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!!!