24 hours x 7 days, what am I going to do when??

With ski season fast approaching I am now finding myself having to squeeze a few extra things into my week.  So, although I am not 'training' I am at the pool 3 times, running 3-4, core/resistance 3 and need to get my butt into the saddle a couple of times.  Those things individually are part of teh routine.  Now I need to throw in 2 days of ski teaching per week, one evening of apres ski, hanging out in hot tub with friends, tuning equipment and running a ski training series for Canadian SKi INstructors Alliance!  Oh yeah, I forgot to make sure I go to work as well.    I love winter and would not trade the chaos for anything in the world!!   Come summer time when most others are running to get into traffic to go to teh cottage, I am at home relaxing doing my workouts and enjoying my friends and family!!
This week is off to a good start.  My goal is 7 days in a row of running,I was off to a good start yesterday with a great tempo run.  Running has never been my strength, and as I was 30 lbs heavier not so long ago I could not improve a bunch.  Now that I am losing lbs, I am finding it easier to speed up and progress.  Last week I purposely did not run with teh goal of doing 7 days stragiht this week.  The periodization on day 1 seems to have worked.  I ran a short 4k at a 4:40 and felt great.  Today I did 5k at at a 450/k pace and quote enjoyed it!   I followed it by a great swim, although I was a little more tired than usual.   Right now I am loving the pool.  Aftert his past weekend and the clinic I am hoping to contniuue to improve over the winter.  I wish I could find a running clinic that worked on tecnhique and speed.  I know that patience and practice will get me there, but I have been known to be impatitent at times!
on my way to my workout today I got a great phone call.  My neighborhood is part of a region wide initiative to create a more water wise environment.  They have set an initiative to create landscapes that use as little water as possible while still providing a vibrant feel and setting.  The project involved an application to the Region to describe your current space and your vision of the space for the future.  Call me metro-sexual, but I have a definite feel for what I want and how to describe it.  Well, apparently it was clear enough to be selected as one of 5 homes in our neighborhood to be completed as the pilot showcase homes for the initiative.   This is awesome!  I chalk it up to a 'what come around goes around' karma!!  Two summers ago we spent a great deal of money to have the front yard landscaped.  It was beautiful when it was all done and we were very proud of it.  Oops, as soon as our first winter passed and spring came around, it was all dead!!!  The landscape who put it in would not stand behind any of his work or, after a while not  even answer his calls.  So, I guess this is our turn to get a good one to enjoy!  We have our first consultation tomorrow with  http://www.kentforddesign.com/ to begin the process and have a new front yard in the spring!  I love winning!!
On another good note, I get to ski Thursday this week!  Wahoo!  I am a course conductor(CC) with the Canadian Ski  Instructors Alliance, this week is CC training prior to a course I am teaching next week!  Cant wait to get out there, and to top it off it is with some of the best coaches and instructors in Canada.
Off to get some dinner and relax now.  Actually, to look outside to see if Snowmagedon is arriving!
Drive safe, have fun, and remember we do this because we choose to and we can!
Cheers

Is it time yet???

