"you PLAY, you PAY"

That was one of the favorite sayings the coaches at McMaster University used to say come morning swim time when half the team would come hung over from a night at the pub.  Well after the race last weekend in Edmonton a group of us went out for a bit and ended up at a karaoke bar singing with the Aussie team.  The next morning my throat was sore and scratchy...I just thought it was because of my awesome singing the night before.  Well it turned into a sore throat which has evolved into a head cold and today I am not feeling so hot.  I am not sure if it was because of my once a year going out stint but boy oh boy I feel like I am paying for it now.

We started back into some hard sessions today.  The swim this morning was a 6 rounds of 5x100 descend by effort and pace time.  I felt like a bag of smashed apples but was trucking through doing OK.  Others were doing much worse then me so after 4 rounds the coach made us throw on paddles and pull buoys and we did a 1000 straight to finish off the workout.  Got some breaky in me and hit the hay for 90min before I headed to Commonwealth for a treadmill run.  30min WU then the set was 8-6-4-2-1 descending pace.  I barely made it through the 8min'er, then on the 6min'er.......KABOOM.  Done..."wow you really do look like a bag of smashed apples" says coach.  "Just warm down and get outta here!".

I AM POOPED!  rest rest rest sleep sleep sleep drugs drugs drugs and some more drugs to make me feel all better and salvage this week with some wicked ass training this weekend. 

VIRTUAL OLYMPIC SPOT!

Heck yea I now own a third spot for Canada for the Olympics...although it does not mean squat right now I still think that it is cool!  I moved up in the Olympic Rankings after these last couple races to be ranked 52nd.  Only 8 countries can have three athletes represent their countries next year in Beijing...and I have now earned Canada that last spot to have three athletes.  We are fighting with a couple other countries to keep that 8th and final spot to send a full mens team.  This next year is going to be tough to keep it but the Canadian Men are doing good right now.  You can check out the Olympic Simulation here.

A quick recap of the last couple races:

Des Moines World Cup - Lisa made her way to meet me in Des Moines for the weekend to watch my race and be my support crew...it was great to have her there with me!  Other than that Des Moines sucked!  The city is dead on the weekend as everyone lives in the suburbs (Joel calls it Urban Rot).  It was hot, hot, hot!  I never really felt that good right from the start.  The swim I was able to hang in but my turnover was getting really slow on the second lap.  The bike was tough and the run was tougher...pretty brutal!  Not pretty.  But then again a third of the field dropped out so but I ended up finishing.  The run felt like a jog...hard to keep moving forward.  I felt like I was melting out there!

Edmonton World Cup - After Des Moines I flew the next day to Edmonton and stayed at Paul Tichelaars condo for the week.  He let me have the whole place to myself and he stayed at his girlfriends place a couple blocks away.  Over the next couple days my recovery seemed to be taking forever.  I was feeling really tired all the time and my workouts were sucking.  But by Friday I was able to have a good treadmill run which gave me hope for the weekend!  In this race I felt a lot more sharp then last.  The air and water were pretty chilly so it took me a while to get the feel for the water but I kept strong for both laps.  Hopped on the bike and made it to the front pretty quickly and a group of about 18 formed and worked pretty good for the remainder of the bike putting 2 minutes on the chase pack.  I ran the first loop of three with a group of runners that were much faster than me.  I just wanted to last one lap with them and see what happens from there.  I got dropped from them after that first lap and suffered on the second lap from the fast pace of the first.  By the third lap I had recovered a bit and was able to finish strong in 13th place.  I was happy with my performance on the day.

So far I have done 7 out of the first 8 World Cups this year.  I knew coming into this year that I would be doing quite a bit of racing to get as many points as I can.  Last year my best placing at a World Cup was 21st.  So far this year I have four top 20 results with one of them being in the top 10!  I am really pleased with how this year has panned out for me.  BUT there is still lots of work to do to get ready for the next block of races.  BRING IT ON COACH!

Quote

"Our lives are inspired by the dreams we have from the earliest stages of our youth. When we combine passion and hard work, then success is always possible. While no road is ever straight, dedication and persistence will always lead to your dreams."

Chillin in Des Moines

The temperature here is hot. The lake water is hot. Des Moines World Cup Triathlon is going to be hot! And my new HUMMER at the finish line looks even hotter!!! Especially with $200k in the back seat! hahahaha...i wish. So far this race has been first class. The committee has done a great job of getting everything ready and looking good.

Today we did a little bit of everything. I ran in the morning on the treadmills, rode the bike course in the heat of the day and finished it off with a swim in the lake. Later on we had the athletes meeting and then hopped on a bus that took us to the pasta dinner. We had to wait a little while for the food but when we were allowed to dive in it was very tasty! Especially the dessert. mmmmmmm.

Here are a couple pics from the last couple days:

This was on my bed when I got into the room...seems like I was the only one to get it...I guess they do not like anyone else and are treating me extra special because I told them that I was going to win this weekend and that I was a big deal back in Canada. They asked if I was better than Kirsten...I said she isn't even close!

Pounding the pavement...or belt I should say.

My new race suit that I will be wearing this weekend...wearing the BG colours hoping that they will like that and sponsor me for $100k...you listening big BG executives!?!?!?

Kyle getting caught trying to steal the HUMMER

I took this one for Dano...he would have been all over this!

1 Down...2 To Go

Last weekend I raced in the Vancouver World Cup. It was awesome to go to a race and not have to get on a plane and travel for a full day or two to get to the destination. All it took was a quick ferry ride over and we were there. It couldn't get any better than that! Before the race I was worried that this was not going to be a good race considering how the race course was laid out...wetsuit swim, no sharp corners on swim, 1 big swim loop...all these factors usually mean everyone exits the water together and the bike packs come together fast. Well needless to say, I could not have dreamed for a better outcome to the race.

