Running & Swimming

Well I have had 3 solid weeks of training. In my running I've been doing hill repeats faster every time. My running is in solid shape, the thing i need to start working on is running off the bike. I am the worst at this, last year my fastest time off the bike as 17:50 (3:34 pace) for 5km. I know I can throw away 50 seconds easy so I'm going to start doing all my weekend brick workouts by running 30-40 mins off the bike. When June hits I'm going to start doing hard work outs off the bike, like 5 x1km on 4:30. For The past 3 weeks all my running as been a mix of hill repeats or 10km tempo runs. All my run works are 10km or more now. I plane to get to 15km by mid summer.

Swimming is okay right now, did a workout on Saturday morning in a 50m pool. It was a really fun swimming in 50m! Its to bad my left shoulder is still tight! My swimming this week was light & easy . I am very happy that I am using sets that used to kill me back in September as easy/ recovery sets! (6x200m on 3:45) or (15x100m on 2:00)

Recovery

Well it was a quick recovery! My shoulders are 85% betterthen they were 3 days ago.I was in the pool this morning (5:45-7:15) My coach had us do a swim/ little bit of kicking



warm up 1000m IM drill

4x100m on 1:40

4X100m on 1:40 last 25 knb

4x100m on 1:40 last 50 kwb

50m light kick

400m IM with fins

300m cool down



I was also working on my transitions today, I find the more you practice the less you have to think about going into transition. Working on my mounts and putting on the running shoes!! I didn't get in any hero running, my legs are screaming at me for a break. Every run workout I have they have been getting tight.

Ohh No!!!

I have had another set back!! In the bike race on the weekend I talk about a little spill I had in the last km of the race, It turns out that I hurt my self a little more then I thought! I have pulled my shoulder really bad. I couldn't even swim this morning. I plan to take off swimming till Thursday, but you can bet that i will be making up my swims with bike rides!!

What way!!!

Well I kicked off my 2008 race season with a cycle cross race. It started great, me and another guy had a gap on all the other 30km riders. About 5km into the race we connect with the 60km riders, as the other guy and I where focused on pushing the gap bigger and dodging all the slow 60km riders we ended up going off course, there was about +200 that went off courseboth 60km riders and 30km, Me and the other guy followed the norm of people and we payed for it! By the time I got back on course I lost 4 minuets to the leaders! I Also had to go throw a mass of slow people. I then started to put my head down and power I was in about 50Th at this point and I though my day was over. I was so pissed that it happened I started to ride like have never have before. I was blowing by every pack in sight there was no one that could hang on to me. By the end of the race I closed a 4 Minuit gap down to 30 seconds. I also had a nice spill on the last km. I still won my age group and tied for 3rd overall. With out the crash and the going off course that race would have been mine!!!

I really think they should have had the course better marked but in the end who's fault is it really, I'm the one riding the bike so i can't be to mad about it. There was an up side to this race, I saw that I'm 2 times better then I was last year!

Hard work pays off!!

I have heard all my life from my parents that hard work pays off. I never really took it to heart but now i really do, I am almost at a full year of competitive swimming and now my hard work is starting to show. I have improved faster then I even thought. There has been many people that have helped me. For starters The Cambridge aqua jets have done awesome work with me. Then there is my coach Len Gushe who helped me stay motivated throw the hard times. Then there is Craig Taylor from the PTC (provincial Training Center) running lots of swim camps and training days! Thanks every one for your help!

My 400m swim times over the year

June
6:34

July
6:01

August
5:53

September
5:36

January
5:00

February
4:56

April
4:46

km...LOTS OF THEM!

Well its getting really close the the race season and its time for me to up the training once again. I kicked it all off today!

5:45-7:00-swim

2000m choice easy
5x100m on 1:40
5x100m on 1:30
5X100m on 1:20
500m
100 wall sit ups

3:30pm-run

10km tempo

24km bike ride...easy spin

swim 9-10pm
all drills

Track and cycle cross

Well the first track meet is tomorrow, I will be running a 1500 and I would love to go a 4:10-4:05. I have not raced a 1500 since regional in grade 8 so I am a little rusty.

I have a pretty big race on Sunday its my first bike race of the year. Its called Paris to Ancester, I was very close to winning last year. I had a lead into the last climb and I washed out and lost all my lead and ended up 3rd. I'm in much better shape then I was last year and I'm going to make people hurt. I will have a full race report by Monday!

character building!

Well as you may know i love to bike and anything to do with bikes. So you can bet I love my bike work outs! Today was the first day I had really bad weather(+6 with rain and wind). As I set out for my 30km ride I thought to myself "this is not that bad", but as i made a left hand turn it got bad. I had a head wind like you would not believe! All i could think about was going home into a hot shower, but i dug deep and kept riding. Grinding my teeth as i climb the hills. My feet felt like ice blocks and my head and legs where ice cold. Yes, I was way under dressed and I paid for it but its the first time that I really had to suck it up and finsh the work out!