My Last Chapter of the Cadence Kona Challenge

I finally had an MRI on my knee and it looks like there is Arthritis. I now have to take the images to a sports doctor who can fully diagnose the problem and hopefully help me with an action plan to get back running. Its been about 2 1/2 months since I completed the sprint triathlon that seemed to be the breaking point. Since then I have been to see 3 different types of therapists, submitted a lot of receipts to my healthcare plan, and spent a bunch of myown money to try and get this fixed so that I could run and get ready to do Arizona in November.

I thought if I could be running by the end of August then I still would have 13 weeks to prepare. I wouldn't have cared if I had to run slower, just that I could run. Well, that hasn't been the case. I have tried once a week for the last 2 months and each time I haven't made it more than 2km then I'm done. Its not one of those pains that if you walk a bit then you can start up again, its like a knife being plunged into my knee and then I have to endure this as I get myself home. Walking becomes extremely painful. After a couple of hours its gone and I'm back to normal. This has been part of the problem, when at the doctors or physio, they pull and stretch and prod but it usually doesn't cause any pain. I can bike moderately and swim with very little discomfort so I would get excited and head out for a run thinking that its going to be OK but like I said, I have had no luck.

So, I have cancelled my plans to do Arizona, and also the Muskoka 70.3 Ironman next week. But all the news is not bad. I did register for the Ironman Calgary 70.3 and also got an online spot for Ironman Canada. I have almost a year to get this knee figured out and I'll be able to finish what I started. Calgary will be fun as we have family there we can stay with and my wife's cousin has also signed up and this could be his first triathlon. Not too many people sign up for a 1/2 Ironman without previous experience so give him full credit.

Ironman Canada, I believe was the universe consoling me for having to drop out of Arizona. I was trying to think of an event that I could do next year but you're limited to what is not already full, and then I got the e-mail sayiny there would be online registration so I made sure I was at my desk and got a spot at 12:00:01. My sister and my father live a few hours away from Penticton so it will be a good chance to see them next year.

This will probably be my last blog, honestly, who really wants to hear about a guy struggling with a knee injury? I find this boring to write about now but it this can be my closure. I've had a pretty cool year, a few trips to New York, my spot in Triathlete magazine, some pretty awesome prizes, and reaching a level of fitness that I had never experienced. I have had a few problems along the way and this last one put a dark cloud over everything but I still completed the Florida 70.3 and I know that I could have done a full ironman if my knee was healthy.

This has been an interesting interlude in my life. Would I do it all again? in a heartbeat. I might change a few things but for the most part its been a good ride. The mental aspect of triathlon is huge and I believe I did fairly well. I was surprised with myself after Florida that I wasn't overly excited about finishing. I was happy with the finish, glad to be a part of the experience, but I still thought "That was it?" It didn't seem like a big deal. At that point I knew I was ready to do a full Ironman, I wanted to go longer. I wish my brain and my body were on the same page! Cause I'm sure my knee was saying "That is it!".

I would like to thank everyone who read, commented, sent notes, voted, talked to, etc. etc. etc.
Whats more fun than Triathlon? Talking about Triathlon, and I've done my share on the topic this year. This is what helps motivate you.

Oh yeah, I have one final note before I sign off....Al, who rocked the bike in Smith Falls? Yup, it was me!

Scott

Ironman Jealousy

First off, A huge congratulations to Mary Lou, James and Elizabeth for completing Ironman Lake Placid! I was on the computer all day checking in to see where you were at.

I will have to admit though I was a little "pissy" that I was not there racing. A cool rainy day is right up my alley! One of the reasons why I didn't go was because it would have drove me nuts to be there. I've heard people say that you should watch one before doing one, but that doesn't work for me, I would have tried to get on the course and go with everyone. It would have been great to see everyone though and I have often thought it would be great if we could all get together sometime and do a race together.

That being said, I'm in no shape to be doing an Ironman, or a try a tri for that matter. My knee just doesn't want to run. I've just started with a new sports therapist who hopes to have me back training in a week or two, but it will probably be a slow process. Its 4 months until Arizona so I still have time, but there are a couple races I would like to do as lead ups. One is the Muskoka 1/2 Ironman in September, and the other is the County marathon in October. Both will be great races if I can stay healthy.

I bought a new road bike yesterday, a SCOTT CR-1, all carbon beauty! I couldn't pass on the chance to have a bike with my name on it. My oldest son thought they made it especially for me, I lied to him and said they did. I'm sure in one of their ads it says "Imagine yourself riding a Scott". If you think about it, it's funny! I'm hoping to be able to ride this weekend so I will give it a good go.















That's all for now, hope everyone is doing well,
Scott

I Haven't Got time for the Pain

This will be quick, as for the last 2 1/2 weeks I have only completed a few training session.
Its been a difficult go with my right knee with not a whole lot of progress, I am able to walk around almost pain free, but it is stil there.

Last week I did a couple swim sessions, mostly with the pull boy, and I tried to to go for a run after having a good day but only made it about 500m and had to turn back. This morning was another attempt and I made it about 3km and was running down a hill and felt a little jolt of pain so I immediately stopped and walked home. After doing a good stretch, my knee feels a little tender, but not bad. I'm hoping to test it on my road bike tonight and if that goes well I will try to get out for a good ride this weekend.

I never thought I would be one of those people you see running or cycling at an ungodly hour, and justified my recent early/late training sessions to the commitments of the contest, but I am actually jealous seeing other people training at 6am on my way to work. That being said, I am also jealous of the people at BBQ's who are scarfing down burgers and drinking beer with no guilt as well. Somewhere in that is a happy median.

I would really like to thank everyone for their votes last month, I've had a few notes from people who not only voted, but passed it on to others as well.

Hopefully I will have a better training blog soon, cause I really don't have time for the pain!

Take care,
Scott

Smith Falls Race Report and Other Stuff

Its been a few weeks since I last blogged so I thought I'd better give a little update.

