you are), thank you!

Yesterdays bike practise and another new member!

Yesterday, Wednesday March 31st at 6:30pm the Koalas had our bike practise. We start at the parking lot of Rim Park and then into Country Squire subdivision. We worked on high cadence spinning, single leg spinning, a few laps of tempo riding just below lactate threshold (or so we tried to anyways) and 3 hill repeats before a nice cool down spin back to the parking lot. Four members made it out and everyone thought it was a good drill practise with some challenging laps and then the hill climbing. I was very happy with how everyone responded to the practise and most of all pleased with the location. The subdivision is roughly a one kilometer loop which pretty much keeps us all together as a group. We did get spread out a little bit but nothing so bad where a rider felt like they were left behind!
I scouted out this location last fall in hopes of having the early season bike practise here for that very reason, no one likes to get left behind! As a rider it has happened to me a few times and I have left a couple riders behind, which is ok if you know that and you are good with that scenario. Many are not and within the club structure I want to avoid this if possible.
Same with the run practise on Tuesday nights. They are at Waterloo park and the road inside the park is about one kilometer as well, perfect!
This week two new members have signed up and after our bike session last night our newest member (you know who you are!) officially signed up! I am very happy to meet both of them and look forward to the training and coaching and racing with them this upcoming season.
No swim practise for me today unfortunately. I will be thinking of those members that do make it out for a swim as tomorrow is Good Friday and the pool is closed. Our Saturday swim is also not on this weekend, but, the weather is supposed to be great so LETS GO BIKING!!!

Now I'm getting stoked!

Now I'm getting stoked! Another person emailed me today and wants to sign up to the KW Fighting Koalas! So exciting and now keeping me busy. Today was swim at noon at WLU pool, long course edition. The main set was 6x50m on 1:02, 6x50m on 0:58, 6x50m on 1:02, and 6x50m on 0:52. If you push too hard on this set you will suffer, but if you pace yourself you get a nice little breather and go again, and again. I then hurried home and confirmed a meeting for tomorrow after the bike practise, the interested person said she can make it out to the bike practise and then we will sign her up! Woohoo!!
Then tonight at 6:30pm was our run practise at Waterloo Park. Amy Mausser startes the pracise and I came a little later and showed them a few drills. These drills are easy to learn but a little harder to master them. They are definitely worth doing and incorporated into any type of run. Same with the bike practise tomorrow. Drills and biking skills. So much fun being a coach and teaching people these new drills and skills and seeing them progress. I can not wait until race season and the club championships at Guelph Lakes 1 June 19th and 20th.

Busy Monday!

This morning I was busy doing emails and getting my daily schedule ready. I have been doing a daily schedule more recently and I am finding it very helpful to get stuff finished that I need to get finished. Otherwise my mind will wander and start thinking about stuff like bikes or poker or reading or oh wait a pretty girl walking on the street...lol!
Todays email was to OAT. I then received some great news that they are going to allow the Fighting Koalas to compete in the club championships in Guelph Lake 1 this June 19 and 20th! KW Fighting Koalas also received our confirmation that we are now affiliated with OAT! Huge step forward for my club and the Koalas as a whole. I am planning on getting a group campsite set up at Guelph Lake for the weekend for my club for all members and their families. Really looking forward to the weekend!
Then it was off to the pool for noon swim. Other triathletes swim on Monday and they all kind of swim together. Me, I was doing my own swim but swam close to them and was able to get some good pacing. My main set was 3x400m and 6x100m. The focus was to swim to a target time of 6:40 for the 400 and 1:35 for the 100. I swam 6:55, 7:00 and 7:05. I felt ok in the water though even if I was off my pace time. For the 100's I was around 1:40-1:42. Hard set and it was really the first time this year I have done a big 400 set.
I then debated of either an indoor spin for 30 minutes or an easy outdoor 1 hour ride. I opted for the 30 minute spin due to time constraints. The rest of this week the weather is suppose to be sunny and warm! Nice for biking and getting members out for the Tuesday run and Wednesday bike practice this week. Tomorrow is another busy day as we have our noon swim then the 6:30pm run practice.
Swim fast, bike hard and run like the wind!

