The Long Strange Trip It Is.

May 17th - rode xbike (1hr), terrible weather and no motivation

 

 

May 15th - stayed up late watching the Bruins get put out in Game 7 last night

 

May 14th - steady brook "recreational" 15km TT... crazy windy going out and brutal coming back, time for the TT was (24:19) I think, two minutes slower than my best in July 2006, legs did not have strength... times vary from race to race there because of wind... total ride (1hr30min).

 

May 13th - rode with kb, insanely windy... ran into some major stomach issues and had to call it a day after (60min), the angle position takes a bit of getting used to, not a fun day.

 

May 12th - got my TTbike out, season #5 for it.... probably close to 20,000kms on it now but it's still riding fine... rode (1hr30min) to the farm and back the hill, a handful of hard 1min efforts and some alternating big gear/high cadence.

 

May 11th - rode xbike (1hr50min, 2'c) out towards the farm in and all around humber village and back via the hill.

 

May 10th - in lspte all weekend for a wedding, drove home through a terrible spring snowstorm

 

May 7th - rode to the farm and back via the hill on xbike... did 8x1min hard with 3min rest in between mid-ride... total time (1hr40min)

 

May 6th - rode same circle route up highway and back via Allen's rd solo on xbike (1hr35min).... started to rain during the last 10mins or so then it poured soon after getting home.... strange wind tonight, blowing towards irishtown, meant for headwind along Griffen dr.

 

May 5th - rode same route as last night but added in massey dr. climb (1hr40min), all climbs seated and cranked the last section along griffen drive spinning at over 120.... streched a tonne... bringing skinny back... temps in the mid-50s again.

 

May 4th - rode solo on xbike (1hr35min) out riverside to man-in-mtn up hill to ringroad and back via Curling-Allen's Rd... temps in 50's and just knee warmers and no belaclava, super windy though.

 

May 3rd - rode solo on xbike in the pouring rain for (50min) before calling it a day.... out to man-in-mtn and up hill, back thru town

 

Been able to get in about 800-1000kms of cyclocross riding which was pretty good for april in NL.  Getting in 1-3 runs/week of the 6-8km LSD variety due to the foot issue and I don't think I got in the pool once because pushing off the wall causes a lot of toe pain.  Anyhow, glad cycling is pain free.  Got engaged on April 23rd to my american girl and hopefully she'll be moved up and settled by August.  Hope to get in 1000-1200kms in may on the bike.

 

 

SC is boldly trying to guilt me back into "serious" training.  For all the lurkers that have lurked there way on here via lurking on Scott's site, if you know me and are wondering I'm still running 5x week and starting to get some riding on the cyclocross, however, I developed an arthritic condition called Hallux Rigidus in my left big toe that's limiting the amount of training I can do and is causing me a lot of pain.  Getting a steriod injection next week and surgery in the spring/summer.  Major bummer for me but whatdaya do.... aside from that I'm working lots and a certified rockstar. 

 

Jan 19th -  ran in horriawful conditions (40min) after work in the dark and then got to spin class for (50min).  Probably worth mentioning that it was my first time on my bike since Sept/Oct

 

Jan 18th - ran (1hr)..... crazy amounts of snow

 

Back after a long training log layoff.  Haven't been doing a tonne of exercise, averaged 3-4 runs/wk and 2-3 workouts/wk over the duration.  Was traveling around a lot, montreal for a bit and then stuck in halifax for 3days/nights on the return trip. Sister&bf were in the city for the last two weeks.  It's -15'c here today and running in the evenings has been really dodgy because of the darkness and narrow snowcovered roads.

 

 

Dec 1st - swam at noon (1500min, 30min)...... ran(1hr00min) with kb and jp, holy rain... felt 1000x better than last night.

 

Nov 30th - terrible hangover..... ran with kb (50mins?), felt like death.

 

Nov 29th - ran (45min) prior to the Pasadena Beer Mile, which I reclaimed my crown (and a homemade trophy courtesy of the PBM organizers) after completing the course in 6min49.7seconds... exact time (give or take 0.7 seconds) as my first beer mile two months ago.

 

Nov 28th - ran at noon with kb (50min).... played rec hockey after work, first time I'd opend my hockey bag since January and my gear was still wet... pretty nasty.

 

Nov 27th - swam at noon but my shoulder was bothering me so only (1000m, 20min)... then too zonked (read:lazy) to do anything after work. 

 

Nov 26th - weights at noon (50min), squating 185lbs two sets of 12 - buff wha?..... ran solo in the evening (40min, freezing)

 

Nov 25th - swam (1st time in 2mths) at noon (1500m, 40min), felt fine for the first 1000m but then it got ugly....... ran after work with kb (1hr000min).