On Sunday I was in the Smith Falls Classic Triathlon, a sprint tri with a 500m swim, 26km bike and a 5km run. This is Canada's oldest triathlon in its 29th year. Last year I did this as my very first tri, and I did the try-a tri and I won. Smith falls is home to a Hershey's chocolate factory and the winners in each group received a 5lb bag of chocolate. Other than my kids being born and meeting my wife, getting 5lbs of chocolate for winning was one of the happiest moments of my life. Smith Falls is a nice course, fairly flat bike with a nice 5km run portion.

I'll start my excuse right now before I get in too deep. On Tuesday I was doing a brick workout and had my bike on the trainer to do some overgear work and as soon as I went out on the run my knee started to hurt. It was in a spot that I hadn't had trouble with before so I kept on and thought it was more of a cramp than anything. About 3km out I had to stop and couldn't run at all, walking was tough and a 3km run isn't that far, but walking it with a sore leg seems like a marathon. I took it easy the next couple of days and things got better, so much that I did an 80km ride on Saturday and had no problems. I was already registered for the tri and didn't want to miss out on my shirt so I headed up to Smith Falls, alone, as my son had his championship ball hockey game at the same time in the morning, which they won! OK, back to me, I did a little pre-race warm-up run with a co-worker and everything felt great, no worries. I had an OK swim, about what I was capable of doing and a decent transition and got on the bike and gave it all I could. My HR was in the 150's and I was going about 25-26 MPH on the flats. I kept this up until we hit a corner and hit a pretty good head wind, it was all I could do to push 20mph. About 20km into the bike I felt a little discomfort in my knee but not enough to slow me down. I had passed a few people in my age group so I knew that I had made up some time on the better swimmers, but I wasn't sure of my time as I have lost my watch and was going "naked". My bike computer has a HR monitor so this was the only time that I knew what my bpm's were. As soon as I got off the bike at transition I knew that something was wrong. I decided to try and run anyways to see if was the same problem as before or just something else. I got about 2km in of poor running before it really got bad. I stopped and tried to rub my knee but that didn't help so I knew I was done. I tried to walk but that hurt even more than running and I knew I had another 3km to get back to transition so I did a kind of run/limp/hobble back to the end. My fitness was excellent and I was ready to lay it out there to see how fast I could run after giving my best on the bike so it was very disappointing to have this happen but the best part was having people cheering for you to just hold on and finish. The cheers of "You can do it", "It's just a little farther", "You're doing great, just keep going" were starting to drive me nuts. I was running like a person in a three legged race, but with no partner. I appreciate their enthusiasm but at this point I was not in the mood, my knee hurt really bad and I knew I shouldn't have run so I was a little pissy. I did finish with a time of 1:19:01 and good for 6th place in my age group. I couldn't believe that I still finished fairly well. Coming into T2 I was right beside the guy who finished 2nd in our age group and was still able to hold on to 6th. I knew I had a good bike split but I still thought that the good swimmers were still ahead of me so I really wanted to run hard and try to catch them. This wasn't possible but it wasn't until about 3-4 km in that I began to get passed by other guys in my group. I still finished the run in 25:54 when I thought I would be around 30 min so apparently I hobble pretty quick. When I checked the results and realized that I was racing for second, that perked me up a bit. I know that if I could have run properly I would have been on the podium. The winner in our age group would have kicked my butt even if I had my best day, but I would have been happy with second. Oh well, I did get the shirt though.

I went to therapy on Monday and found out it is a problem with my knee cap and it moves around a bit too much. I hobbled in and after 20 min of rehab and laser treatment I was able to put pressure on my leg and walk out almost normal. Its still sore, but way better than it was. I'm going to take it easy for a bit to make sure it's completely healed before trying anything too strenuous.

This leads me into the Online voting for the 2 spots at Lake Placid. I wasn't one of the two chosen, Ccongratulations to James an Mary Lou!! I must admit that I am a bit relieved that I don't have to train like a madman for the next 4 weeks to get ready for an Ironman. I know I could have done it, but I also know that I need to let this knee problem work itself out and it might not have been pretty. Both James and Mary Lou will do great and hopefully I will get to go down and watch. I've heard that its a good to watch one before actually doing one. Thanks to everyone who sent in a vote for me, it is greatly appreciated!

Well thats about it.

Cheers,
Scott

Post Race Funk

Here it is 3 weeks since the Florida 1/2 Ironman and I'm just getting back into the swing of things. Getting out of vacation and training mode and back into real life was a big letdown. I could easily be a kept man and stay at home, one problem though, I need money. Triathlon is not a cheap hobby and its taken its toll on my finances. We might have to flip a coin to see which child gets to go to university.

I really struggled with my workouts, especially keeping my focus. Coming into racing season and not knowing whether I'm going to do Lake Placid or not doesn't help either. I need something in front of me to keep me motivated, like a carrot in front of a donkey. I would really like to do Lake Placid mainly because I don't want to wait for Arizona. November is a long time away and I would rather go hard for the next few weeks, finish the race, and then take a break for August, then decide whether to do Arizona or not. If I don't get a spot then I think I will scale back on the longer workouts and do a bunch of sprint tri's in the summer. Voting ends on June 15, so there is still time to "VOTE SHARPE".

Here's my update,

Swim
Nothing new, just plugging away.

Bike
Did a 5 hour ride on Saturday on a windy day, so half of it was fun......the part where the wind was at my back.

Run
Had some good runs, and one really bad one. The bad one involved me walking 2 miles to get home. I tell everyone about the importance of proper nutrition, but I apparently forgot to tell myself.

That's basically it. Its been a very busy couple of weeks as the boys are now into soccer season, plus Alexander has ball hockey and Karate. Throw training on top of that and it all adds up to a lack of sleep, for everyone. Summer is finally here as well and so is the humidity. As cold as it gets in the winter, its almost as bad in the summer. I'm not sure what I dislike more, the intense cold or the heat with high humidity. In the summer you can only remove so much before it becomes offensive, and triathletes hover on that line.

One last note, my dedication hit a new level this last weekend as we had neighbours over on Friday night and one of them brought a big bucket filled with alcoholic beverages on ice. I stared for awhile but didn't have any, a true Ironman!

