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.