 

Nov 24th - ran after work with kb (50min, -5'C).... went to the Y and did a (40min) weights circuit.

 

Nov 23rd - nada, drove back to C.Brk from St. John's and finally got to move into my new house.

 

Nov 22nd - rockstar night last night, didn't hit the hay until 8am Saturday morning.

 

Nov 21st - final Bar exam today, then soundcheck and post-exam party, then we (the Stynx) played  at the Republic

 

Nov 20th - ran (45min) and weights (40min) 

 

Nov 19th - ran (20min) on the treadmill, did a speed set but was having some serious chaffage, so I did (40min) circuit of weights.

 

Nov 18th - ran up over signal hill and around quidi vidi (50min)

 

Nov 17th - ran (30min)... weights (20min) at lunch

 

Nov 16th - ran for (1hr) around airport heights in some pretty shitty weather.

 

 

Nov 6th - crammed another run from downtown out around Quidi Vidi again at noon hour (40min).

Nov 5th - crammed a (40min) run in at noon and did weights (40min) at the end of the day.

Nov 4th - ran (40mins) in the dark at 4:45pm

Nov 3rd - nothing again, unless jamming until 3am with some fellas counts.
 

Nov 2nd - trying to cram criminal law into a brain that has little-to-no interest in criminal law whatsoever.....could've squeezed a run in but with the clocks going back and the pre-5pm darkness I gave in to laziness.

 

 

 

 
Oct. 25th - ran (60min).... sunny day in St. John's (worth mentioning)

Oct. 24th - got to the gym for a (40min) circuit, played with Stynx at westside charlie's... first stop of the world tour.

Oct. 23rd - ran at noon from downtown, up signal hill and over the hill to quidi vidi back around the pond... caught wearing shorts in crazy blowing snow on top of signal hill, (50min, 0'C).

 

Oct 22 (2008) - got to the gym for (40min) at noon and did (45mins) of running at the end of the day.

 

Oct. 22, 2007 - Got the train from the coast and got here in nairobi around noon.  I was grabbing a soda in a small cafe before I headed off to the bus station....had my travel bag on the table and a local guy most've noticed the tiny canadian flag on it and came over and asked me where in canada i was from; that's pretty normal, everybody comes up to me and tells me they've got a family member in vancouver or toronto.....anyhow, this guy asks me if I know anything about the University of Guelph because he is going there next year to study.  I thought that was cool given that not many people in canada even know about that university and I admitted that ya, I did know about it, and that I knew it had a really strong reputation for research - which it does, a prof there helped me with my thesis.  He tells me that he has been doing his Doctrate with the help of a professor at Guelph and one at McGill and asks me about how they compare to european and american schools, tuition costs, etc. 
 
Anyhow, great conversation, well spoken guy.  He then proceeds to tell me that he's trying to get to canada as soon as possible because he is from Zimbabwe and was part of the student organization at the university there that had been blacklisted by ZANU-PF (Robert Mugabe's party) for supporting opposition parties and that he can't get asylum from Kenya because of their failure to recognize Mugabe as the brutal dictator he is and won't grant anyone from Zimbabwe refugee status or work visas.  Anyhow, I had just been reading a long feature the economist had been doing on mugabe and how poor off he's made Zimbabwe while on was on the train so the whole story did catch my interest.  Anyhow, the story went on for another minute and he got to the point that because he could get a work visa he couldn't raise the money he needed....blah blah blah, at this point I was losing sympathy for him by the second because i get asked for money about 30 times a day wherever I go here just because I'm white, but nonetheless gave him a couple dollars so I could shut him up and I could be on my way; the story, true or not was well told and I didn't mind giving him a couple bucks, leave things with a smile.....hell, it could well have been legit, University of Guelph. 
 
