Red eye flights make your eyes red

Right now I sit in the Air Canada Lounge at the Vancouver Airport waiting for my red eye flight to Toronto. Like coach Joel always says "Milk that lounge for everything its got!" And that's what I plan on doing! Not much to milk though since I am not a drinker. Oh and if I was...it would be game over!

Since getting back from my last race the training this week has been so so. Nothing great...mostly below par but the efforts are still there. Banking the miles, swimming the laps, doing the work. You do not want to hear the specifics or times...then you will be telling yourself "My 90 year old grandmother can go fast than him...and she's got only one leg, arthritis, and watches Y&R 24/7!" I'll spare myself the humility of all the comments and keep quiet.

The CCES (Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport) were on us this week. They are the ones that do the drug testing...they just show up unannounced to anyone of your training sessions or home and take a urine sample from you. On Friday morning they showed up at the end of the swim workout and tested Jill and myself. Jill having a magic bladder pipes up just after jumping out of the water "I can go now"...then there is me thinking a lot of words that are not appropriate for this blog towards her. I say to her "thanks for leaving me all by myself while I drink water like an alcoholic would drink booze if prize money was involved". Jill was done everything including paper work within 8 minutes of getting out of the water. Well done Jill! It took me a little longer...75 minutes and 5 bottles of water later...SUCCESS! I hate that process.

Nothing else exciting has happened over the last week...just living the life of a poor triathlete.

Back to rain rain rain

Made it back home to Victoria in one piece. Can't complain too much about the flights...all of us got bumped up to first class from Tokyo to Vancouver...we rock! It was a bit of a ordeal but well worth the 75min begging the lady to give us seats up there.

I was able to sleep well last night. At swimming this morning everyone looked like zombies, only half awake. They were all up at various points of the night wide awake...lucky me was able to sleep easily all the way through without waking up. I could have kept sleeping much longer but the alarm shouted "get up you lazy wanker! Time to swim!". I made up for it with a 2 hour slumber this afternoon...i love naps! I also put together my bike, went for a 90min spin, easy 30min jog and had a nice Epsom Salt bath...all to aid in recovery for this weeks upcoming training.

The new rankings are up and I have moved up 8 places to 68th in the Olympic Rankings...lets keep jumping higher because I still have a long way to go! You can check out the highlights from the Ishigaki World Cup race here.

Time for a good dinner, House and more sleep!

And a shout out goes to LISA

I own 19th Place

Another restless night trying to sleep after a race...can never really sleep well...just toss and turn all night. It just after 5am here, breakfast starts at 6:30am so thats what I have to look forward to! A shuttle is coming to pick me up at 7:50am and I am flying out of here at 8:55am. Should be back in Victoria before I know it!

So another hard race in the bag...equalled my performance from three weeks ago in Australia finishing in the top 20 again. That means that I get a couple World Cup points...something that I was not able to do at all before this year...the improvements are coming...little by little.

Coming into the race I was given the number 12 because of the race in Mooloolaba. High number means good start position! Usually I have a number way higher than that...it was a change to be able to pick a position before 65 other guys. BANG. Wicked start, head down, pounding out some strokes. I look around me and I have a body length on the rest of the field after 50 meters...badass start speed. I led the field for 700 out of the 750meters first lap. First one after the first swim lap gets the swim prime of $500US...so Marco Albert from Estonia comes flying by me in the last 50meters to steal my money...next time it is mine! The second lap I just stayed in the front pack getting tossed around with the swim current...came out of the water in 4th.

Out of the water ahead of me were the three that broke away and had a awesome bike. I got swallowed up by the pack that I stayed with the rest of the bike. This pack included Whitfield, Tichelaar, and McMahon all from Canada. Good to have some teammates up there with you. The pack worked OK not giving too much time to the three ahead of us, and we were distancing ourselves from the massive pack of guys behind up. It was crazy windy in some sections of the course...and with my 808's (deep rim wheels) I was getting blown all over the road...I had to really concentrate on stearing the bike...a little scary at times. I was glad to be getting off that bike after 40km.