So, for those who read my blog you know that I am rather impatient about now waiting for the ski season to start.  So today, in southern Ontario a lot of people were moaning and bitching because it was SNOWING!  Get over it, it is December, it is Canada and guess what, its going to happen some time anyways!  Suck it up!  As you might imagine, I had a shit ass grin on my face all day as the snow fell and the radio talked about the impending snowmagedon this week!  I hope the weather sucks and it snows 2 feet!  I will give all of you who are calling me unmentionable names right now a hint, it is Canada and winter is not going away!  take up a sport or activity that allows you to enjoy the season.  It is the longest we have and you might as well take advantage of it.  Snowshoeing, skiing, cross country, ice fishing, skiing, skating, hockey, hell....we are adults and most of us have lived here are entire lives, you can figure it out!  Stop moaning about, only 3-4 more months!  Enough about that, as you can see from the photo I am ready to go.  ROSSIGNOL provides me skis each winter and today I picked my new ones up, so I am extra excited to get out!
Today wasn't only about good weather.  Over the past 3 weeks I have been pursuing an career opportunity that had somewhat fallen upon me.  It was for a International Sales Director position.  When I started the process I did it to learn about what it involved without a lot of thought.  As the process went forward I became very intrigued with the position although it was a reach from a couple of technical skill sets for me.   I was provided an opportunity to justify the gap and did it effectively.  The process was a great experience to go through.  I participated in 4 interviews that were more detailed that any I have ever done.  In the end the client organization was stuck on wanting an individual that filled one particular skill, which quite honestly I dont have.  I am pleased to have gone through the process, i am still gainfully employed in a position that is awesome.  Thanks to those who gave me the input on the sales manager question a while back!
I started out today on my weekly goal.  Last week I did a ton of swimming without any running.  This week I am going to run 7 days in a row adding 1k to my run each day.  If I do a day and add more, I then have set my new benchmark.  As well as my runs I am going to do at least a couple of swim workouts and continue with the resistance training!   As I am getting further into the training I am seeing where the resistance training will pay off.  Although I hate that workout, I know it will help out in the long run!
Tonight I started out on the core/resistance training.  As much as I hate it, when I start I love the intensity and grueling part of the workout!  Now that I have put it out there, I guess I will have more opportunity to enjoy the feeling!  I also had a great run.  As I said, this week I am going to do 7 days. I started today with a short run(real short) 4k, but, my pace was decent, I was a 4:45-4:50.  for me that is record setting running, something I could  not do 4-5 months ago.  It was a great way to start off my goal for the week.
I hope that your week has started off positive with new challenges to push your limits !  All I can say is embrace them, enjoy them and learn from the experience!
Cheers

There is a Santa Claus!!

All the news in my part of the world talked about today was that is was snowing like hell north of the city, that is in ski country!  Yes, you heard it, Santa Claus has trumped mother nature and brought the snow along.
Very short post tonight, I am up to my eyeballs in alligators and have to get some work done....will finish up tomorrow AM early!
Cheers and Happy dreams!
.......so last night I got all my work done, almost!??  I was exhausted!  We went to some good frineds for dinner and I had to pull the plug and come home.  I knew I had work to get done and was a walking Zombie!  So, after a great dinner and lots of laughs went to my desk to fight sleep and get things done.

Yesterday was the culmination of a great week for training.  As I started on this quest I could not swim at all.  This week I set a goal to complete 10000m of traning over my workouts.  So, yesterday feeling relaxed I cruised to 11000m accomplishing my swim goal.  It is a bit of a personal victory.  When I signed up for IM I did not know how the hell I would get to the finish of the swim without some type of floation device strapped to my ass.  Well, after this week of great traning results, I am confident that I can get to the end of the swim and feel great getting onto the bike.  Best part is, each workout I still seem to be inproving.  I will keep at it unitl my training program begins without strssing too much, keep doing drillsa to improve efficiencey and technique and I am certain it will get me out of the water in decent shape.  I have set one more benchmark for my own satisfaction, before the holiday season is over I am going to do an IM distance swim as a practice!!  This week I am cutting my training distance by half, next week slowly increase with each workout and then just before Christmas, put it out there! 
In my swim training this past week, coupled with a crazy week at work I did not run at all.  No guilt for not doing it as I was training.  Strategically I am going to see how it worked, this week my goal is to run each day of the week and add 1k each day.  Start tonight with 4k and finish on Sunday with 10-11k.  Should make fro an interesting week as I have 4 days of ski traning to receive as well as provide.  Lets see how a rest week works out!
This week I am wiating to hear on a couple work related items that could make the next few weeks interesting.  I have been getting much busier at work and other opportunties keep coming to me to keep it exciting!  I look forward to what the week brings!
I hope that your week is awesome, full of exciting crazy new things and that you find your dreams and chase them!
Cheers!

First Clinic a success!