Cheers and stay cool,
Scott

First Half Ironman Post Race Report

Well, I'm back and am an official Half Ironmanner!

Here is my recap of how the race and the week went down.

We got in to Disney World on Wednesday night about 8pm after a long day. I was up early to get a swim in before we left for the airport and the rest of the day was spent hauling luggage and kids around on various forms of transportation. The next couple of days were filled with touring Disney and doing some light training. Looking back, I probably should have relaxed more but its hard with the kids as they were raring' to go. Saturday was mainly a rest day with a light swim/bike/run early morning as a final preparation.

Race Day

Up at 3am to have a breakfast of cold Penne pasta with olive oil, yummy! Remember when waking up after a night of drinking and having cold pizza was the best thing you could eat? This was nothing like that! My nerves were all over the place and it was extremely difficult to get it down. The day before we had ran into another competitor who had rented a car to get from the resort to the shuttle ( we found out a week before that they would not be providing one) so Amy and I hitched a ride with her to save cab fare, Thanks DEE (Congratulations on a great race!)
So we were off at 4:30 am and got to the race site at around 5am. It was a nice morning with good cloud cover and not too warm. I set everything up and stretched and waited for my wave to start.

As I was waiting for my wave to go to the beach, I was really relaxed, my nerves had settled (even after a close call of almost dropping my swim cap down the port a potty) and I was very comfortable. It didn't last long. Our horn went off and I held back a bit so that I could draft the faster swimmers and after high stepping a way I dove in and immediately swallowed a big gulp of water. Then I panicked. It was horrible, my heart rate went through the roof and I could not breathe properly. I dog paddled for a bit and even came to a complete stop a couple of times. I was actually thinking that I would need to get to a kayaker for help. Then the next horn blew and looked back and the next wave was coming. This made me feel even worse. I closed my eyes for a couple of seconds and tried to relax. After that I just went forward and slowly worked my way back into form and was started to calm down. Great! I'm in form and I'm relaxed. What a relief. I had looked back and saw that I was still not last in my wave so I took some comfort in that. Now onto my next problem. Although I was swimming well, I was not swimming straight. At least 5 times in the next 1000m I was yelled at for being off course by an official. I'm not sure what I was doing, I would look up and see the buoys and start swimming then the next time I looked up I was all by myself. At about the halfway point I looked at my watch and I was at 24 min. I was not happy. Coming down the last 700m was as bad as the beginning. I finally was swimming straight but then ran into the slower swimmers. It was very congested and I had to stop numerous times as people hit me from all sides. I got out of the water and I was at 42 min and couldn't believe that it only took me that long! I didn't swim the fastest but I probably swam the farthest! One bright spot was that I came out of the water with no dizziness or feeling wobbly.

A 6 min transition?
What the hell! I could have learned a new language in that time! My feet were covered in sand and mud so I had to clean them off, I also had to put on my HR monitor, go to the bathroom and then as I'm running with my bike I realize my computer is up side down. I don't have a lot of room with my aero bottle so I had to pull it off to get my computer out to turn it around. I learned a lot in those 6 min, mostly to be better prepared!

The bike was just what I needed to rid my mind of the previous 2 events. It was perfect weather, mostly cloudy and only about 78F. It rained a couple of times and I was slowed a couple of more times due to course conditions but other than that I stuck to my plan which was to hold back and save my legs for the run. I kept my cadence at 90rpm and didn't let my HR get above 145 BPM. There were a few times when I was passed and I wanted to pick it up but I held back and made sure I took in enough fluids and calories to get me through. I finished the bike in 2:39 with an avg speed of about 21mph. I got off the bike knowing I could have been faster, but I was in good shape to run.

T2 was better at 3:30 min, but I did wait about 1.5 min to use the port a potty.

The run was my big worry. I hadn't done any long bricks leading up to this and the heat would be a big factor as well. As soon as I got off the bike, all the clouds disappeared and it got hot! My strategy was to walk through the aid stations and get as cool as possible and then run the course. It was a 3 loop course with 3 aid stations. I used them all every time! I put sponges in my visor as well as down my back, ice on my head, and took a drink at each one then ran to the next one. It went by fairly quick and I actually enjoyed it! Coming down the finishing chute and having my family there was the highlight of the day! I finished strong and came in at 1:58. Not bad considering a month ago I was having trouble walking!

Overall time 5:29:12, good for 481 overall and 95 out of 351 in my age group.

Although I was a little disappointed in my time, I thought holding back a bit I could still do 5:15, I was happy with the race. I recovered from a bad swim, had a good ride, and was able to handle the heat. I saw quite a few people who had to walk the course, a few people in the medical tent and a huge line up for massages. I rode my bike back to the hotel and had a little rest and was back at Magic Kingdom for the nighttime parade. My legs were sore the next couple of days but other than that I felt fine. Hopefully I will be able to use this race to go harder next time.

We spent a couple more days at Disney, which is pretty much out of my comfort zone as I don't like crowds, and I don't like crowds of people wearing cheesey shirts and hats! I enjoyed the resort and the pool and the kids had a great time.

Overall it was a good week.

One last note, voting is now online, if you want to send me to Lake Placid, just send an e-mail to this address triathletemagcontest@gmail.com and type in Sharpe. Good luck to all of my fellow Cadence Kona Challengers - we have all worked very hard!!

Time to Fly

I have to keep this short as we are almost ready to leave for Florida.

I've had a pretty good taper week with some shorter sessions in all three sports, doing them at a relaxed pace with some pick-ups in between. My leg and foot feels pretty good so hopefully no problems there. It looks like the temperature for Sunday is going to be 96 which is a long way from from where we are at. With proper hydration and nutrition I should be OK.

My bike is tuned up and packed, I've got all my gear, kids are getting crazy, Amy is stressed out about leaving work, we've triple checked for the second time......OK, I think were ready!