I had an awesome start to the swim. It was a run in start...a couple quick strides, dive in and flail the arms around like you are posessed by the same demond as Kirsten and hope that you are faster than the others around you. Well Kirstens demond sure helped me and after a couple strokes I had clean water and was heading towards the first buoy in the lead. Andy Potts came around me after the first third and I hopped on his feet and it stayed that way for the remainder of the swim. I exited the water in second...ran to transition as fast as my chicken legs would take me and hopped on my bike in third. Potts and a young Russian got away immediately and by the first time up the big climb (8 laps), 5 of us had quickly formed a fast charging chase pack. There were two Americans and two other Canadians (Whitfield and Tichelaar) in the same pack as me and by the end of the second lap we caught the leaders and immediately started gel and work like a well oiled machine. We would get time updates at the top of the big climb each lap (25 seconds, 45 seconds, 1:15, 1:30....) and by the end of the last lap we had made about 2min on a duo and almost 4min on the main chase pack. Wow...wow...wow...wow. That is probably the biggest lead that a mens field has seen in a World Cup in who knows how many years but that is very rare. Lots of time means that no one will be catching you on the run (I hope not!!!!) and that the race was between the 7 of us. Well lets just say that my skinny legs do not move as fast as the other 12 legs in the pack when we get on land. I ran as hard as I could for most of the run....was able to stay with one other athlete for half the run with a couple others just ahead. By the last lap of three I slowed up a bit to not take everything out of me on the run (still have two more races in two weeks to do) and finished the race in an awesome seventh place! Man I was excited....my first top ten in a World Cup! Holla!!!!

That result moved me up around 15 places in the Olympic Rankins. I am now ranked 57th...still need to move up a lot more to secure Canada a 3 man team to Beijing. Right now we are fighting with Spain for the last spot to be able to send 3 men to the games. There is still a whole year left of races so lots can happen between now and then.

After the race we jumped on the late ferry back to Victoria and I was able to sleep in my own bed after a good effort. It was wicked not to have to pack up and hop on a plane all sore and tired. Love it! A couple old friends showed up to the race to cheer me on. Gord and his brother that I met while at school at LU (on the swim team) were at the top of the hill cheering me on each lap...it was wicked to see them both again...thanks for coming guys! Also one of the support staff was a friend of mine that I knew from doing triathlons in Ontario back in the day....Jenn Turner. We used to be coached by the same guy when I first started the sport.

Well now I am all packed up and ready to go. We fly out of Victoria at 5:40am and start our trip to Des Moines, Iowa. I am meetin my girlfriend Lisa in Des Moines...she is flying out to be on my support team! A VALUABLE member of the team! This is one of our Olympic Selection races and there is $700,000USD on the line (the biggest prize purse in ITU history). The winners each get $200,000 and a H3 (Hummer). Lots on the line! There will be live audio and video coverage of this race on Sunday. My race starts at 4:30 local time (2:30PM Pacific, 5:30PM Eastern, 10:30PM BST for all of you in England following me) so check out www.triathlon.org for all the coverage.

Off to bed now...it is going to be an early morning!

P.S. Here are some pics from the race last weekend in Vancouver:

He didn't want his crown jewels falling out...

Not the bike race I thought I would see....

So I was just in the hotel room watching some Prison Break (great show by the way) on my laptop when we hear some shouting outside...I thought maybe there is a fight breaking out or something so we run to the balcony and what do we see....a bunch of naked people riding bikes down the middle of the street! Sooooo Funny! We saw on the news later on tonight that it was International ride your bike naked day or something like that...there is a couple more rides happening around the world today just like the one here in Vancouver in protest about the amount of cars on the road and commercialization. My mom asked if I jumped in and joined! hahah...not quite. When I got downstairs naked they were way down the road. Just missed them. The worst part was walking back through the lobby naked after charging out the door. Some people were looking and me strange, others looked away and covered their eyes, and some of the men were smiling at me....we are in the gay district in Vancouver by the way. hahahah...that would be funny if that actually happened but it didn't. Got you going there I bet!

Vancouver is awesome. I love big cities and racing through them is even better. APBSmith and I are sharing a hotel...we have been making our meals in the room....we have a full kitchenette which has been great to cook our own food. There may be some others that are not enjoying Vancouver as much. Some Kiwis were having coffee inside a shop with all their bikes stacked up outside the window....well a guy in a hooded sweatshirt came up and took one of the bikes right in front of them and took off. Well they all went for the chase but could not catch him...bike stolen right before the race....OUCH! Hopefully he gets a replacement right before the race. Too bad that happened here because this is a great city.

We went swimming at the race course this morning....wow, wow, oh wow it is cold. Swimming in English Bay in 13 degree temperature and rain is not my favorite thing in the world to do. Too bad the weather has not been cooperating. ITU puts on World Cups all around the world in exotic hot places....I guess they had to throw in a cold race to put the canucks in an environment that we are used to! They are calling for rain...no wait...clouds....no sun...or is it rain now? Who knows...the weather changed every 10 min here so who knows what it is going to be. It is going to be a little chilly though...thats for sure.

Well it is time to go watch some more Prison Break and put my feet up....maybe go get a little dessert before bed...mmmmmmmm!!!! I need the insulation for tomorrows race! That can be my excuse.

Ill leave you with a little cartoon that I found. I found it really funny...it happens to me too often!