Lifesport Coaching

Training for an olympic distance triathlon without proper coaching can be a difficult task even for someone with years of experience in the sport. Training for an Ironman can be that much more daunting. I am quite confident that with 20+ years in the sport I could put together a training program that would get me through an Ironman in a respectable time but Meyrick and I are not looking for omly "respectable". We are hoping to go fast. To that end we will be working with Lifesport Coaching to achieve that goal for 2011. Lifesport is one of the top coaching systems in the sport. Lifesport was the official coaches of Ironman and have names such as Olympic gold medalist Simon Whitfield on their resume. Meyrick and I are really excited and motivated to work with Lifesport.

Train the Trainer

A couple of weeks ago I attended Innovative Fitness-Port Moody's first year anniversary party. It was a great turn out of friends, relatives, clients abd hopefulli future clients. They incorporated a fundraiser called "Train the Trainer". This event allows the clients to get even with those personal trainers who have been working them so hard during the year. For $50 you got 5 minutes to put the trainer of your choice through the activity of your choice. The trainers were asked to do many things from traditional exercises such as push-ups and sit-ups to singing Christmas carols and even a patriotic, resounding version of O Canada. Everyone had a great time and the trainers were great sports. At the ebd of the evenibg two very well deserving charities received a sizable donation. The Eagle Ridge Hospital and the Michael Cuccione Foundation, The Michael Cuccione Foundation helps fund childhood cancer research. Nuch credit to Meyrick and Chris along with the staff at IF-Port Moody for putting on such a fun evening.

Ironman 70.3 World Championships

It has been just over a week since I have returned from the Ironman 70.3 WC held in Clearwater Florida. First of all let me clear up one misconception I had and probably many others still hav. There was bo oil on Clearwater beach and I saw no evidence that there ever was. The beaches are clean. Back to the race. Devon and i arrived 6 dats prior to the race and had a chance to check out the bike course and ride it, It is very flat and we new it would be a fast course. The weather leading up yo race day wa not as warm as I thought it would be in Florida but still very nice, about 72 degrees. The forecast for race day was for the tamperature to be about 80. As predicted, it was a beautiful mornibg when we arose at 4:30 am November 13th, race day. The water was much calmer than it had been during our 2 training swims earlier in the week. Rhe swim went ok, sighting proved to be a bit of a problem for Devo but he was not the only one as we found out late. We got through trabsition and started the bike. As we had thought ther were a lot of competitors ahead of us and we were constantly passing others. One of the problrms with such a flat, mon selective course is drafting. We passed packs of riders numbering as manyb as 40. As w hought the bike course was fast. we had hoped to go under 2 hours but we failed and did a 2:08 for the 90 km. The run was faitly flat also excep for the bridge we had to cross twice. TYou don't really think os a bridge as being much of a hill until you have to run over it after a 1.9 km swim and a 90 km bike. The run was slow. Over the past 13 months I have done 2 full Itonman races and the Ironman 70.3 WC on experience and not near enough training. I took these events for granted, relying on my past knowledgeand knowing I could do the distance. Having done these distances several timea before I was more mentally prepared than phsically. I think it is disrespectful to the Ironman to take these races for granted. It won't happen again.

The Night Before

It is the night before the Ironman 70.3 World Championships here in Clearwater ,Florida. Everything is done. We checked in the bike today, dropped off our gear bags and are set. Everything did not go so smoothly. While droppung off the bike and letting some air out of the tires because it is not a good idea to leave a bike to sit in the sun with fully inflated tires. As he let som air out of the front tire Devon noticed a crack in one of the carbon blades. This could have been disasterous if the wheel had failed tomorrow during the race at speeds over 65 km/hr. Luckily they have a wheel rental service and we rented a Zipp 808 carbon front wheel, so all is well. Nothing left to do but eat dinner amd get some sleep. I hear it is supposed to be a beautiful day in Clearwater tomorrow. I hope the water is calm and the sun is out.

Ironman 70.3 World Championships, Clearwater, Fla.

Devon and I arrived in Clearwater last night.
This place is deserted. we went looking for a restaurant near our hotel located right across from the beach and there was nobody on the streets and this was at 7:00. Today we went for a short ride and swim. The water was a little cold, 63 degrees and the air temperature was about 72. These tempe are below seasonal average. The weather is supposed to improve over the next 4 - 5 days, up to about 80. I sure hope so.

