Thursday night workouts may not happen

So last night was supposed to be another pool swim with the MTC.  This is the second time in 2 weeks that I haven't made it to the workout, because traffic is just too bad.  If I want to make it on time, I think that it will have to be a perfect storm of leaving on time, no traffic and a bit of a late start to practice.  We'll see how next week (the last Thursday night swim at PJD) goes.  I guess I have to start looking into actually joining the McGill gym for the start of September so I can keep working out with the club.

This weekend, I will be at the cottage starting tonight until Monday.  I will be back to posting next week, Monday or Tuesday.

Speed work for the run

Last night, we had a track run.  After Tuesday night's massacre on Mount "Pleasant", practice was pretty quiet.  I think there were 6 of us plus a coach, 4 of whom were actually at the ride.  The track workout was 2000m warm up, 800m drills, then 3x 2000m @ 10k pace.  Now, I don't really know what my 10k pace is, so at this point I am just sorta running.  Although I know my 5k tri race pace is somewhere in the 5'00"/km range, I am trying to speed that up, so I decided to try to run at 4'30"/km.  I don't know what is wrong with my Nike+, but it doesn't seem to be calibrated correctly.  I think that, over 2km, it registers an extra 50-100m, because although it said I was running around 4'30", I was more in the 4'35"-4'40" range.  Now, I'm not complaining, and I am happy with that pace, but it'd be nice to actually get a proper calibration done.

Tonight's work out is a swim at Parc Jean Drapeau.  It's supposed to be around 3-3.5km of swimming.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Last Night's Workout, Climbing

Jeez, these people are going to kill me.  Last night, I met with the MTC for a bike ride.  The plan was to go for a ride on Mount Pleasant.  Now, I've been here before, so I already know what I am getting in to.  Let's just say that it is much more "Mount" than it is "Pleasant".  It basically looks like this:

New Inspiration

So I have a new inspiration.  Her name is Paula Findlay, and she is a 21 year old triathlete from Edmonton/Victoria who has just won the last 2 ITU races.  She has started to make some serious waves in the ITU circuit, and she will most likely be representing Canada in London 2012.

Photo from Kerstin Joensson/The Associated Press

Why is she my new inspiration?  She didn't get onto a bike until 4 years ago.  Sure, she grew up as a swimmer and a runner, but if she can do it, why can't I?  There is no reason to not be able to push myself to achieve great success.  She is who will inspire me to keep training in order to get continually better.  

To read more about her, see the Globe and Mail article here.

Rest Day

No workout planned today.  Maybe a bit of YogaX, but maybe not.  Nothing on the MTC (McGill Triathlon Club) plan.

First week with McGill Tri Club

So, I found what is going to be taking taking up most of my free time in the near future.  This week, I started working out with the McGill Triathlon Club.  It is a lot of time to put in, but it is going to be awesome, and it is going to help me get a lot better, and force me to stick with my training over the winter.  Here is a breakdown of the week:

Race Report #2

Alright, so, as I did last time, I am posting my race results a week late.  Sorry, like I said, I am going to try to get better at posting sooner.  I am not going to go into all the detail that I did for the last one, but I will still give the rankings and times for each discipline.


Pre-Race


Coming into this race, I felt a LOT less prepared than I did for my last race.  I felt like I hadn't put in the same time/effort that I had.  I wasn't sure if it was because I had built up my base fitness more, so doing the same amount of work felt easier, or if I just didn't put as much in for this one as I did last time.  


As discussed in my previous post, I also had a LOT on my mind for this race, so I was very nervous for the race.

Visit to the Doc

Alright, so I'm terrible at this.  I haven't posted since my last race, and here I am, posting my new race report.  I promise, I will try to get better at this.  I will make 2 posts tonight, and 1 more tomorrow.  It's a start, trying to make up for a month.


Alright, so here is a bit of a back story.  2 weeks ago, the week before my race, I did a mile swim at the Morrison Lake Regatta.  It was a good warm up for my race.  It went well.  I didn't really have a plan, a desired time, etc.  I didn't even know how long the swim actually was.  I decided just to go and swim, finish, and whatever happens happens.  Looking at a map afterwards, I estimate that it was about 1250m.  The swim went well, and I was the 3rd person out of the water, behind a real life swimmer, and someone who, this past weekend, completed a half Ironman.  My time was around 23'45", if I recall correctly.  Pretty uneventful swim.  What happened afterwards, however, caused some concern.

First Triathlon Ever!

So, this weekend was, as everyone knows from my oft-updated blog, my first race, Joe's Team Triathlon in support of the Princess Margret Hospital Foundation.  

First off, I want to thank absolutely everyone who supported me, whether through donations, helping me out, listening to me talk their ear off about triathlons or giving me words of encouragement and advice.  I managed to raise over $2600, surpassing my goal of $2500 and joining "Joe's Dream Team".  So thanks again.

Now, here's the exciting stuff!  My official results were found today (thanks, Brad!), and they are after the jump:

Day 4 - Didn't happen

So yesterday was supposed to be day 4...  But that didn't happen.  I was going to do Insanity Pure Cardio and Insane Abs with a friend last night.  He hadn't gotten back to me, so I decided to take a nap instead, as I was exhausted.  When he said he wasn't going to come, I decided that I wasn't going to do it, as my nap had just made me more tired.  So instead, I took an early night, got an ok sleep, and am now rested for the weekend (which is supposed to be terrible, weather wise).

I'll make up for the missed workouts this weekend, don't you worry.  Maybe I'll throw an extra one in there, just as a punishment.

I know, you can't wait to hear about them.

Your Armchair Ironman