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!