I had so much fun yesterday I didnt get around to some time for my blog.  I like to capture my thoughts each day as it allows me to recall some fo teh detail of what took place that day.  When I read this in the future it will be a lot of fun to see what happened at this point in my life, and the more detail that I can have in it the more fun I am certain it will be.  from time to time I go back and read old travel logs that I had kept and it is the silly detail that only I can remember that brings the smile to my face from the moment past!
Yesterday was an awesome day at my first ever coached triathlon clinic.  I have searched all around for an opportunity to attend some type of clinic for a little direction on various skills aspects.  This clinic was a hit form the swim perspective for me.  We started the day with a decent warm up and an opportunity to meet other athletes that were at the clinic.  It is a great environment being with other like minded people.  Like most group activities there are all levels attending.  It was cool to speak with people who could barely swim, and to the others who have completed multiple IM and are there for improvement.  Once the warm up was over, the format was quite simple. They set up a video and asked each of us to do a 25 meter all out swim.  Fairly simple and seemed a little to easy to start out.  After we all had video complete we joined together to review video of our swim in a group environment.  As a coach(skiing) I find it very useful to gather with a group to do assessment and development exercises.  It helps in learning more about your swimming(or sport) as well as an overall development of the technical aspects of the sport in general.  Over the course of the analysis, it was quite consistent amongst all of the swimmers were our greatest opportunity for improvement was.  Almost all showed a cross over of the arm(s) at some point in the stroke, for some it was at entry for others, under the body at the end of the stroke, but, it was a consistent area for improve.  The second area was swimming to flat.  Although many of the group showed use of the hips to lead a rotation, many stopped as soon as they started.  As the coach suggested, your hip should be almost facing the wall at 90 degrees to each side.  For me, I need to show more rotation, as well as making certain that my fingers face the bottom of the pool throughout the stroke.  I will continue with the swim content and go back to other parts of the day later.  When we returned to the pool later in the day, the format was awesome.  Sean Bechtel, who is an elite level long course trialthlete led the session(he is coached by Barry Sheply who is a Hall of Fame Tri coach, ie, Simin Whitfield and others) who introduced the session.  We did a 15 minute warmup and then it was followed by a series of drills. each drill was designed to address the most critical factors in the body balance and swim stroke.  Here is the great part with the format;  he introduced and reviewed the drill.  then we were in the pool to practice it.  Each of us had an individual coach who was observing our practice and giving 1-1 feedback.  As an athlete with zero swim background, I found the 1-1 to be extremely helpful and produced some immediate results and sensations to keep me progressing in my swim.  As we completed the drills, Sean as well as other phenomenal athletes and coaches made there way on the pool deck and gave individual feedback as they could observe.  Although the time spent was not long, it was a tremendous success from my dollar spent in having some tools and concepts to take with me to continue to improve my swim.(it was also great to have high level coaches acknowledge my swim, remember 4 months ago I could not swim a length)  Thank you to Tim sauve, Sean Bechtel and Taylor(McMaster swim coach) for the time and attention in a great swim  sesssion.
As well as swimming we spent some time with Nat Faulkner who is a leading elite cyclist.  he currently holds a record for Race across America which was set in 2004.  He spent an hour with us talking about the facts and science of cycling.  With winter coming for most of us, indoor trainer riding begins.  If you are like me, I would rather experience a root canal than sit on my bike for 2 hours.  SO, as he put it, make all of your indoor training excellent.  He reviewed some key drills and training concepts to bring us through the indoor training winter. A very interesting part of his talk was on the concepts of bike fit and aero dynamics.  In the sport a lot of emphasis is on being in aero position.  Well, why the hell are we are bent over for 6 hours on our bike, to get out of the wind, right??? He talked in more detail about the finer points of bike fit and why we stay in the position we do.  I am lucky to be at a shop that is committed to fit the bike for me, I highly recommend that every triathlete should make the investment.  It will make you faster and it will prevent injuries.
The third and valuable session to our day was a Yoga session.  I say it is valuable, however, the content for me was light.  As I have been doing Baptiste Power Yoga for a while now, our session yesterday was on the light side.  BUT, I believe that any form of yoga or stretching/strengthening practice is an integral part to long term tri success.  I have taken my Yoga time into my running and swimming now as a tool to help my breathing as well as to 'suck it up' when it gets tough.
Overall, yesterdays clinic was a resounding personal success for me.  Not that I am not normally enthusiastic about going for a workout, today i am particularly pumped to go and work on my drills and enjoy progress in the pool.  Thanks Barrie and team for a great day!  Being in the presence of excellence has served to stoke my fire more than ever!
With every great day comes the rewards at the end.  Yesterday was so plentiful I did not have time to get to my daily blog!  It started with a cold beer watching the world cup downhill from Lake Louise Canada.  As you might know, I am a ski nut, yesterday stoked my ski bug huge as Canada for the econd day in a row had podium finished from the girls team!  Go Canada Go!  This is awesome on home turf and leading into the Olympics to see the team progressing!  Cant wait until February to see the team on stage!
The next great part of the day is not having to go shopping with Trish and her mom and sister.  The stories they shared with me were crazy.  People pushing each other with carts,   shoving each other out of the way, being rude....WOW doesnt that sound like fun.  Too bad I had to miss it!
then we had a bunch of friends over for dinner yesterday evening.   Trish and I love to entertain, it is great to share stories of our week with people and to sit and unwind after the chaos that we run around and do all week.  I an earlier post I mentioned Trishmas season(my wife;s birthday), this was also one the many gatherings in order to observe the season!  :)  Hey, if she wants to have a party every night, so be it!  She puts up with me and that in itself is deserving of whatever she wants!  LOL
And one other great thing about yesterday........wait, what is it........can you  guess.......MOTHER NATURE has pulled her head out of her a%^ and started the snow in ski country!  Sorry for all you warm weather people, but it is winter where I live and the only way to do that properly is with snow!  Wahoo!  By the end of this week I should on the snow doing turns.  Next weekend I am part of a group leading training sessions for instructor and the following weekend I am one of the course conductors for a CSIA Level 1 instructors course!  It's about time, winter is here!
I hope that all of your weekends have been full of fun, stories and some training.  I have to run and get the honey-do list done and off to the pool!
And remember, the snow dance is a form of training!  Start shakin' friends!!

