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!