October Training Update

After a rather ordinary September, October proved to be a very good month consistency wise. I'm back into a nice rythym of base training and enjoying it thoroughly.
Goals were as follows:
- Enjoy it
- Cruise
- Swim lots
- Run lots
- Bike steady
- Nail some strength and plyo work

I nailed a great swim month (for me; not for a fish) with some great workouts. I'm feeling good in the water and thinking a 1hr swim is on the cards for IM Melbourne in about 5 months. We'll see.

I'm really pleased to have been able to nail four back-to-back 60km weeks on the run. I've only done one long run in there (not including the Half Mara), and will start picking up those next month. Run form is feeling good despite carrying an extra kilo or two at the moment.

I haven't been doing a lot of riding outdoors given the low light levels and the relatively ordinary weather. I have snuck a few good rides in on the weekends when weather was cooperative. Most of the riding, however, has been on the trainer using TrainerRoad.com. I love this program. I'll write a blog one day about why, but for the moment, just know that the hard work done in winter = the results in summer and TrainerRoad makes it really easy to put those hard yards in.

Fall Colours in Gatineau Park  on a ride last week. Too nice.

Race Report: 9 Run Run 1/2 Marathon

First road race since the spring and the first half-marathon in 12 months in the bank! Ideal conditions greeted us this morning for the 9 Run Run road-races - a local race which supports Do It for Daron, an organisation supporting and promoting awareness of youth mental health.

Going into the race I had no finite expectations. I just wanted to gauge my fitness and have fun. The second ever - and most recent - half-marathon I ran was 2011's Army Run where I nabbed a PB of 1:27:51. A year of consistency later, I wanted to throw my cards down again and see if I had improved without really any specific training whatsoever. Well, I'm happy to say that I did. I took about 4:30 off my 2011 time, with an official split of 1:23:23 and 6th overall from 552 finishers.

Josh and I coming back into town

The course was good. The first few km's were fast and the front boys took off quick. We settled into a solid pace around 3:50 until 5-6kms where the constant +1-2% false flat and ~25km/h headwind broke the group pretty well by the ~10-11km marker when we turned north and began the way back. By that point, I was working pretty hard and still losing time - my average pace blew out to 3:59 by 10km. Thank [insert preferred deity here] that a Euro-Sports guy came up beside me  and towed me along the second half of that straight - picked me right up! I dropped said Euro-Sports guy and his mate at the turn and headed off solo in pursuit of a few guys running ~1 minute ahead.

Insert Josh Mintha. Dude was pacing this race like a pro, splitting 20/40 for the 5/10km's. He came up and we exchanged a few words before setting in to a solid pace. Josh did most of the pacing (for which I was really grateful!) and we began passing a tonne of walkers from the 10km race along. At this point I was feeling much better and working less (thanks, tailwind!) than before - and the pace was better!

We were ticking off the km's on our way back into town and I was trying to appreciate the scenery along the trail and made sure I thanked the volunteers and small crowds. Not sure what happened to Josh, but he hit some kind of wall at ~19kms and dropped off. I ran 'er in for the finish and he followed about a :45 later.

Beautiful morning and a fun local event! Thanks Aug for the cheering and congrats to Marie-Noelle on the PB in the 10km race! :)

Bringing.....

...it home

Beautiful trailness..

2012 vs. 2011

Slow September

After knocking out Esprit, I pulled up a little in my hip/lower back. This was a bit of a niggle which had been around since the previous weekend and I figured it was simply due to sleeping awkwardly on a crappy futon, or in the car. Nevertheless, the Monday following Esprit I went on my routine 60 minute run and midway I was really struggling. Pain was pretty bad and my gait had turned to crap to compensate. I limped home and went to bed.
The next few days were awful. A lot of pain walking and I struggled to put any weight on my right leg without feeling really uncomfortable. I decided to rest up and see what happened. After a week with little improvement, I was getting pretty stressed (read: depressed from lack of exercise and having grave fears about how bad it could be) and images of Paula Findlay at the Games were running through my mind.
The pain subsided - for the most part - after 8 or 9 days of no biking or running. I went to see a doctor on the Thursday in the second week (at which point there was almost no pain) and he said I likely strained a muscle in my lower back, and eliminated any hip problem (Paula, at this point, ran out of my mind).
''No exercise whilst it hurts', was the good doctors advice, 'it could take two to four weeks''. ARRGH! A month without running would be awful. Considering that prior to this hip/back thing, the longest period without running in the previous year, was 3 days - after not even two weeks I was already going pretty mental!
In the end, I heeded his advice and attempted a 25 minute easy run/walk on the treadmill at a slight incline exactly two weeks later (after having no pain for 4-5 days). It went really well - no pain! I was back! I ended up doing a 55km week of running that week and it all went by without any pain. Problem was, I had gotten a shitty old cough-cold which was going around the office. Uhhkk.
The end result of everything, was a pretty lame month of training. On the positive side, it was rest for the mind. In hindsight, I did enjoy coming home and just cooking or resting up.

October is here and I'm settling into a good routine. Swim volume is up and bike volume is down, as a consequence of the seasons and the daylight and things are rolling along well!
Best,
Steve

Counting down

Well, it's approaching the end of September and autumn is in full swing - it's wet, cold and getting darker by the way (.."but the leaves are soo pretty!" - Losers who drive around to see leaves).

As a result, that means time is flying and before I know it I'll be packed up and headed down-under. 10 weeks to go.