See you at the finish line,
Scott

Getting Closer

One week until we leave for Florida and one and a half till race day! I am starting to taper this week and figure the only part of my game that I need to work on is the mental one. I usually go about my business and don't get too excited about things, so I've decided to step it up this time!

I'm going to kick some ass!
I'll blast out of the water, rip it up on the bike, then tear up the road!

OK, that's all I've got and even that was a stretch. Like I said, I don't get too excited.

But seriously,

I may not get too excited but I am a little nervous. And being nervous can be a good thing. I believe it makes you more focused and lets you analyse in a more in depth way.

Or maybe I should stop analysing and let the race take care of itself? Deep breaths and letting my mind wander to happy places. Happy places like Disney World, lots of fun things to see and do. Things to do? Like my first 1/2 Ironman! Oh crap, I'm back to it again!

Like I said, I'm cutting back this week after a good week last week that included a 120K bike.
It still boggles my mind that an Ironman bike is 180K. Last week was the longest ride that I have ever done and it went really well, minus the flat tire, wet roads, and the abundance of worms on those roads. I cleaned dead dried up worms for an hour the other day. I don't fish because I don't like worms, so cleaning them off my bike was not fun.

My legs felt pretty good the next day after the long bike so I headed out for a long run. It was pretty cool out but perfect running weather. I had been out about 1 1/2 hours when I felt a little jolt of pain in my foot so I decided to cut it short at around 2 hours when I made my way back home. So far nothing serious though.

That's pretty much it, its been rather uneventful around here which is good as next week will more than make up for it.

A special note of congratulations to James and Wendy on the birth of their son, Ben. I'm glad to hear that everyone is doing well and look forward to your blogs....Cheers!

Scott

Two Weeks 'Till Florida

It's only two weeks until we leave for Disney World, and two and a half weeks until Florida 70.3. I'll admit that I'm getting a little anxious and maybe even a little testy! I still have a lot of training to do to be prepared and time is winding down as I also want to put in some recovery time. Five months ago when I originally signed up for this race I felt like I had all the time I needed, and that I would be more than prepared. My injuries to my right leg have set me back a bit and I feel like if I had another 3-4 weeks then I would be back on track. Oh well, I can't change the past so I will just have to move forward. I am really looking forward to the trip as it will be every one's first time at Disney World. I plan on getting in a couple of days of quality time with the boys and Amy before race day, and hopefully this will relax me mentally. Alexander and Caleb are really getting excited, and Amy has a well planned itinerary so I shouldn't have to think too much! We also have a couple of days after the race for sightseeing, and I'm hoping I will be able to enjoy it.

Here's my training updates;

I started this week off with a fragmented Ironman swim, which is a warm-up of 200m followed by 4 sets of 1000m done as 800m at training pace with 200m easy followed by 30 secs of rest then a cool down of another 200m. This was a BIG swim for me! I have done a lot of workouts in the 3000-3500m range but they had a lot of drills with lots of rest periods. They would go by without you thinking that you had swam that far. This workout was basically a straight through swim and I was actually wondering if I could do it. Well, I made it through but had to make two quick trips to the bathroom so two of my30 secs of rest were probably closer to 1:30. I was able to keep a pace of about 20 min/1000m. This isn't all that fast but it gives me the confidence that my endurance is coming along.

Its so nice to be able to get outdoors on the bike and put in some quality time. Last week I did a 3 hour ride in an area I hadn't ridden before and it went by pretty quick. I kept a pretty steady pace of about 30-31 km/hr and just tried to make sure that I was pedalling constantly. I also made sure that I was properly fueled up and had lots with me for the ride. I took two hours before the ride to get myself prepared and it made a world of difference. I felt like I could have easily gone for a run after which was not the case the week before. I will probably only have another two long distance rides before heading south so I want to put in a 4-5 hour ride this weekend and then hopefully a good brick on the next one. My goal is to ride the Florida course at around the 20-22 mph range. I have no idea what to expect coming out of the water so I'm not sure how this will play out.

My runs have also picked up in the last two weeks as I have been basically pain free. Last weekend I did a 16 mile run, the longest I have ever ran, and was still able to head out for a swim a few hours later. I wanted to put in 3 hours but my legs were starting to get tired around the 2 hour mark so I thought better of hammering out the miles. I still don't want to overdue right now so I'll just gradually work my way up. Again, I have no idea what to expect getting on the bike, and then off the bike and onto the run so it will be a huge learning experience for me.

I probably should have done an Olympic distance first and worked my way up but its too late now, I'm just going to have to expect that it might not go as planned, I might not be as fast as I want, or I might surprise myself, after all, I have put in a lot of training in and if it all comes together it might be magical, maybe Disney magical!

Scott

Spring is here! or maybe its Summer?

The strange thing about living in Canada (well, just one of the many) is that you can get all four seasons in the space of a couple of weeks. Three weeks ago it was still cold and wet, and this last week has been hot. It is nice to finally put away the winter coats and put on a T-shirt and shorts but it would also be nice to acclimatize to warmer weather rather than just be hit with it.


I have made some great improvements in the last week with the pain in my leg and foot. Last week I only did two short runs and they both went really well. The best thing obviously for an injury is to stay off completely but I'm getting down to the wire with Florida 70.3 and can not afford to do at least a little if I can. My big goal is to do a long run this Sunday, trying for about 15-18k with a steady pace. I'm also going to do a couple short runs just to keep form. I have one more PT session planned for this week and hopefully it will be the last, and since I'm running out of benefit money, I will have to pay out of pocket soon. C'mon leg!


My swims the last couple weeks have gone really well also. This being my weak point, I am very pleased with my workouts. I don't think I am a whole lot faster, but steadier and more comfortable. I won't be able to do an outdoor swim before Florida so I have no idea what to expect for a time, or how I will feel getting out. Wetsuits won't be allowed and I haven't raced without one before.

