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.