Anyhow, now the story gets interesting.  We walk out of the cafe and go seperate directions....moments later a dude in a black suit grabs my arm and starts walking with me saying, "who was that man?"....."how do you know that man?"...."we've been tracking that individual for a week"...."what were you doing with him"....."did you give that man anything?"....with that question the whole thing clicks together, oh fuck, I gave money to a criminal to help him flee prosecution in this country.  "you know that this man is a fugitive criminal who is guilty of capital crimes in his country, we consider him a terrorist at large"....He flashes his ID at me and tells me that he works for the federal ministry of interior affairs and that we need to discuss everything that I talked about the man with.....another well dressed man comes up to us and reports that the suspect has been taken into custody and will be at the police headquarters.  FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, I'm saying to myself, I should've found out where the CDN Embassey was so I could make a run for it....this is going to be a goddam mess.  Anyhow, the two plainclothes officers walk me about 5mins down the street and pull me into a restaurant where we sit down and things get hush-hush as we discuss the meeting I'd had with the man....Before we sat down I politely asked to see his ID again and he gets serious and tells me to shut-up and that I'm potentially guilty of a very serious offence......at this point, probably because I'm not used to getting told to "shut-up", I got the feeling that something wasn't right.  Over the next couple minutes of questioning I start to slowly wrap my head around the massively well articulated scam that I'm being roped in to....  anyhow, one of the dudes in a suit asks to see my passport and I tell him that I want to see his ID first, when he flashes it I grab it from him and find that it's just a kenyan drivers license.  Anyhow, I told them I was going to the cops and walked out of the restaurant.....didn't go to the cops.... it was my own fault.  Feel like a bit of a dope, but man, they were running a really solid show.....if I saw the first guy who was playing the fugitive I'd be more inclined to shake his hand than punch him in the face, that's how good he was good at his "friendly" role.....the two "officers" would get pushed into rush-hour traffic if I saw them right now.
 
Pretty elaborate scam though, I've been putting together the play-by-play that the three guys were doing to pull it off.....first guys spots a white guy with a canadian flag, break out the university of guelph/mcgill story, if he bites on that he probably is well-informed enough to be sympathic to all Zimbabwans so use that Mugabe dictator story, take a quick bathroom break (and call the "officers" to give them the details), come back to the table get as much money on this sobstory from the canuck as possible.....leave the restaurant, lead him right to the "officers" who proceed to scare the shit out of the new foreigner with the prospect of spending time in a kenyan jail for adding and abetting "terrorism".  Try to steal his passport and probably everything else.

Nairobi, aka Nairobbery for good reason.  I've been laughing about this whole thing but I must admit it did shake me up a bit.  Made a point to stay around the streets today just so I don't have a bad impression of the place.....fuck though, leaves a bit of a bitter taste in your mouth.  Heading to Uganda on the bus tomorrow, enough of the big city. I wanted to tell you about Nairobi first though given our "spiritual connection" with the place.  Take care Dadeeoo.  -Hanner

 

 

Oct 21st - ran at noon on the treadmill (40min) and did a weight circuit (40min) after class.

 

Oct 20th - did a 3.5hr family law exam and planned for a run afterward but opted for a big bag of chips, a couple beers and a mccain pizza.

 

Oct 19th - studying all day but did manage to drag myself out for a (45min) run.

 

 

*Nerd Disclaimer:* I'm not really a big follower of the Nobel prize winners, but Paul Krugman won this week and I've been a fan (reference nerd disclaimer) for a long time, dude (really) knows his shit.

 

Oct 18th - ran (45min) up around airport heights and then went to the gym for a (40min) circuit.

 

Oct 17th - nothing, our lunch break was cut short and had a major jam that evening with the boys.

 

Oct 16th -  weights at nooon (40min) and then ran from quidi vidi up around to signal hill (40min).... doing a lot more stretching and post-workout recovery than I have in a long while and it seems to really be helping me with my joint issues, taking 4 omega3 capsules/day, eating an avocado or something fatty after workouts along with lots of streching and self-massage.

 

Oct 15th - good weight circuit at noon (40mins) and then a (40min) run right after class.... my "new" 1998 CR-V definetly needs a new battery as it completely died while I was sitting with the radio on for a couple minutes after the run making a phone call.  St. John's weather really blows, perhaps it's like this in Corner Brook too but irregardless, 5'C with overcast and 30-40km/hr winds does nothing for my motivation to exercise.

 

Oct 14th - got my ass handed to me by my first bar exam (6 to go), had my running gear with me but someone mentioned going for a beer post-exam and I was all over it.  Sat around watching way too much t.v. but did catch an awesome interview on BBC, this guy knows his shit.

 

Oct 13th - nothing, studying for a bar exam.... I fully aware that exercise is supposed to be helpful to stimulate studying, 7yrs of university i've been aware of this fact and never can I find the motivation.

 

Oct 12th - ran (1hr35min) from the heights down around quidi vidi and back up (underestimated how much uphill there was by a longshot)

 

 

Oct 10th - went to the gym during noon break for (40min) ran 20min on the treadmill with 5x30s at 10mph.... not the greatest workout in the world but it's better than nothing.

 

Oct 9th - went to the gym at noon and once through a circuit and a lot of stretching/abs (40min).... ran (40min) after work.