Koalas Saturday swim

Today was the KW Koalas Saturday swim practice 12 to 1pm at WLU pool. Good session, nice to be able to really work on some of the members stroke mechanics. I definitely need to purchase a video camera so I can take video of their strokes and then be able to show them right away. The next two Saturdays we do not have Saturday swim and for the next practice I will bring my laptop to show them Mr.Smooth. Really nice to see them improve in the water and get fitter over these last few months. Consistent training focusing on skill development while building endurance.
I then got home and had to do an indoor biking session. I think I could of rode outside today, mind you it is really cold with that wind. Ended up doing a nice bike session, more of a recovery ride with some super spins. Hit 185 on the cadence metre today and that is a new high. Yesterday I was able to swim 1:28 100m and then the rest around 1:33. Off to shower and a bite to eat then to a kids birthday party! Fun, fun, fun!!

Ziggys 25th Anniversary!

Last night my friends and I went to Ziggys cycle shops 25th Anniversary. I have been going there for bike tune ups and repairs and to buy bike accessories for 5-6 years now and there have been alot of changes. The changes lately have been great, more customer focused than before. Margaret, seen here posing with me on the left, has been tireless in rebuilding the shops reputation. Last night was a great example with free food, free beer and wine (which I got my fair share of last night!) and door prizes. This is a good story with the door prizes as when I put my name into the draw I told my friends that I was going to win a prize. Sure enough they called my name! Well I sure got my in your face game on then didn't I!! I ended up picking out a camelback hydration system, very nice indeed! Brent, Scott, eat your heart out....hahahahaha:)

Seen here in the picture is the new Giant Trinity TT bike, fully carbon fibre frame, forks, seat tube and aerobars. Plus wireless gear shifters, very cool bike! The two companies that I've seen this year making a huge investment in there triathlon bikes has been Giant and Quintana Roo. I didn't ask how much this particular bike went for but I'm thinking at least 10k, if not more. Bravo Ziggy's and well done on the party even if I did drink too much wine!

March 23rd

The day that was. We had our swim session at WLU today and 4 members came out. Included was our newest member and one that hasn't been out for awhile due to a death in the family. Long course swimming is always like truth serum. What I mean by that is whenever you swim the 50 metres as opposed to the 25 metres, having a good stroke technique comes to the fore front. You can get away with some mistakes swimming 25 metres as you get to push off the wall twice as much, not in long course. It is easier for your stroke to brake down as your set goes on.
Having the newest member out today I was able to watch her swim and noticed right away that she has had some swimming background as a youngster. Pretty easy to spot the swimmers that have had the early training versus those that haven't. Now it is just a matter of building up her endurance because after 30 minutes she was tired. Me, 30 minutes and I am just warming up some days!
Then later on in the day I went and met and signed up another new member. He is a funeral director and I met him at the funeral home! It is what it is and he is a nice guy, very genuine and I am looking forward to working with him and getting to know him better. He is very keen to train and do a try-a-tri to start, then do 1 or 2 sprint races this summer. Should be fun! I told him I definitely am going to set up a campsite at Guelph Lake 1 triathlon for the weekend for the KW Fighting Koalas. Pretty much all of us will be racing their that weekend and it will be a good social thing for us, bring out our families as well and have some fun!
Lastly, it was supposed to be our first official run practice at 6:30pm at Waterloo Park but no one showed up:) Three people told me they could not make it but didn't hear from the others. In talking to other people that have shown interest in the club they always ask what practices does the club have. Well we do have the swimming and now I have scheduled a run and bike practice so lets hope the members can make it out! I am really excited about the practices and coaching everyone.
Cheers!

What a busy week!

What a busy week! I just got finished working on my new athletes programs. These are usually the hardest ones to figure out with their schedules, weaknesses, where they are at etc. Once this first 4 week program is in place we can build form there. I was able to get a bike workout in today before supper in between working on the two new programs. Did a 50min indoor spinerval workout and worked it pretty hard to try and boost up my HR. I did max out at 176 which is almost maxed out for me. I really focused on base training this winter on the bike and now it is time to build on this fitness with some higher intensity workouts.
So now I can relax a little bit and get ready for this next week of training, coaching and meeting two potentially new members. More work but I love it!! So much fun and I cant wait until the whole club gets out for practices and then into the race season to see all of my athletes reach and surpass their goals!