Ho...Ho...Holy Smokes the Holiday season is Here!

I love the holidays and all of the fun times that come along with it!  Spending time with family, friends, all the bright lights and excitement.  What drives me bonkers.....everybody on earth is out and seemingly pissed off because I am standing in front of them.  I went out with Trish for dinner tonight and it was a gong show.  The drive downtown(which I do about 3 times a year) was bumper to bumper.  Once I got down there parking was a full time job, and then the restaurant was nuts.  Lucky for me I enjoy the company of my mother in law and sister-in-law so I got over it.  I have to say I would rather experience the pain of the hitting the wall than endure impatient people during the holidays!  Oh well, I guess I should suck it up as the fun has just started.  I think I will extend on open invitation for the month of December for all our friends to drop by our house so I dont need to experience the traffic and impatience!
Today was my second rest day this week.  I am taking advantage of not being on a 'program' at the moment and taking days when I feel like it.  So far I have been quite diligent with several workouts a week and meeting goals that I have set.  I also am recognizing that I have a long road ahead and not to burn myself out before I set out on it.  One good thing about my day relating to training was my ECG that I had done this morning as part of a yearly physical.  It was very cool when the nurse decided she should double check my heart rate because she thought that 44 was an error.  I feel good that I have done the work to get down to a resting heart rate that as a medical professional questions because it is low.  It motivates me to keep working in order to meet some of the other physiological benchmarks that indicate good conditioning!
Today is a short blog day as I am up early to a great tri clinic tomorrow.  I am sure that I will have all sorts of great stories from my experience with some world class coaches and a lot of triathletes to inspire me to push like mad going forward!
I love this sport and all the fun things about it!  Cheers

The power of the Human Mind!!

Every day I spend hours upon hours why the hell people do what they do!!  As a sales manager, I spend my waking hours trying to determine what motivates people to do what they do.  One moment it will be a support staff who has promised to get something done and not finished it.  The next moment is a sales person who is blaming the customer for an order that he lost.  Next it is a customer on a visit coming up with some crazy excuse why he is going to wait until tomorrow to place his order.  What the hell makes people do what they do???
Think about it for a minute.....we decided one day that we would go and do an IRONMAN!  Who the hell in their right mind would choose to do something as ridiculous?  Because we can!  We all believe that we have the physical ability to train, the supportive families to allow us the time required, the resources to get the gear and the nerve to take the plunge.  That is the power of the human mind.  A tool that we carry with us every day that goes through some method of reason to allow us to make educated and seemingly logical decisions.  We make those decisions with somewhat of a notion of the potential and eventual outcomes as well as the path that we need to take to get there.
I have read all sorts of race reviews since I started this journey to the IRONMAN start line.  It amazes to learn about the power of the mind.  Stories of athletes feeling like they are going to puke on the swim and working through to the end without losing it.  Getting on the bike and truly convincing themselves that they will never finish the race because they are out of gas, only to cross the line hours later to hear, 'you are an IRONMAN', being on the side of the road during the run thinking it is all over, and 30 minutes later moving forward towards the finish line!  Let's face it, physically those people were at the end of the road.....but the mind takes over.  We look back in a flash moment at the months of training and sacrifices made, the thought of giving up and having to repeat it, a reflective moment on why we decided to do this in the first place, a million things run through in every grueling second of a race.
The power of the mind is amazing!  The ability as humans to put aside the feeling of total exhaustion, physically as well as mentally and using your mind to move you forward!  Most of the weaker people of the world just say that we are nuts.....I don't think so!!!
We get up each morning(and bitch about it) because we make the choice, we run in the snow and freezing weather because we want to.  we push ourselves to the point that we are going to be sick because it is good for us, we go to the start line because we made the choice and we cross the finish because the power of the human mind does not allow us to accept the circumstances of any other choice.  The process is a constant process, justifying each step along the way, re evaluating why we made the choice, pushing harder because we should, not training because we can, training twice because it feels good.....and it goes on.