 

Oct 8th - got a membership across the street at nubody's and got to the gym at noon (40min)... went back to the gym in the evening to run because it was 0'C and blowing about 35km/hr, ran for about 10min before my left leg felt completely lifeless, not sure the exact problem right now, it definetly has something to do with the bone on my foot that I'm having major issues with... got xrays last week and have appointments with an ortho surgeon and a pediatrist, problem is that I can't hyperextend my big toe the nomral amount and i'm being forced to run off the outside of my foot.  Been a problem off and on for the last 2yrs but now is causing me some real issues.

 

Oct 7th - started my BarAds course today, 9-5 classwork down on water street....got in a short (40min) run around Quidi Vidi lake.

 

Oct 6th - drove into St.John's and got settled in.

 

Oct 5th - didn't get the ferry off Little Bay Islands until around 6pm, drove to Lewisporte for the night.

 

Sept 27th - ran solo (45min) then headed out to S'ville to drop off some steel for wayne and to see my grandma... always plan to drop in on grandma without her knowing i'm coming so she won't prepare a huge meal for me, never fails though and she ends up feeding me.... left her place yesterday after having gorged myself on nearly a loaf of homemade bread, coleslaw, ribs and some crazy good dessert.
 

Sept 26th - ran in the evening solo (55mins).

 

Sept 25th - total write off, work related.... learned that cigarette filters are flammable last night at kjb's.

 

Sept 24th - woke up around 6am this morning for 6:30 swim squad but then remembered that the pool was under repairs; t'was 2'C and raining outside so I opted for a trip to the gym, solid (30min) workout circuit..... ran after work (65mins) with kent and jim..... bought the house I looked at last night. 

 

Sept 23rd - woke myself up at 5am 'cause for some reason I was dreaming that my realtor was skimming me on her commissions and I couldn't shake it from my head.... got up and went for a short run (30min) in the 2'C morning weather, first time not wearing shorts in a long time.... went for a good run with jim in the evening (55min) and then saw what hopefully will be my new house in the evening.... there's a 72yr old widow living there right now, hence the enormous amount of dated furniture but she's got the place in great shape... gotta love NL real estate $wise, get a 3 bedroom house downtown for less than half the price of a <900sq' condo in downtown calgary.

 

Sept 22nd - swam (2000scm, 45min) 15x100 on 1:50, felt as horrible as I ever have after not having been in the water for a good while; got better as I got near the last ones.... after work (50min) house hunting run.... finally sold the condo in calgary, turned out to be a "solid" 18month investment instead of an "incredible" one given that I didn't get my initial list price, regardless, it was an interesting investment - both financially and otherwise.

 

Sept 21st - got to bed around 4am and had a hard time getting any sleep, got up at 9:30am and headed down to run "Bob's Half-Marathon"..... decided to run the whole thing at an easy pace with kent.... run time was (2hrs-ish) easy pace.

 

Sept 20th - joyce's last day at work yesterday so I signed on for SpiritFest, $30 for all you can drink mixed drinks put off by the NL Liquor Corporation, t'was a time.... napoleon.

 

Sept 19th - had a couple beers at the office at the end of the day and that effectively ended my plans to go for a run.... back on the train next week.

 

Sept 18th - didn't feel like doing anything but didn't want to sit around the house all evening so I went to the gym and did weights for the first time since 2004 when I was still at St. FX.... felt good and I'll try to get in there a couple times a week for the next while... did sets of 15, chest, biceps, back, abs, tris, squats, shoulders.

 

Sept 17th - ran (1hr05min) with kb and jim.... put an offer on a house on Elswick Rd. in Corner Brook today; it's in a great area about 2minutes walk from work... needs a lot of work but I've got the time.

 

Sept 16th - ran after work with kb, jim and tb.. (1hr05min) easy.

 

Sept 15th - nothing much besides work, pretty zonked.

 

Sept 14th - had a 4-5hr hike out of the woods.... 42kms-ish hiked in total.

 

 

 

Sept 13th - rained through the night but it'd stopped by morning... took our time getting out of camp... we were rolling by 10:30am and after a long day of hiking we got to camp 2 without too much difficulty on a flat section of a river.

 

Sept 12th - got the 1pm ferry (only one this time of year) at Western Brook and got dropped off at the trailhead.... made it to camp 1 on a fair size pond about 5hrs later, got the Gros Morne money shot... weather was pretty decent, no rain, not too warm... KB has some serious issues with his vertigo going up the steep sections, got through it though.

 

Sept 11th - headed up to Rocky Harbour with the guys, ate a lot, drank a lot, sang a lot, and sort of got ready for the hiking trip.