I was finally able to get out on my bike and do a long ride (56 miles). I will break it down into two parts. First 23 miles- good steady pace, legs felt fine, heart rate also fine. I ran into a couple swarms of black flies which reminds you to NOT breath with your mouth wide open! This took me to a ferry crossing and I quickly stopped for a bio break and to eat a bar and turned around to go back. Second 23 miles- where did the wind come from? Where did the hills come from? Where did my speed and power go? Oh Crap! I need more food! Lesson learned. I realized on the way back that I was not fully prepared. I have done long rides in my basement but when I needed something I banged on the ceiling and Amy would bring it too me. About 10 miles left to go I started to lose energy, fast. This is not a nice feeling as you can feel all your strength just slipping away and you still have a ways to go. When I made it home I was a little shaky and quickly got some food and had a good stretch, and about an hour later I was fine. The good thing from this was that I did the ride and recovered well. A year ago I probably would have taken a week off, but I was back in the pool the next day and also put a run in.


Also last week I went to our Multi-Sports Club kick-off meeting and had the chance to hear a local athletes story. His name is Tony O'Keeffe and he has completed 21 Ironmans, a couple of Ultra-mans, and in 2006 finished 8th in the Race across America (RAAM) in 11 days and 5 hours. I am also sure I heard him say he climbed Everest as well (not that its a big deal?!). He had said that preparing for RAAM, he did a 48 hour straight ride on his trainer in his basement just to see if he could do it. I was thoroughly impressed and more than a little humbled. Makes my 3 hour Saturday ride look like a ride with the kids.


Finally, I've been doing a lot of thinking about my race in Florida in three weeks (yikes). This will be my first long distance race, as I have only done sprints, and I'm not really sure how to approach it. Do I try to race hard, or do I just get used to the distance? I've wrestled with this continuously for the last couple of weeks especially since I haven't been able to run that much. I am worried that if I try to go too hard that I will re aggravate it and be back on the sidelines. I want to finish and I want to finish strong, but I also don't want to regret not having gone harder.


Hope your training hard,
Scott

A Leg "Down" on the Competition

Well another week has past and the only real changes has been with the weather. Finally we are getting our Spring and this week we are going to hit 18C. The mornings are still cool which is perfect for running and the afternoons are warming up nicely.

Not a whole lot of change with my leg/foot injury, still just holding on. I have had a few sessions with a PT and things were looking really good at the end of last week so I got back on the bike and did a 1:30 ride on the trainer then went for a 5k run. This was the first time that I had bike or running shoes on in over a week and things went well. I was testing out a new power meter that I had bought earlier in the week and wanted to see what it would give me for watts. The unit is the Polar 600 and it measures watts from chain tension so I was curious to see its consistency. I did two 20 min time trials and was consistently at 300 watts. Not having done any real exercise in over a week, this was a good wake up, especially heading out for a run afterwards. I felt strong and my time was OK at 24 min, and after a good stretch everything still felt good, just a little bit tender which I fully expected. On Sunday I decided I would go out for a 10K run at a slow pace just to get back in the groove and it turned out to be a horrible run. For some reason my breathing was way off and I found myself taking short breaths and feeling winded. This was running in my endurance zone so I should not have felt this way. Oh well, I continued on and it wasn't until the last km that my foot started to twinge, then in the last 200m I had a couple jolts of sharp pain. A good stretch afterwards and some ice didn't seem to help a lot. This morning was the same thing as last week, mild pain on the outer muscle of my lower leg and pain on the outer side of my foot.

As I have mentioned before, Florida 1/2 Ironman is getting really close so I have some decisions to make with respect to my training. Do I hit the swim and bike hard and stay off the run?, do I forget about Florida and rest and get ready for the next event? I really want to do Florida but not at the expense of losing a couple more months. I might even go to Florida and just do the swim and bike, I have the trip booked anyways and it would still be a good experience to get those distances under my belt. I'm a little up in the air right now.

Hopefully I will be back to a full schedule soon, I find the busier I am, the happier I am. I love chaos. If things are slow I tend to make stuff up and it drives my wife crazy.

I watched Ironman Arizona yesterday on a webcast and was a little excited thinking that I will be doing this race in November. The 25mph winds on the bike was a little unnerving though. But what a finish! Imagine racing for 8.5 hours to have 4 people finish within 2 minutes of each other. Sorry to hear Randy's son, Anders, had to pull out after a terrific swim and bike with what looks like the same injury as I have. He's young, he'll recover quickly...hope he is feeling better soon!

Hope everyone's training is going well,
Scott

Holy Crap! I'm not 18?

Well I had a new post written last week that I was just going to edit before actually posting it but I have had to scrap it. I've finally realized as I journey through my mid-life crisis that I am no longer invincible as I was at 18. My body apparantly would rather I ease into Ironman training instead of just jumping in. Gone are the days when I could throw a tensor bandage on sore spot and carry on.

The blog had detailed how my run was progressing and that I was finally running with no pain at all. That was Tuesday afternoon. By Tuesday night I had sharp pains down my right leg and an extremely sore foot. I went to bed and got up early to do a 50 min run and felt fine until about 10 min in to the run. My foot started to feel a little uncomfortable but it wasn't enough to stop me from finishing out the run. After stretching it out and getting to work I had totally forgotten about it, until about 9am. Then WHAMOO! What the frig was that! Sharp stabbing pains twice as bad as the day before. Since then I have been hobbling around and barely able to put any pressure on that foot at all. I won't be able to get into the physiotherapists until this Wednesday so its been ice and Advil since. I've been trying to not do anything on it but I still have to work and just when it feels like the pain is gone, it starts up again. So far this week I have gained 5lbs due to my inactivity and I also think I'm eating more out of anxiety. I haven't even been able to get on the bike as putting the shoes on hurts as well. I tried a new pair of shoes for my long run last Sunday and this deviation may be my problem.

So, really I don't have a lot to write about, I'm 6 weeks away from my first 1/2 Ironman and I am getting a little nervous. Last week felt great as everything seemed like it was coming together and hopefully I can get healed up soon enough that I can get some quality training in before that. I really want to race hard and not just go to finish. The weather here has finally started to turn and this weekend was beautiful. I can look out my window and see lots of people on their bike or out for a run and it makes me extremely jealous. This is the perfect time of year to go for a morning run, the temperatures are still cool and you can get out really early and have a peaceful relaxing run.