Swim Clinic

Today was our swim clinic which was coached by Dean Boles. Seven people signed up and all really enjoyed the session. I appreciated their enthusiasm and taking the time to come out. Other than a little mix up with the pool, everything went great! It has being a busy week with two new members signing up and two more potential athletes next week! Lots of work to finish off this weekend with the two new training plans to get done by Sunday. Doing the athlete questionnaire before hand is priceless when it comes to making up their plans. I really get a good sense of where they are at with amount of time available, which days are better or worse for them, their strengths and weaknesses.
I think the biggest item I can stress to everyone is skill development. There is an old saying that its not practice makes perfect but perfect practice makes it perfect! Can we attain perfect? Of course not but what we can strive for is to be the best that we can be. I myself have improved my swimming, ex: my 200m times early this year were around 3:25 to 3:30 range now i can bang off a easy 200 in 3:19! Ive gone as quick at 3:12! But for me the biggest improvement comes with the ease with which I am swimming and will soon do a 750m time trial to see where I am at.
Getting out for biking this past week was really nice especially with the great we've been having. Riding a Blue T12 TT bike now and have been making a few adjustments to the bike. Nothing major but a little tweak here and there so I can feel comfortable and strong and fast! Also getting used to the gears as my old bike was only an eight speed and now I am riding a 10 speed! Little bit of a learning curve but I believe if I ride it for another 2-3 weeks I should start to feel very comfortable in it. Unfortunately today the weather turned cold so no riding today.

KW Koalas is taking off!

Alright! Happy to report the person signed up last night and is our newest Koala! I then have a meeting with another person tonight and one next week, woohoo! Keep it coming and growing.
Finally got the Blue triathlon bike out yesterday for a 50km ride. It is going to take a few rides to get used to it and get it dialed in properly. Nice ride though with the carbon fibre forks and seat post to help absorb some of the chatter from the rough roads. Gorgeous day out for riding as is today St Patricks Day!
This Saturday is our eagerly awaited swim clinic! It is at WLU pool and starts at 11am and goes to 12:30. Great session to hone up on your swimming skills and technique for the upcoming triathlon season. As a coach, I have been focusing on skill development early on along with endurance building. Really important to build that aerobic engine up properly for the rigors of the harder training sessions and racing to come lter on in the spring/summer. Many times triathletes will get out there and hammer away time after time and eventually will have some type of injury and/or overtraining symptom show up. I know I have fallen into that trap and its not pretty.
Have a great St.Pattys day!!

New club member!

Great news as we will be adding a new member to the KW Fighitng Koalas! Nice to see the interest is still out there and the word is spreading.
Yesterday I almost got my friends Blue triathlon bike to use. Almost until we ran into some rear hub problems. No rush though as the weather does not look too good for the next few days and I will be indoor riding anyways. Excited to get out on the road with the Blue to see how much of a difference it makes, if any. It feels pretty good when I sit in the saddle and fits me very close. I was also able to do coach a run session with my athlete and witnessed instant changes! Now when he goes for a run he will insert these run drills that I showed him to incorporate the muscle memory.
After I was finished with this I went to the pool for a swim session and ran another athlete through a practice. Hard to swim later on in the evening but it was a good session. So far an exciting week for the club, adding members and getting some good workouts in! Now into the weekend!

Todays workouts

After missing my workouts on Monday and Tuesday I got back into the pool today. Did 1:15 swim for 3100m. The best part was doing 5x200ms all around 3:18, 10 seconds faster than Saturdays 200m repeats! The quickest 200m was 3:12 as I was feeling the water very good. One of my athletes swam with me and held on for the first 3 200's then tailed way off, so I knew he was finished. He has progressed hugely in the swim in two months. Still lots of work but great to see the improvement!
I then got home and did a 45 minute indoor spin in my heart rate zone with an average cadence of 93. Now I am starving! Also, I have another athlete who is interested in joining the club after swimming with us today, cool! And then tonight I will be doing a review for another of my athletes for the next segment of his training. Fun stuff indeed! I love coaching and training, live the life!

First outdoor bike of the season!

Nothing better to reinvigorate the training than to finally get outside for the first bike ride of the season! On a beautiful sunkissed day I did a 50km ride. It was only 5C and the wind was about 20km/h from the west so I was going into the wind for the first half of the ride. I felt pretty good climbing the Bamberg hills and was able to regulate my heart rate fairly effectively. On the way back had the wind at my back now and was of course much easier, 20 minutes quicker in fact! Now I can not wait until I am able to use my friends Blue triathlon bike this year. He does not like it for some reason and is going to let me use it. It pretty much fits me but I will make sure it does and then get some nice riding on it. Lots of other bikers out taking advantage of the nice weather, good to see. Bike on!!

Koalas swim and other training.