 

Sept 10th - having a bit of I'm-a-lazy-sack-of-shit week attributable to this past weekend in lewisporte no doubt.... in Baie Verta all day for court.... told kent that I wasn't going to MTL anymore and he informed me that it meant I was required to come on a 4 day hiking/tenting trip to gros morne.... wasn't that pumped about it at first but I'm coming around.

 

Sept 9th - ran with kent and jim (1hr10min)

 

Sept 8th - ran after work with a bunch of people, (1hr20min) lsd.

 

Sept 7th - didn't get to bed until 7am this morning.... up again at 10am to drive 5hrs in terrible rain back to Corner Brook... had my fist McDonald's extra value meal in at least 10yrs, it was awesome.... what a weekend, Napoleon.

 

 

Sept 6th - my "evening" post-wedding didn't end until 7am sunday morning, n'uf said..... what a time we had. 

 

Sept 5th - nothing, worked thru lunch and left a little early to head over to Comfort Cove for the wedding rehersal.

 

Sept 4th - today probably marked a turning point in my life relative to athletics, my new sport of focus... the Beermile.... 4x400m laps downing a beer on each lap... did it in 6min49secs.... my competition was strong and able but I was akin to Usain Bolt in terms of domination.  Both my parents were in attendance to witness my moment of athletic glory and were stunned, proud, disappointed and completely embarrassed all at once... t'was a great time had by all and we ended up standing around for a couple of hours afterwards revelling in our respective accomplishments.  Moments of note were Adam Joyce going out like a bullet on the first lap, Steve getting outsprinted by Bruce for first in the 40+ division, uber-fast Darren Stone finishing middle of the pack in a road race.... the list goes on.

 

Sept 3rd - swam at noon (40min, 2000scm) 15x100 on 1:45.... both pools have been closed for the last two weeks so that's my excuse for not swimming much of late... rode to the farm with the group (1hr20min), total smashfest on the return trip.... couple of the guys took off along riverside drive drafting off of a molson canadian transport truck with a huge bottle of beer pictured on the length of the trailer, looked pretty funny, 4 cyclists riding like madmen after a 90ft long bottle of Canadian light, would've made a great pic.

 

Sept 2nd - ran at noon (35min) solo, legs felt like shit...... ran after work (1hr05min) easy with kent and jim, legs were better.

 

Sept 1st - ran (1hr28min, 127avg) very hilly around the ring road and down wheelers road to home, HR didn't want to move today.... looks like I'm going to cancel the Espirit half-ironman race in Montreal that I'm signed up for next weekend, it's not a decision based on fitness/training (or lack thereof), just really don't have my life in order to justify taking a 5day trip like that right now.... my life would have much more "order" if a certain 2 bedroom/2bath/900sq' condo in downtown Calgary that's been on the market for going on 4 months would sell.

 

Aug 31st - was out until 3am last night at a small house party, got a call from steve for an 11am long run, didn't know if I'd make it through but I settled in after about 90mins.... ran (2hrs10min).... my balanced lifestyle continued.

 

Aug 30th - the rain that was called for never hit the west coast so I got out early for a ride all the way to the end of the road in Little Port/Bottle Cove on Rte 450, (3hrs30min, 131avg).... my legs felt terrible on the ride until the last hour or so when they finally remembered how to pedal circles, they were hurting from thurs.... ran later in the afternoon (30min).

 

Aug 29th - day off.... was a total zombie last night after I got home... ate way too much at lunch today and spent the rest of the day in a "secretary pot luck friday"-induced coma.

 

Aug 28th - speedwork this evening (1hr35min, 129avg, 187max....25min w/u then 8x800m on the loop around the Clarke building... times in order were 2:43, 2:44, 2:41, 2:37, 2:39, 2:39, 2:41, 2:36.... wanted to quit after the sixth one so I felt like I was going easy and turned out a 2:41 and then felt "fine" for #8.... glad to have that over for another week.... rest intervals were 3:30min avg.

 

***Kirsty Coventry, 4 medals in Beijing, not bad for someone who grew up swimming in a country that no longer has a swimming pool... no joke.***  

 

Aug 27th - ran at noon (35min, 124avg) with plenty 'o drill, A's and B's at least.... rode to the farm with kent (1hr20min) after work.

 

Aug 26th - ran again at noon (35min).... rode long and easy (2hrs55min, 115avg) after work, ended up riding an extra hour after meeting pete at one point... would've done some zone work on the bike but I couldn't budge my heartrate, just kept a steady high cadence.