This post is likely a bit of a ramble, but it is an attempt to capture the respect I have for the decisions that athletes and humans  make to do the race and the victory of crossing the finish line.
I have not done an IM yet, but at this point of my training towards the start line it is not only a physical evolution, but a great brain game as well!  I am having the time of my life and I cant wait to continue to push my limits, be forced to make decision because they seem so wrong but are the right thing to do and continuing to have those 5AM arguments with myself about why I should get out of bed.  I hope all of you have as much fun as I am in your IM world!  If not, oh well.....not my decision to do it....it's yours!  Cheers!

beers and wings....and swimming!

What a great day!  what did I do?  well, the title should pretty much say it all!  if you want an idea of how much fun I had, watch the video on the previous post!
After a great rest day yesterday I was feeling like it was time for a good workout.  I find myself wanting to do  workouts rather than struggling to get out to do them.  After any rest day I look forward to getting at it.  Today, I had put off a swim as I forgot that I had a meeting that I forgot about, and it was  at my usual pool time.  I was kinda bummed about it, but, hey life goes on so I changed it up for a run after my meeting instead.  Guess what, I was meant to swim today. As much as I wanted to get this meeting done, it was rescheduled until Friday.  Get the flippers out, off to the pool I go!!  Me being enthusiastic about swimming is a bit o a stretch for me to grasp.  Four months ago, I dreaded going for a swim, the pool, the lake what ever it was, if it involved swimming I had a list of excuses longer than my arm.  Now, after some studying, a lot of practice and an open mind, it is my favored workout to go to.  Maybe it is because I am french and the water is starting to bring out my frog qualities!  Todays workout was another PB for me.  each time I go out I work to push the limit a little further.  Today was a 2750m swim, that is the furthest distance to date.  The greatest thing is that I find the swim an easy one to complete.  So, I decide this week I would finish y week with 10km of swimming complete.  Also, as a blog friend calls it, my BHAG(big harry audacious goal) is to complete an IM distance swim before Christmas!  I love this IM stuff, pushing yourself every day to get to a new limit!  I am looking forward to coming out of the pool able to swim 3875m more in a practice than I was able to in June of this summer!
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-DS-pIqcs8
After a great swim today came the reward.  Once a month we have a 'group' night to go out and share some time together.  About a year ago we discovered that all we ever did was talk about getting together.  It never happened!  So, after a great night at a local pub that has the best wings north of the 49th, we decided that it would be a monthly affair.  Tonight was the December night!  Before the night is done we plan the night for the next month so that no one has any excuses!  As always the night was great.  Getting together with friends and sharing stories of our adventures from the last month.  It is amazing at that can happen in a short time.  New jobs, new adventures, new challenges.....it is truly entertaining!  I look forward to our night every month. Tonight was a different night as well.  Since June, when my bet to lose weight started, I had not ordered my own wings.  that is torture because the wings at this place are amazing.  Tonight, I was back in for some wings.  I figured with a good swim tonight and a run and yoga tomorrow, hell, I could indulge!  and I did and liked it! dont
As I finish my day the last goal is my quest to get off my butt and start my resistance training.  Luckily I am not the only one who is challenged to meet some of the parts that I enjoy.  So, with the help of some others out there we are going to push each other along.  If you want to jump in and be part of the pushers or be pushed, jump in, the more the merrier.  As I have progressed with the rest of my workouts, I know that this little push will help produce great results.  SO, here goes the next part of the adventure!
Until then, have a great night, Hope your dreams are dreamie and you wake up believing that they are there for you to achieve!
Cheers!