This is going straight to the pool room

So there is a fantastic Aussie movie called the Castle and one of the quotes by the lead character Darryl Kerrigan is "This is going straight to the pool room"

Still a lot of work to do but this is a cool memento regardless of the road ahead.

Back to the Build

Short Post - Is weird training for the 2nd Ironman in the year for the first time. Lucky I know so many great people in this sport, ran into a group ride with the crew form Speed Theory tonight so did this as most of my base ride after work.

Feeling awesome on the bike, swim as always needs work and had a sweet session on Tuesday night running which shocked the body back into run mode. Note if you ever need to get shocked back into form go for a 45 minute active recovery run with a 2:17 marathon. just copied my mates cadence and before I knew it was living in the 3:15 min.km land for 2km's!!!1

I compare everything time wise to building to IMC so for me at the moment it is like the start of June when the real training begins. Who know what happens in Kona - have to respect the island and fully realize that I may just blow up at some point but will be sure to have fun and enjoy the honor that I have in going to the big show - having said that are going to aim high and plan on having a good race

This is going to be fun! When you get to live the dream you better make sure you enjoy and I can ensure you I am and plan to make that continue

A New Discovery for Vancouver Riding - The British Wall

So yesterday I had a hilly ride on the agenda, as was nice out figured I would hit up cypress. Instead of going my normal way out decided to cruise through British Properties for the first time and discovered a new little test which I am calling the British Wall (Please advise if there is a local name)

Essentially I rode up Taylor way into British Properties and took a left onto highland way. Taylor way was a nice little warm-up for what was to come which was around 2km at an average of around 10.5%. Think there were definitely some steeper sections in this and was using all the range in my compact as well as standing a lot.

This is definitely not a climb for the faint hearted and I think you would be nuts to do it on a tri bike. Map and elevation chart below

http://www.mapmyride.com/run/canada/bc/west-vancouver/814127948090185589

The full climb form Taylor way up is 4.31km with 335m of elevation equals an average of 7.8%. To see the brutality up close visit

http://www.mapmyride.com/route/ca/bc/north%20vancouver/690127948177374961

Most of the elevation comes in this section however as you go up highland. It is only 1.47km but in that time you go up 171m. that equates to an average gradient of 11.6% with some sections that are definitely steeper. Not being a skinny mountain goat this was definitely the hardest section for me.

Always good to discover new training grounds and this was a good variation on the normal ride to cypress. The full loop I did was 91km with around 5000ft of climbing and was a good workout. Bike legs are getting pretty strong at the moment which is good and looking forward to some quality sessions in the next couple months.

3 Months till Kona

Well, it is three months to Kona. Hadn't really planned on to IM's in the same year so it is an interesting feeling of getting ready to get back training after your A Race.

Have had a few people talk to me over the last week saying that I help motivate them to achieve and set their goals and that is truly humbling but also good to know that just through living my own life are doing a little bit to help others.

This got me thinking and by the end of this week I hope to have sent notes of thanks to all those that I look up to and have used and continue to use as examples over the past couple years since I started triathlon.

Have had a couple moments this week were I realize I am going to Hawaii which is always something that I had wanted to do however had not put it as a singular focus as believed focusing on executing the process day in day out would lead to creating options from which I could choose.

So it is now time to get back to focusing the process. That has been hard in the past week were the focus has been on recovery and aerobic only work and the weather has been nice. Feel I have made the right decisions though and look forward to the work ahead.

Summer Run Clinics at Forerunners

Just a quick post to let those in Vancouver know about a couple run clinics I will be involved with in Vancouver for those targeting a Fall Marathon or Half marathon

Starting tonight i will be helping lead on of the Thursday Night interval groups @ Forerunners. This should be a fun clinic with a mixture of hills (Hills can be fun!!!), track and road, trail intervals. Thursday Nights start at 6pm - for more information regarding schedule and locations visit http://www.forerunners.ca/clinics.html

I am also involved in leading the Sunday run Clinic @ Forerunners starting this Sunday. This should be a awesome clinic with Jerry Ziak (2:17 Marathoner) designing and running the program. These runs will start at 8am and both full program and drop in options exist. All the details once again are @ http://www.forerunners.ca/clinics.html

I have had the pleasure of training with Forerunners groups for the last couple years and can definitely say it has been one of the key factors that has improved my running and as a result are excited to be involved in their summer clinics