 

Aug 25th - ran at noon (35mins) because both pools are closed for the week.... ran again after work in the pouring rain with kent (45min)....my 4th run in the last 30hrs, legs were starting to revolt.

 

**bit of a rant there below, should be balanced with something that really warrants attention but never gets any**

 

Aug 24th - given the amount of booze that was put into my system on friday and saturday I'm not sure why I felt as awesome as I did on my (2hr00min, 133avg) morning run and even better on the evening (30min) run.... sometimes I amaze myself.  Morning run was very hilly for the first hour and then flat for the last hour, did about 10-12mins near the end of the run of upper-steady pace (sub-160bpm).... normally I slug my way thru an evening run on a double day, not so today, felt like a gazelle.  I really would've expected to spend the day on the couch eating McDonald's after two pretty heavy nights, I think I may have found the new balance... pretty sure I'll be dead by the time I'm 29yrs though if I try to keep this up.  Watched IMC online a fair bit today, SC laid down the boom on the bike with a 4:39 bike split (tops out of 2800 racers) and told me he was shocked at the drafting out there at the front of the race... knowing SC very well, he's not being a sore "loser" (8hrs52min, pfff).... it's not to take away from the racers effort on the day, but checking out the bike splits it looks pretty clear that there was a serious pack riding at the front end of the race.... the front end of the age-group race at IMC is a total draftfest and unfortunately (7m rule and lax officiating) it certainly looks that the MPRO race was pretty tight on the bike this year... of course there's always a marathon to balance the scales a the end of the race, there's wayyy too much grey area on the bike for my liking.

 

Aug 23rd - bit slow getting going today but thankfully stevo called me up and we got out for a (2hr) ride... another beauty day that warranted another long evening of patio time.... good weekend of training for the upcoming Black Horse Beer Mile if nothing else.

 

Aug 22nd - ended up being a zero day on the training front... beauty day, about 30'C and sunny, got a call from my boss at around 1pm telling me to get my ass up to his patio and we proceeded to get completely lit over the course of the next 12hrs.

 

Aug 21st - feeling pretty zonked today and I forgot my swimbag so I took it as a sign that gawd wanted me to skip the noon swim.... went to the speedwork session feeling like ass and not liking the sound of 6x1000m, so I ended up doing 3x500 and jogging the latter 500s before I pulled out.... was clipping along pretty good but felt tired and my hamstrings were threatening to make me crawl for the rest of the summer if I didn't get smart so I ended the my testosterone fueled stupidity and jogged home (60min) total.... it's really hard to keep focus on improving individual fitness, particularly when you are doing group-based training, using races as training, etc.... it's can be a real challenge to keep your ego in check, the peer pressure of wanting to "prove" you're the man all the time can be totally self-destructive when not everyone in the group is doing the same "program" as you (i.e. people are showing up fresh and motivated when you're really in need of a day off).  It's not easy on the ego to make the choices to "pull-out" in the aim of self-preservation/improvement... it only ever make you "look smart" in the long-term when you achieve goals, steadly improve/stay consistent over time, etc.... case in point, Canada's silver medal.... sacrificing races and self-perceived rockstardom (ex. jenkins focusing on 2 sports and finishing dead last on triathlons biggest stage) to achieve a goal... to anyone who knows anything about triathlon, triCan "looks smart" now... it's really not a gamble most people are willing to take.... same goes on any level I guess, surely bill gates, steve jobs and mark zuckerberg didn't look that smart when they first dropped out of harvard....  really should've put a disclaimer on this one as a borderline-blog.

 

**Another great article is here under the title "Lessons from the Meatheads"**

 

Aug 20th - I've really got to get back into doing ice baths, pilates and all that other stuff, especially after two straight race weekends, a solid speedwork session all combined with sitting at desk from 8:30-5pm Mon-Fri, my legs are toast.... swam at noon with Bruce (50min, 2300scm) long w/u then 12x100 with 3x1:30, 3x1:35, 3x1:40, 3x1:45, felt like ass in the pool but got through it.... was going to ride but ended up running (1hr20min) because it was looking like it might pour.

 

Aug 19th - simon whitfield has got some serious ballz, stayed up until 1:30AM and was screaming like a fool through the last 500m.... was in Rocky Harbour all day for work, got home late and did an easy (1hr10min) run.

 

Aug 18th - swam at noon (30min, 1500scm).... got Adam set up on my old road bike and took him for an easy (30min) spin on marble drive.

