Tuesday, September 23, 2008

School!!!


As a kid you always dream about the day where you no longer have to go to school, i got close but then decided to postpone it so I could spend some time training. I am now back at school and in the final straight. I never took more then 3 classes but this year I am taking 5 it is going to be tough but I know I can manage it.
With my time off, i have been able to catch up on a few social activities as well, it may not be that good for training but this is the time of year to do it, sometimes you just need to go out and have a little fun to help get your mind off things!!
It is only 2 more months until Krystal is home, the first 6 months were tough but it seemed to go by pretty quickly, she came home for her mid-semester break and I got to see her for a couple of weeks. She has been back a couple times for weddings but only for a couple of days and with all her comitments we did not have much time together. These last 2 months are going to be tough but when it is over she will be home for good and things will get back to normal!!
I am still trying to get over my knee injury as well, I am currently seeing the physio at school and go see the magician Robert Taylor on friday to try to get ahead of this thing.
Well that is about it for now

Monday, September 8, 2008

Decision time


The last week has been pretty stressfull with finding a new house to live in, moving into my new house, getting registered for school, picking classes, deciding whether or not to do Muskoka 70.3, as well as trying to train. But I feel like everything has fallen into place now so I can settle down and get back into a routine.
I decided not to do Muskoka, it was a tough decision because it is such a big race within a couple of hours of my house, but my knee was just not getting any better and although I had planned on only swimming, riding and playing the run by ear, I really did not want to sacrifice the cross country season because I believe that it is more important for future development.
I see a doctor Wednesday and start physio on Thursday so hopefully things get back in line soon.
As for everything else, Nat Faulkner my training partner for the year just had an awesome tune up race for Hawaii, he did Ironman Wisconsin and was leading the entire race including the pros after the bike. He started 10min back from the pros and was 2nd overall off the bike, he was 9 min back from the leader which put him 1 min up on him as well. He was only planning on running 1 of 2 laps to not kill him self too close to Hawaii. I think with a couple more good weeks of training that he has a realistic chance of placing top amerature.
I know that next year is going to be a good with with both of us putting in some god training miles!!
Saw Alexisonfire on the weekend, there was a free concert at Mac which was awesome!! I wish I knew more of their songs I think that would have made it more enjoyable.

Friday, September 5, 2008

The Last Month


I kind of forget where I left off with my last post, but I will start with Cornerbrook 70.3. This was the first race of the year that I truly felt ready for, leading into every other race this year I had always had setbacks because of my knee but I had been running regularly for the last month and was starting to feel confident in it. I had a pretty easy flight getting in late friday night, and getting settled into my host housing.
The race it's self went pretty well to plan, I made one mistake in the swim and let Brent and Paul Mathews get away so I ended up doing the whole swim on my own. I had a good transition and started out on the bike, within the first 10km Richie and Craig caught me so I tried to pick up the pace and keep them close. Craig was on a mission and he was setting a pace that Richie and I could not match. Richie and I rode the rest of the way together eventually getting caught by Chris Legh. Onto the run I started out pretty well but hit a bad patch at around the 8km mark. I was able to pull out of it but needed to find a portajon and fast, luckly there was one at about the14km mark and I made a beeline for it. After the fact, I was feeling a lot better and was able to really pick up the pace. I was holding it pretty well until about 2km to go, I struggled through it and crossed the line in 4th, it was the first time I was able to really let it all hang out all summer and it felt good to cross the line without any what ifs.
After getting home I was really excited to put in some more speed work to get fast for nationals. But as luck would have it after a workout of 6x1km, 90min tempo bike, 20min tempo run, my knee started to feel tight and the pain was back. This hit me really hard, I was finally starting to pick up some momentum and excitement for the rest of the season then I get hit with the injury again.
I did not run for 2 weeks leading into Kelowna and knew the only chance I had was opening up a big gap on the bike. This almost came true as I was in a lead group with McMahon and Wells but we just did not have enough to stay away from a motivated chase pack with a lot of other Canadians. So you can imagine where my motivation went when we got caught, but I still managed to be first out of transition onto the run!! I still ran hard but did not have the little extra push.
Right now I am sitting in my basement room in Hamilton after finishing my first day of classes in the last 2 years, having battles in my head about whether or not I should race the Muskoka 70.3.
Other then that I am looking forward to seeing Krystal in less then a week, although I know it will be very limited it is still better then nothing