I know this blog sounds a little whinny! Hopefully my next one will be more upbeat with some positive progress!

Scott

Snowbanks, Grey Skies, Cold Weather....AAAHHHH Its Good to Be Home!

Batman, Spiderman and ....I'm not really sure who I am!

I spent the better part of three days in New York this week doing some training at Cadence and it was a welcome break from our cold dreary weather. The temperature was in the mid 40's and the sun was mostly out. As we drove into New York we rolled down the windows and it felt like Spring. However, I can't recall how many times I heard someone say that it was cold and that they couldn't wait for Spring to come. You people have NO IDEA!

A little info on my trip. About an hour and a half into the drive I got pulled over for speeding and was subsequently given a ticket...great way to start off. An hour after that I took a wrong turn and had to go about 30 min out of our way. We finally got on track and were heading into New York and made a little turn off into a pretty rough part of New Jersey, but was able to turn it around OK. Then everything was fine until we left and then I made another wrong turn onto the NJ turnpike and did a U-turn after the Toll Booth and they still charged me $7. Heading home we missed the turn onto the I81 North and found ourselves back on the road we had been wrongly on during the trip down. The only bright side of the drive was not getting searched at Customs. I was bringing home the rest of my gear and the car was packed full of stuff and they only charged me $20 for the wetsuit as it was over $400 retail. Cadence had kindly itemized everything for me and they took my word for it which was nice. Other than those mishaps, the trip was really enjoyable. I could get used to New York as I really enjoy just wandering around and there is no shortage of great restaurants to choose from.

On to my training;

After arriving at Cadence I went right to work in the pool. Dianna watched my form for a little bit and then we hit some drills to help me with my body rotation. I have yet to master bi-lateral breathing and this could be due to my rotation on my right side. I practised moving my hips before my arm began its pull and this seemed to help me get on my side longer to give me a better inhale. Next was lung capacity drills. Another reason I don't bi-lateral breath well is I haven't spent enough time increasing my lung capacity. I believe this will help me get more relaxed in the water as well. It is hard to get a good rhythm going in the Endless Pool when you're not used to it. After about an hour it was time to get on the bike.

It was great to hook the bike up to the CompuTrainer again and see some numbers. Wattage really is the best way to train and I really need to get it at home. Dianna was pleased with my progression from October and I put in a good 2 hour ride on Wednesday afternoon after my swim workout. This was more of a "Lets see where you are ride" and it gave me a good workout.

Next morning I was back in at 5:30am for a 6am spin class. This was the real test. I went for 60min ride that had 6-4 min stretches that worked the hell out of my legs. Luckily Elizabeth was beside me and was yelling at me to keep going or I probably would have stopped. My HR hit 178 at its peak and was in the 170's on each set. Even in the recovery zones my HR was still in the 140's. After that hour, Elizabeth and I kept going and did a simulated 20 mile ride of the Kona course.

After the ride I jumped onto the treadmill and ran for 20 min and then did a 5 min cool down walk. I had no problems with my calf or hamstring so this was nice to put in a good brick. I did some good stretching and that was it for Thursday. I was going to come back in on Friday and do another spin class but I decided that since the weather was nice I really wanted to run in Central Park. We were up late the night before and wanted to get going the next day so I had to get out early and it was well worth it. Lots of people were out either running, cycling or walking dogs and the city was still pretty quiet. I decided to give my new ZOOT racing shoes their inaugural run that day and they felt great. They really make you run properly, which in turn gives you a little more speed and they didn't take any getting used to. Just slip on and run. I had a lot of people checking them out as I ran by them. Going back into the hotel I was stopped by a young woman who asked me how I ran in the cold weather, it was 40 F, to which I replied "Its OK, I'm Canadian". That made perfect sense to her.

I really wish that I could make it down to NYC more often as the training is invaluable. Its just not the same being alone in your basement when you could have someone screaming at you as they are going just as hard as you are. Little tweaks here and there can make big differences and not recognizing bad habits can be counter productive.

But when I arrived home on Friday night and had my 2 little boys jumping all over me, I was glad to be home.

Take Care,

Scott

Global Warming my @$$!!

I always do my part to help reduce waste, conserve energy and recycle whenever possible. This is in an attempt to help offset the effects of global warming. If everyone does their part we could have a huge impact on our warming trends. That being said...I'm sick of this friggin' winter! We haven't had this much snow in 15 years, look at the picture above and add more to it. This weekend we had a snow/ice storm that dumped about 40cm on my driveway. Thankfully I have a neighbour who lets me use his snowblower so I was able to clean it up without breaking my back. I, like Mary Lou, will now stop talking about the weather, unless it gets worse!

On to my updates...

Well I'm back running again and am virtually pain free. I put in a few runs this week and have been fine during and after them. The hard part was getting back into it. My endurance seems to have fallen a bit and my HR seemed a little high while I was running. I did a brick on Saturday with a 2:50 bike and a 50 min run, bike was hard with some 85% intervals, but I felt good, then came the run. I actually had to go to a neighbours house to use their treadmill as it was in the middle of the snowstorm and could not run outside, and it was to crazy out to drive to the gym, so they were kind enough to let me run in their basement. My goal was to get into a 75% run and hold for 40 min then taper down to 50-60% for the last 10min. I did the 40 min OK but then slowed the treadmill down to get a drink and could not get started again, my legs just died! So I walked the last 10 min at a fast pace. The next day I had an hour run and made it through alright but my legs were still a little sore from the previous day.

Not much change on the bike and the swim, still plugging away on the trainer with some good drills in the Sub-LT zone and LT zones. I always feel like I'm not going to make it through in the LT zone but when you finish it always feels great. Most of my swims feel that way as well, not being that great of a swimmer, every drill seems daunting. When I finish a workout I'm always surprised that I swam that far. It was only a year ago that my swim workouts amounted to about 400-500m, now I'm at 3000m. Still trying to get faster, but it is coming very slowly.