 

Aug 17th - port au port 100km road race... drove out by myself in the pouring rain and got there about 10 minutes before the race started. Got my gear on and ran to the start line just as "the gun" went off.  Took about 30seconds to be completely soaked from head-to-toe and about 60seconds later the first "attack" happened and I was in zone 3 hanging on to the front pack as the field quickly spread itself out.  The 2-man attack wasn't too far off and I was pretty certain things wouldn't be decided within the first 15kms and as we hit the first big climb things started to come back together... didn't go too hard up the climb and made a point to bridge up to the front 3.... as we hit the summit and the main group slowed down a bit and stretched out the 3 of us up front who had a 5sec or so gap hammered it and put 30secs or so on the pack as we descended and hit the rolling section heading into the wind strong headwind towards Cape St. George.  We worked together for the next 20k or so and knew that the pack would have to work extra hard to catch us with a couple of "contenders" doing the bulk of the work... they caught us about 5kms before the long 14km climb to Mainland and we all took it easy knowing that things would get tough on that stretch.  The "attacks" came right from the start of the climb and Andrew and I talked it out and made a plan to let the skinny guy(s) go hammer it up the hill hoping that they'd split up and be left to ride the last 50kms solo towards the finish.. plan was that we'd ride steady up the hill, shake/pass any riders on the long fast descent to Mainland and then work together to catch and pass the skinny guy(s) riding solo.  Plan worked well and by the bottom of the hill we'd shaken everyone and were doing 30s pulls with a tailwind trying to chase down the two guys up ahead who were riding solo... caught up with the 2nd place rider who was a total unknown to us and he stayed with us as we tried to blow by him.  That ended up working out well as the guy turned out to be a really great fella who held the paceline well and gave us some extra rest... took us until about 30kms to go to find the 1st place rider, upon sighting him we kept about a 1 minute gap hoping he'd continue to burn himself out.  Caught him towards the last climb and Andrew and I made a plan to attack with 17kms to go on the summit of the climb and hammer it to the finish for 1st and 2nd.... the attack worked but my left leg locked in a severe cramp on the descent doing about 70km/hr and I somehow got to the side of the road without wiping out.  The front 3 were gone and Andrew hung on for the win.  I couldn't bend my leg for a couple painful minutes but the support crew stopped and I downed a bunch of fluids and suprisingly my leg loosend up enounh for me to ride steady to the finish for 4th place.  Great race, I debated doing it on Friday, glad I did, very-very solid workout. (3hrs-ish, 154avg roughly)

Simon Whitfield's stride, awesome.  Ya, I'm a loser. 

 

Aug 16th - went to Tipping's pond for a solo open water swim in the AM, did about (10mins) and then my crazy paranoia of swimming alone kicked in and I ended it, I've got serious issues with open water, it's ridiculous....  ran (40min, 127avg) before noon around town and felt totally out of it.... got a ride to port au port with stevo and did "stage 1" of the tour de port au port, 5 laps, the group got split up on lap 2-3 on one of the hills that was followed by a headwind section... it was a tough little loop... 3 of us got away off the front and it whittled down to 2 of us for the last lap, I was riding with gillam and knew that if I didn't get away on the exposed headwind section that I wouldn't have the legs to get over the last hill faster than him... tried to break away 3 times but couldn't shake him and he ended up taking me on the last hill, my "blow him off the wheel" legs were left in the Clarke building running track on thursday... very solid workout, tomorrow is going to hurt a lot, race (59min, 164avg, 200MAX), other riding (20mins).  Pete was nice enough to install drops and ultegra road shifters on my tribike so I could race... kept the steep setup, can't climb very well in it, but it saves doing big refit for two races. 

 

Aug 15th - swam at noon (30min, 1500scm), cut it short because I had too much to do... good short set with bruce, adam, and jamie, 3x200m on 3:30 coming in on 2:40, 2:35, 2:30...then 5x100 all in between 1:15-17 on 1:45... then I had to get out, felt fine in the water, hitting good times.... tried to run in the evening but turn around at the around of the street, legs are completely smashed from last night... 40k road race tomorrow will not be pretty.

 

Aug 14th - swam at noon (35min, 1800scm) crowded at the Arts pool so I did some solid warm-up then put on the paddles and buoy and did 10x100 on 1:30 at 1:18-22ish pace and got out.... speedwork in the evening with darrin, jim and derek.... Darrin and I did 4x1500m with 800m easy jog in between, times were 5:42, 5:19, 5:16, 5:12min... the last two were ran very hard, average HR for the last one was 173bpm with a 180 max.  Ran them on the waterfront road from the loading dock fence around the Clarke building.  total run was (1hr16min, 132avg).

 

Aug 13th - missed the noon swim because I had to do a last minute affidavit for a woman swearing what she had sworn to prior was the polar opposite of what she wanted to swear to today, time well spent..... ran after work with kent for the first half and then solo for the remainder (1hr15min).... lots of stretching for a change (20min).