I had about a 90 second cushion on the 40 or so guys in the bike pack behind us after the bike starting the run. I knew that if I was going to get another top 20 that I could not let them catch me. I never really felt good on the run, I had to really dig deep to keep the pace high and stay with the 2-3 other guys that I was running with. The run was 3 laps of up and over a big bridge, turn around at the bottom, come back over and down, then two out and back flat sections and repeat. The hill (bridge) was not my friend. I tried to warm up to her, run softly on her, seduce her...but she was a cold hard bitch of pavement that gave no mercy. I ended up running ok, finishing in 19th again after giving everything on that run, going through a world of hurt for 35min. Crossing the line I was so close to puking...I didn't want to move so I was taken away by the medical team, and put on a table. I played it up a bit that I was out of it so they would give me a IV cocktail. Sweet! Only got about half a litre in me and then they wanted to bring me to the hospital...UP I GOT saying NO and that I was fine.

All in all it is a good start to the 2007 season. Our squad I going to be working hard to keep the momentum going for the rest of the year. Next up on the bill is another World Cup race in Lisbon, Portugal in three weeks and then the weekend after that in Richards Bay, South Africa for the 4th World Cup of the year. On the way to Lisbon I stop off in Ontario for a couple days to see the family and on the way back from South Africa I have another 5 days with them...I am excited to spend some time back home in the Hammer.

Thanks for everyones support and encouragement!

Race day in Ishigaki

Woke up this morning to some dark clouds and a little rain. Apparently it was raining quite hard last night...too bad the rain had to come today...we have had great weather up to today.

Just went for a little jog with Kyle and Simon when we woke up...had a cold shower and now it is time to go get some breakfast in me. We have a long wait today till our race. We start at 3:45 local time. Ill just be watching some episodes of Lost to past the time.

It is going to be a tough one with the humidity, heat, and wind...its going to play a big part in the race. You can catch the action on www.triathlon.org starting soon. I think they have quite a few cameras on the course that they are going to be streaming live to that website.

See you after the race.

Recover Recovery

Well getting in a shuttle, on a plane, overnighting it on hard concrete, getting on another 18 hour flight and a puddle jumper to Victoria may not have been the best thing to do for recovery right after the race last weekend. Now I have been spending all week playing catch up for that great idea.

Getting off the plane in Hawaii and trying to walk a little I knew then that it was going to be game over this week. Both calves were like rocks. So what have I been doing this week to recover? I've been playing in the barely above zero Pacific Ocean, water running at the Commonwealth Pool, sitting in a tub of ice, rolling on a foam roller, roller pinning my legs like they were dough, and putting endless amounts of any ointment that will sooth the pain and loosen them up a bit. Now that it has been a week since my race they are starting to loosen up so they should be OK for next weeks training block. This upcoming week I will be doing all the same as last week and add in some massages and ART sessions to help get me ready for the next World Cup in Ishigaki and for another trip across the Pacific.

I have also been having to take care of a wicked blister that formed on the bottom of my foot during the race...usually I cannot feel the blisters during the race but I could feel the skin start to loosen up when I was pounding the pavement in Mooloolaba...so I knew that it was going to be a good one when I took off my shoes after the race. I was going to try to let it be for as long as I could before popping it but the hard run session on Friday did the trick for me.

With the water running that I have been doing, I have been able to get in some good workouts outside and on the treadmills. On Wednesday I did a easy 60min run with AP. Friday had us doing some good speed work down at Beacon Hill (6x90sec, 6x60sec, 6x30sec, 6x15sec...all with equal rest). Today I did a 1hour 40min run on the treadmills at Commonwealth. I have been happy with being able to get in these main runs this week...I was worried that I would not be able to last Monday.

Other then that I have been getting in some good swim and bikes in. The weather in Victoria has been holding up since we got back...no rain but threatening all the time. I still have bags and suitcases all over my apartment floor...still not finished unpacking...don't see the point now...may as well leave it all in there since I'm off in another week.

Time to hit the tub again for a nice Epsom Salts bath and then an early bed.