I'm off to New York this week for some training at Cadence with Dianna. She put in my calendar that I was to have an easy day on Tuesday as it was going to be a tough couple of days in NY. That scares me a little. My last trip really wiped me out and I know she will be expecting more. Since I am only about 8 weeks away from Florida 70.3, I really need to get going so this week should be good. I am really hoping the weather is nice also so I can get in an outdoor ride and run. I also get to pick up the rest of my prizes which include 2 helmets, bike shoes, a wetsuit, nutritional supplements and a pair of the new ZOOT running shoes. I tried them on in October and they are super light, so I'm excited about running with them.

Well that's it for now,
Stay warm and keep training, spring is just around the corner,

Scott

What to Write About....HHHHMMMMMM!

Well, what's new with me....

I'm still trying to get my right leg fixed. I have had three Physio sessions in the last week and a half, and I have two more planned for this week. We started to use "lasers" (Use Dr. Evil's voice when you say laser..its funny that way) on Friday to speed things up, and I can notice a difference but it is still a little tender around my knee.

Last week I put in quite a bit of time in the pool and have been working on some speed drills as well as lung capacity. Dianna, my coach, had put out a workout for me that had some time goals to strive for. The first one was a 500m swim at T-pace and the time she had put beside it was 6 min. I put everything I had into it and hit 9:30. The second was fast 50m at 45sec. My first thought was, "Does she think I could actually swim that fast"? and my second thought was "Should I be able to swim that fast by now"? After e-mailing her about my swim, she informed me that the time posted was for the fastest swim split in Kona, and she just wanted to gauge where I was to that. Yikes! That's freakin' fast! After this she decided that I needed to work on some speed as well as endurance. I really enjoy the speed work, as I have said before, my form seems to be better and you also get more breaks. I have also been throwing in some work on my breathing on my own. I want to be able to swim effectively with breathing every 4 strokes. I have been working on this in my warm-ups and cooldowns and I am hoping for a breakthrough soon.

Not much has changed on the bike, still putting in time with some longer rides as well as some overgear work. The overgear is hard! Lift the front tire about 8"-10" off the ground and increase the tension so that your cadence is around 55-60 and ride for about 4 min with a break of 2 min and do repeats. You can really feel the legs working on this.

As for running, I finally went out yesterday and did a 25 min easy run with a 10 min walk. It was after a 1:30 bike and it felt terrible. I haven't ran in a couple of weeks and I wanted to get out and test out the leg and it started out OK, but then I got tired pretty quick. My routine has been thrown off so a couple of weeks with no brick workouts has gotten the better of me. I am going to try to ease back into it with some light runs for the next week or two then hopefully I can get back into some long runs to finish off a weeks training.

Yesterday I realized that I am 12 weeks away from my first 1/2 Ironman in Florida. I feel like I still have a lot of work to do to be fully prepared, especially on the run. I know if I follow my schedule I should be well prepared but it still made me a little anxious. We still have a ton of snow outside and its still freezing cold. To think I will be racing in 80 degree weather in 12 weeks seems odd.

Well that's all I 've got for now,

Scott

YEAR OF THE GOLDEN RAT

In an earlier post I wrote that it was going to be the "Year of Me". Well, apparently the Chinese agree as this year is the Year of the Rat, of which I am one. Not only is it the rat's year, it is a "Golden Rat Year" which is extra special. So it is fitting that all of this training and new experiences happen on my special year. I wish I could be given a special card that I could show to people when they annoy me that its my year and to back off until 2009. I think I'm going to step up my efforts to win the lottery as it would only be fitting to win that too!

My training the last couple weeks has been hit and miss, I'm still struggling with this calf muscle strain and have my first physio appointment on friday. I've been taking a lot of Advil and icing it but it still isn't getting any better.

The good thing about cutting back on the run and the bike is that I have swam more. This is still my main concern and I have had a couple of good weeks with some longer sessions around the 3ooom point. These are done mostly through drills with some rests in between but it still makes me feel better. I am actually a better swimmer when I go all out - it is when I slow down that things fall apart. I guess the trick will be to be able to go fast for 4km. Yikes, that sounds like a long way when you say it.

I haven't spent a whole lot of time on the bike but I have a couple of big rides to end out the week. This is OK as I am still getting my basement put together and have had to shuffle the bike and trainer from bedroom to dining room and back again.

I have actually gotten back into running this week with a few 45 min-1hr runs. I have kept a moderate pace just so I don't aggravate my calf anymore than it is. I had 2 runs that I did outdoors in the bitter cold - this really makes you appreciate and look forward to the warm weather. The second day my hands were so cold that 45 min after I got home I still could not grip anything properly. I can't even make it to my hottub; we have a huge amount of snow and I haven't been able to shovel a pathway to it.

I will give an update on my basement: the laundry room has now been painted and the floor will be installed on Saturday, next I will get the bathroom done then on to the main room. I'm thinking about putting a small keg into the eventual bar. Imagine getting off the bike and pouring a nice cold Alexander Keith's. If your not familiar with Keith's, its like a Samual Adams, but better. Stella Artois would be a good second choice.

Thats all for now,
keep warm and happy training.

Scott

I'm Back in the Saddle Again (Aerosmith)

After 2 crazy weeks, one of which was a great training week, and the other not so good, I'm back in the saddle.

After my last post I had a really productive week and everything was going well until my long brick on the Saturday. I felt a little pull in my right calf and after a 3 hour bike I had a 50 min run and it was a little sore but no big deal. Sunday it became a big deal. I woke up and could hardly walk, going down stairs really hurt. I had a 2 hour run planned for the morning and decided to hold off until the afternoon as I thought this would pass.....it didn't. Other than a couple of swims during the week, I did no training. I gingerly walked around and started popping Advil to help with the inflammation. Some good massages also seemed to help. I decided to just take the weekend off and as Monday is my regular day off this woud give me until Tuesday before I would try it out. Well I just completed a 2 hour bike and a 30 min run and so far so good. I was actually really nervous about starting back up, I'm only 3 months away from the Florida 1/2 Ironman and I don't want this to be a problem leading up to it.