 

GREAT PIECE written by "some guy" named Gordo, http://www.gordoworld.com/gblog/index.html under the heading of "Add it Up".  Part of it here,

Choose Wisely, Gordo

 

Aug 12th - swam at noon (30min) not sure the distance, felt pretty sore all over..... ran right after work with Kent and Jim (55min) in the pouring rain.

 

Aug 11th - forgot to mention in the "race report" that Kevin and I loaded up the truck (with a 2000lbs CAT Diesel engine tied down in the pan) after the race, made a call to Don Cherry's and ordered 5 dozen wings, made another quick stop at McDonald's for milkshakes and then were on the highway for 7hrs driving back to Corner Brook.  Work went alright, I was stiff but not feeling too looped from the race/drive.... rode (1hr30min) easy to the farm with kent, thought I got my binge out of my system yesterday but did a tonne of binging today as well.... beer, chips, cereal, a massive breakfast... binge big or don't binge at all.

 

Aug 10th - woke up around 6:30am and said a silent thank you to the st.john's tri organizers for not having me standing in waist deep water at some ridiculously early hour, the organizers having scheduled the race for a civilized 9am start.  Race report: weather, horriaweful... rain, drizzle and thick fog, 14'C.  anyhow, got in my longest ever swim warmup before the race, and lined up next to some people that I knew were relatively fast.... took it out hard (had sortof planned this two weeks ago but failed to give it any further thought until I heard "ready, set....") and realized that after about 300m when I sighted and saw there wasn't anyone in front of me that I was going a wee bit too fast, plus, I wasn't breathing smoothly so I eased off and let some people go by before the turn around buoy, from there I found a place on the back of a hard kicking team swimmer, god love her, like swimming in a 10-jet jacuzzi, the "easy" swimming got me thinking about how the last time I was swimming in a wetsuit the swim course was 4 times as long, at that point -amongst the bubbles- I said another silent thank you to the st.john's tri race organizers for opting for a 1000m swim, the less time there the better... got out of the water and ran the 250m or so to T1 and had a very fast switch to the bike getting out before any of the 4 people I exited the water with and in 3rd place overall.  Plan was to ride the bike hard and try and put time into everyone... passed the 2nd place guy around 5kms in and he didn't strike me as much of a cyclist so I figured I'd seen the last of him (that's foreshadowing), rode hard and kept trying to see if I could catch a glimpse of 1st for the whole ride, alas, 200m visibility was the max because of the fog and I had no carrot to bite at.  Bike was 2 laps and I honestly think I could've been a minute or so faster overall on the day had I known what to expect...even though I'd driven the course a couple times, the fog made it hard to know where the numerous short climbs were and I rode the 2nd loop faster than the first just because I had a better idea of what gear to use, where the hills and turns were, etc.  Not making excuses, it wouldn't have changed the outcome too much, just given me less frustration during the race.  Anyhow, wasn't feeling very fast on the bike for whatever reason (likely something to do with the wind, rain, cold, thick fog and rolling terrain) but figured I was gapping the people behind me at least a little. ... got into T2 and onto the run and realized that the "gapping" hadn't happened so much.... the "he didn't strike me as much of a cyclist" guy came in about 30secs back of me and upon reaching the turnaround (now in 3rd) I saw that the guys hunting me down were two far-far-far superior runners to me (weighing roughly 140lbs & 160lbs respectively) charging hard.  Anyhow, I lost two more places over the last 1-2kms but still ran nearly as hard as my (205lbs) body would allow.  Crossed the line around 2hrs15min for the 1k, 46k, 10.5k course.  Felt ok about it all, first triathlon in almost 1year exactly, still trying to trim another 20lbs, and I was racing off June--> training, so not bad, far from great.  just to note, I had some all too normal moments of doubt during the race, wondering why the hell I was racing, wanting to quit at points during the swim, bike and run, wanting to cancel my planned "A" race in September....  however..... got to the line and almost immediately was talking about how much I wanted to come back next year, and thinking about how I was looking forward to getting right back into workouts to put in a couple solid weeks leading up to the montreal race.... it's a strange sport like that.  Of other note, that 2nd place cyclist had a solid race, knocked about 25mins of his time from the prior year, Stephen Dyke is a goddam machine, Scottie (too hotty) Ledrew is back and looking really-really fit which was great to see... of further note, none of the guys in the top 5 are married or have children... be interesting to find out how many guys in say, the top 5 of a fairly competitive race, fall into that same bracket.