Only myself made it out for the Koalas swim but was joined by my friend and sometimes assistant coach. All the other members did not show up. I knew a couple probably would not make it out and was not sure of the others. But I had a good swim and the main set was 6x200m on 3:30. I averaged 3:27 without overdoing it. My friend was cranking it out much better with his last 200m at 3:00, and that was with a pull buoy and a band!
I then was able to try out my new bike shoes and riding bib that I bought at the bike show yesterday. The shoes gave me a completely different feel on the bike. My feet felt a lot more stable and the power transfer was more pronounced. The bib may not work out as I don't like anything tight across my stomach. The pants part feels very comfortable though. This week I have done three sessions on the bike for a half hour each time and my knee is holding up OK. Tomorrow I plan on doing a longer session.

Toronto International Bike Show

Today four of us made the ride to Toronto to the bike show. I took 5 pictures of some of the more exotic triathlon bikes that I saw there. As you can see they are also very colorful! Great looking bikes and being a beautiful sunny day out really made me feel like taking one of these bikes and going for a nice ride along the lakeshore! I am sure that today was a great day for all the businesses set up for sales today.
The Glacier bikes are fairly new bikes unto the scene. The people at the booth were very nice and full of excitement for their bikes. The Dura-ace bike is fairly new to bike frames as they are better known for their bike components. The Argon 18 is a very slick bike indeed. On this model is wireless gear changing, very cool. I think in a few years that will be the norm. Big fan of the Zipp rims as well. The flashy blue bike is a Specialized. I find Specialized an interesting bike with the top tube being on a slight downward angle towards the seat post. Never ridden one but would love to try it out.
Lastly is a new Quintana Roo set up with SRAM rims and components. Quintana Roo was the original triathlon bike maker but over the years have fallen behind to companies like Cervelo. But in the past couple of years have made a comeback and if this bike performs anything like the way it looks, they may have a winner! Did I but one? Sadly no. But I did buy some very nice Specialized bike shoes at a big discount and a biking bib for $10! Also a pair of sunglasses with interchangable lenses for $25, regular price at $50. So great deals there if you can find them and know what you are looking for.
My friends bought lots of stuff as well. Two Specialized bike frames, bike shoes, bibs, bike shirts, two bike trainers, and sunglasses. Busy day of spending money for we all had fun. If it is as warm tomorrow as it was today I definitely may try an hour ride outside for sure.
Happy riding!

My first blog post!

So exciting! This is my first blog post for KW Triathlon. I am the owner and head coach of the recently newly formed Kitchener-Waterloo Fighting Koalas triathlon club!
We currently have four members who I coach. I have designed each of them an individual training plan based on their strenghts and weaknesses and what their goals are. You can have all the science behind triathlon coaching you want but I believe in taking a step further , what I call the "artwork" of coaching. No two people are the same. What works for me may not work for you. What works for the pros may not work for a newbie.
The members that I currently have all need lots of work in the pool if they are to do a few races this summer. I have booked the WLU pool on Saturdays at 12 to 1pm but not every Saturday due to swim meets etc. We are now also doing Tuesday and Thursday swim session at the Rec centre pool. This week one of my members had made it out to both days as he can not make it out this Saturday. When we started just a few short weeks ago he was having a hard time swimming one lap, but now is progressing very nicely and even started to do flip turns today! Too funny. (Now to get him to be more consistent with the rest of his training!).
Here is todays workout: 4x50m warm up - 15sec rest, 2x100 single arm with kickboard and 4x25 counting strokes, 8x50m on 1min, 2x100m pull, 8x50m on 55 sec, 200 swim, 4x 50 ez cool down = 1600m. This was a challenging set for my member to do and he did very well. For me it was pretty easy but I really am focusing on my technique right now, feeling for the water, nice pulls underwater and finding my sweet spot of cadence and DPS and time. I firmly believe that this time of year is perfect for triathletes to really work hard on their form and effeciency in the water as opposed to hammering away huge sets. Trust me they will come and I have found over the years of racing that it does not do me any good to do huge sets this time of year. That and work on other strokes! I love to mix in some butterfly and backstroke in IM sets, something most triathletes loathe to do. Why is that?
Anyways, I then came home and did a nice 30 min spin on the bike at an easy resistance. im still a little gun shy about my hurt right knee that will probably need to get scoped later on thius year. The MRI is scheduled for April 12th and I will know more then. But needless to say I have not run since last October and on nice sunny days like today I sure do miss getting out for a nice run.
Tomorrow we are off to the Toronto International bike show and I will post show pics of all the cool bikes and bike stuff I find!