Other than that, my basement renovation is coming along nicely and I should be able to get back down there soon. No longer will I have to look at insulation and vapour barrier, I will have a nice carpeted floor and electrical outlets instead of grey concrete and a 50' extension cord with to many things plugged into it.

One last note, Canadians are notorious for talking about the weather and I'm no different. This has been one crazy year, we had a huge snow/freezing rain/snow storm last Friday, the last 2 days have been above 32F, and tomorrow we are expecting another snow storm. Our meteorologists must be having the time of their lives.

Thats all for now,
Scott

Its Been 2 Weeks since I........

Two weeks have past since my last entry, I have thought about writing a few times but seem to get distracted. What I should be doing is writing things down during the week and then compiling them at the end, but I haven't seemed to get that far yet. I'll put that on my list of things to do.

On to my training

I had a great week the second week in January, the weather turned nice with above average temps. I was running in just a long sleeve shirt and no hat! That is fantastic for us Canucks. I'm up to 1 1/2 hour runs on my long days and a nice day makes all the difference. A good exercise was to do a hill workout on the treadmill, take it up to 5-6% grade and crank up the speed for 4 minutes. I did this 8x and it really worked the legs. I would rather be outdoors but the conditions were still a little slippery so its hard to go full out. We are back to our regular cold weather (-5 to -20C) so I really have to psych myself up to get outside.

My highlight on the bike for the last 2 weeks was a 2 1/2 ride followed by a 40 min run. I actually enjoy the ride on the trainer if there are drills involved. A straight ride gets kinda boring but mixing it up with one leg drills and some tempo work then a good ride makes the time fly. I did have a couple funny moments while riding in the basement, yesterday was just a light recovery ride and it was poorly timed. I was about 30 min in and my wife had to get our oldest son (Alexander) from the bus and at the same time our youngest decide he had to go to the washroom. My wife couldn't wait for Caleb to finish so I had to get off the bike to help him while she went to the bus stop. I went upstairs and Caleb is singing the alphabet while on the toilet, in French, but he only knows a couple of the letters correct pronunciation but tries anyways. My heart rate was dropping while I was waiting so I was doing some jumping jacks to keep it up and then it hit me, if someone came in and saw me doing jumping jacks to the tune of the French alphabet they would think we were crazy. I had a good little laugh to myself. My other funny moment came one Saturday morning while doing a long ride, usually the kids will come downstairs and play in the basement. They are pretty good to leave me alone but they were a little restless so during my cool down we played football. I was up in the saddle throwing the football to them while they ran around scoring touchdowns. I don't think I could have done this in my lactate threshold ride, but I'm sure I will find out.

My swimming is still a work in progress. I feel like I am making small strides so that helps. I am doing mostly drills during the week with not a lot metres covered and then a longer swim at the end of the week. I still have a long way to go but I am comforted in the fact that I still have a lot of time to practice.

I have also incorporated Yoga and Pilates into my schedule and am humbled each time I do them. My body doesn't mind a 3 hour brick, but 30 min of what can only be described as circus- like body contortions is a trial. I still giggle everytime they say to go into the downward facing dog.

My low light of the last 2 weeks was a real BONK! (if you read James Pearson's blog, this does not refer to sex either! Ironman training and "bonking" don't go together, in either sense! ) I had a busy day at work, then struggled to get my workout in and was unprepared for it. It was an 1 hour 15 min ride that had 2-20 min lactate threshold segments. The first went well but the second one killed me. I was in the aero bars and my HR was all over the place. After the bike I headed out for a 30 min run and it started off OK but by the 15 min mark my legs felt like Jello. There are time when you don't feel that great but you keep going but this wasn't one of them. I couldn't run. The only other time I remember feeling this was my very first brick workout. I realize that I hadn't eaten properly and rest probably played into it as well. The next day I hit the treadmill and felt fine.

Keep warm and happy training,
Scott

Something about the New Year

Last wednesday morning I sat in my Doctors office with my two boys who were getting their flu shots and my Doctor turned and said to me "are you getting one today as well?" Flu shots are complicated with my medication, there are only certain times that I can get them and I haven't in the past. My reply to my doctor was "No, I can't right now but its not a big deal, I rarely get sick". That was at 10:30am. By midnight I was starting to feel a little dizzy. I had planned to get up at 4:30am to do a 1 1/2 hour ride on the trainer but when the time came I couldn't get out of bed without feeling queasy. So I laid there for about 2 hours before I resigned myself to the fact that I was not only not doing a workout, I was not going in to work as well.

This lead to to some self reflection, last year after New Years, I had strepthroat, the year before that I had a sinus infection. Strange, very strange!

Nothing bothers me more than having to use a sick day in the first couple of days in the new year! The next 3 days were a write off, I thought I could do a bit of a ride on saturday but when I got on the bike I felt crappy and didn't actually start. Sunday I went for a swim and did my prescribed workout which only had 1600m in total so it was a nice workout, but was not up to my long run (1:15) in the afternoon. I did about 25 minutes and probably only covered 3km. That was enough!

I felt like I haven't trained for months, my breathing was off, my legs felt like bricks, and my arms were sore. I had sent a note to my coach, Dianna, and her reply was to not do anything, recover completly then get back to it. I had this overwhelming sense of guilt which is strange, usually if I don't have to do something...I don't! But for 2 days I tried to get back to it, but she was probably right, it didn't do me any good.

That's the lesson for the week!

My highlight of the week was getting our travel arrangements for the Florida 1/2 Ironman at Disney completed! This has been a 2 week process with lots of fact finding. We are taking my wife's parents who have never flown before so it should be interesting. Also, I signed up for the Muskoka long course tri in June, this is a qualifier for Ironman Canada, Lake Placid, and Florida. I have driven through Muskoka quite a few times and the area is beautiful so it should make for a nice day. I'm also doing the inaugural Muskoka 1/2 Ironman in september.

When I finish this, I'm going to raise a glass and start my New Year all over.