It also means it's six months away to possibly the most crazy day I'll go through in 2013 - Ironman Melbourne!

Media

A few months ago Jean-Phillipe Reid  - journalist at Le Courrier du Saguenay, and partner of Audrey's cousin - approached us to do a quick piece for the paper. We were happy to answer a few questions and voila the result which went out the local readership of the paper in Audrey's hometown. 

Long Time, No Race: Esprit Olympique Race Report

Going strong (and getting stronger) for the last 28 years, the Montreal Esprit triathlon festival is a classic here. Known for a super-fast course and a great organisational team lead by Danny McCann, I had been looking forward to this race for a while - especially after missing out due to a field camp last year. Because of our move back to Australia - and the financial demands that will entail - and the fact I'd be back racing in January I decided to forget about racing Pocono Mountains 70.3. I was a bit sad to take it off the schedule, but it just makes more sense at the moment. So, Esprit would by my last triathlon for the season and I trained for it accordingly. 

Going into the race, I had come off a pretty consistent build including lots of threshold work. I knew I had the legs to lay down a fast bike and a fast run (for me). It didn't quite work out how I planned, but it was a fun weekend all the same. 

The Race

Swim: 27:01. Shithouse. Why? Probably had something to do with the the >45km/h wind hammering in from the south and creating a solid amount of chop and turning a normally glassy rowing basing into a washing machine. Getting out the water I had no idea how it went. It felt slow, but then again, it was supposed to be a fast course so would that have compensated for the conditions? I guess it didn't. For comparison, my mate J-P did this same race last year with a 22:53 swim split (which included missing out on swimming on some fast feet and losing his goggles at one point). Fast forward to 2012 and J-P swam 27:25, about 4:30 slower. So yeah, I suppose I'll take 27:01. 

T1 + Bike + T2: 1:02:40. A PB bike split (well, sort of, it was ~39km) of sub-60min (my Garmin's average was 40.3km/s before heading into the dismount chute. The wind played havoc and helper at the same time. On the straight heading North that tail wind meant I was able to scoot along at 50-56km/h comfortably. On the other half of the course, however, it was a different story. I worked hard to maintain ~33-36km/h for the most part on that section. The course was REALLY congested, also. It was pretty chaotic, also, with people riding willy-nilly all over the place. In principle, we were supposed to ride on the left (laps were counter clockwise around the circuit) and pass on the right. In reality, there were people left, right and centre meandering along at a multitude of speeds. As a result, it was difficult to maintain a clean line and it took a lot of concentration not to get cleaned up by somebody wobbling all over with the heavy winds.


 Finishing another lap:

Run: 40:54. My first +40minute split of the year! Dissappointed - very. I was running really well going into this and I thought a high 36 or low 37 minute split was on the cards. After about 1.5km into the headwind I could feel a slight stomach cramp (a stitch, really) coming on. Damn. By 3km it was bad and I was reduced to stop a few times to massage it out. I passed after the first 5km and the race clock read 7:03:XX. It stayed until ~6km. My diaphram relaxed and the stictch dissapated, alowing me to really get into my stride for the last ~3-4km. I reckon I ran those last few km's at around ~3:35-3:40 pace - easily - I was flying with the tail wind. The race clock at the end read 7:20:XX. The last 4.7km (the distance of the second lap) then - I estimate - took ~17 minutes and change, putting my first lap at a pedestrian ~23 minutes and change. 

In the end, my day was good for a 2:10:35, about 8 minutes back of the winner and good for 19th out of 548 participants. A super hard day (average finished time was 10 minutes slower than 2011) in terms of conditions - on the swim, particularly - but a fun event all the same. Everyone from our group that went felt pretty well the same way - fun, but bullshit hard.   

Credit where it's due:

Congrats to Audrey on finishing first in her Age Group! Audrey was looking forward to this race, too, if only because it meant she didn't need to feel obliged to train any longer this year! She ended up nailing a solid swim, a very good bike split, and - as always - a strong run to put the nail in the coffin. Secretly, I don't think she's done with triathlon - despite what she might say!
These photos are evidence!


Welcome back to triathlon, J-P! 12 months without racing (a tri) meant J-P was simply throwing his cards down and seeing where they landed. A solid swim [relative to the rest of the field] and a 8th best bike split had him easily ahead off me as we rolled into T2. Unfortunately J-P's run legs - well to be precise, his run feet - didn't show up and J-P ran to the line for a 2:17 with some nasty blisters. Eric nailed his first Olympic race - on next to no training, if you don't mind - and crushed some m20-24 dreams with a barnstorming 2:19. Genetics and a huge engine, I guess! Laura nailed 5th in her AG and the Innes boys nailed another strong race - despite Stefan's fall he displayed fine BAMF qualities and kept on trucking. Not to mention that Olivier nailed a PB in the Sprint race - Congrats! Good job everyone!! 

Thanks guys for a great weekend!

Videos:

RDI: Braver le vent          TVA: Des milliers de participants au triathlon Esprit de Montréal
See at about 0:28 below to see our wave in the water - yikes!
Triathlon Esprit Montreal 2012 from Productions Nouvelle Image on Vimeo.

Impressions of New York City

We visited the Big Apple with Audrey's family in late August. What a city. There are a number of adjectives one could use to describe this place. What's the first word that comes to your mind?

Big.

Unbalanced.

Contrast.

Up.

Dizzying.

Parklife.

Bright.

Money.

Character.

History.

Memory.

Identity.

Tall.

Complex.

Juxtaposition.