IMC Run

In transition I was not sure I was going to be able to run. During the latter stages on the bike my knees were really hurting. I was also cramping but this is not unusual for me , it happens more often than not to me during Ironman races. We shuffled out of transition and to my amazement my legs started to feel pretty good. What a relief ! Our plan was to run from aid station to aid station, approxiamatly 1 mile apart.We agreed that whoever was feeling the worst would set the pace. Run when we could ,walk when we had to. This strategy worked out great and we were in great spirits the whole marathon. Nuch credit to Meyrickfor gutting it out after spending the night in the hospital 4 days earlier.
It was an awesome experience. There were some tough times for both of us during the run but our support for each other, teamwork, made it happen and it was FUN ! Admitadly neither of us was properly prepared for an Ironman for various reasons ( Meyrick's new business and maybe I took it for granted. How foolish). Never again. Next year we are both going to be 100% ready.

Ironman Bike ( finallt )

I am finally going to finish our Ironman Canada saga because I don't feel I can continue to add new posts without finishing with IMC. The bike was very interesting. It had a little bit of everything. Sunshine, wind, rain and even some hail. The first sectiom down to Osoyoos was summy and very fast. Even throught the Richter Pass the weather was pretty good, windy maybe. Heading up Yellow lake the weather got worse. It was raining, windy and quite cold. As I mentioned earlier we even had sone hail. On some of the downhill sections we hit speeds over 90 km/hr. A little bit scary considering the roads were wet . I waso happy to see Main Street in Penticton. My knees were hurting and I was cramping for the last 30 km.Finally, transition ! (some photos to follow )

The Swim

The swim was extremely challenging. Besides the fact that you start the 3.8 km swim with over 2700 other competitors , this time I did it tethered to another swimmer. I had never done an Ironman tethered before. We had tried it the week before at Nationals, an Olympic distance race. At Nationals there was a para triathlete wave but there were only 4 swimmers with us. Now we were getting into the water with over 2700 others. As you might imagine we had problems with other swimmers getting between us and becoming tangled in the tether. The first few minutes of the swim were tough, trying to maintain my position directly behind Meyrick. However as the swim progressed we were able to find more open water on the outside and things began to get better and we were able to get into a rythym. Our time was not bad, 1 hour 16 minutes. Our whole thing about doing this race was to do everthing ourselves. Normally when Meyrick races alone he has a "handler" who would meet him at the end of0 the swim with his prosthetic and help him out of the water but this is where our team work came in and I helped Meyrick into transition.

Ironman Canada 2010-August 29th

It's been 2 weeks since Meyrick and I completed Ironman Canada in Penticton. Meyrick his first Ironman and I, my 12th. I envy those who complete their first Ironman distance triathlon. While completing this distance always gives me a great sense of accomplishment, it is never quite like the first one. When you are never quite sure if you can do it. It must have been especially satisfying for Meyrick as he had spent the night in hospital 4 days before the race with a fever over 102 and unable to get hydrated. However he gutted it out and completed his first Tronman, Congratulations Meyrick. Also this was the first time two para triathletes had teamed up to tackle the Ironman. If you didn't know already. Meyrick is a below the knee amputee. You may think calling this Meyrick's "first" a little presumptuous,(assuming there would be a second or third....) but we have already signed up to do it again next year. Besides I am not sure anyone can do this race only once. I can be addicting (speaking from experience). I love this race!

Ironman Canada 2010

We are in the final month of preparation for the Ironman Canada triathlon in Penticton, BC to be held on August 29th. While preparation for an Ironman distance race has not been optimal I am confident we will accomplish our goal. To be the first physically challenged team to complete the Ironman. You may be aware that along with my paracycling partner Devon we completed Ironman Hawaii last October. This time my pilot is a below the knee amputee named Meyrick Jones. Meyrick lost his leg in a cable car accident in San Frabcisco in his early 20's. Meyrick is Married and has 3 children. He is part owner of Innovative Fitness in Port Moody BC, a personal training facility. We hope to inspire, motivate abd raise awareness for physically challenged athletes. Our teamwork will prove that anything is possible. Individually we would each need assistance during the race but together as a team we will do it all on our own. It's going to be a fun and exciting day.

It's About Time

Sorry for the long wait between posts or maybe it's been a blessing. Never the less the posts are about to resume. There are some interesting and exciting things happening and about to happen. I hope they will be of interest to you. Stay tuned.

Better late than never

Sorry this took so long to get this video on here, but there was no internet in Cuba. So finally here is my 2010 Paralympic Torch Relay Run.

Paralympic Torch Relay

Carrying the Paralympic Torch. What a thrill! Off to Varadero, Cuba for a one week training camp. The season has started. Will try to upload the torch video soon.

2010 Paralympic Torchbearer

I received some great news this week, I have been selected to carry the torch for the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games. It was awesome  to finally get the phone call confirming  my selection as one of only 600 in the torchbearear relay.  It is a great honour to be a torchbearer and I am very excited.  I don't have any details as to when and where I will carry the torch but I will let you all know as soon as I know. Pictured above is the official torchbearer uniform and Paralympic torch.