Tales from the Tri Side

The gate is straight - deep and wide.

2009-06-30T20:56:00.000-07:00

The list of reasons an athlete can pull the reigns on a workout is long.
I'm tired today.
I've got a big workout with the gang tomorrow. I want to be on my game!
I'm just coming off an injury. I need to keep things reserved.
My coach told me to keep it in zone 2 today.
It's too hot to put in a big effort.
It's raining pretty hard out there.
I've got a race this weekend. I'm tapering.
My lane partner isn't here to push me.
I ate too much sushi for lunch.
I raced last weekend and I've not recovered enough.
There's too many dogs on the trails today.
I've got a dinner party tonight and I can't be all burned out.
Working hard hurts.

Some of the excuses are legit and some are bullshit. Usually it's a combo of the two.
But every once in awhile we drop all the excuses, head out the door and lay it down.
I believe an athlete can raise their level of fitness from a single workout - a peak performance - a breakthrough workout.
For one athlete that might be a 59 minute 40K TT. For another it might be 13 miles at an 7:58 mile pace.
Whatever it is, when we have those workouts (or races) we can bring are athleticism to the next level.

When someone first starts in sport they can often achieve these breakthrough workouts almost every time they go out the door but the longer we're in the sport, the tougher it is to go to that place - and too often we just stop trying.

These special sessions don't just come about because the stars have lined up. They come about because an athlete has made a decision to pursue them - to seek them out and grab them.

Every time you get in the pool, straddle a bike or put on a pair of running shoes we have an opportunity to improve ourselves - to up our game.
It doesn't have to mean a PR every time.
It might mean getting to the top of Popeye's Peak.
It might mean finishing a workout on smashed legs.
It may mean just getting out the door.
You may not be able to define what it is at the start of the session but you'll know it when it happens.
And after it happens - it's yours. No one can take it away from you. And if you build on it, if you stay consistent you can have another one... and another one... and another one.
Decide you want it, be prepared to pay the price and go to that special place.
You won't succeed every time or even most of time but every once in awhile you will succeed and you'll be a better athlete for it.

Now go forth and do likewise.

Dust in the Wind

2009-06-23T12:56:00.000-07:00

You ever find yourself going through a "challenging" time - something dramatic - something that feels important beyond words? And while you're going through this big life changing event it's all you can think about? You wake in the middle of the night cause you have to take a leak but falling back to sleep is impossible because thoughts of your current situation overwhelm and you stare at the ceiling till it's reasonable to get up and start the day.
During these times it's hard not to imagine that everyone else in your world isn't equally consumed with your affairs.
You walk into a crowded room or on to a pool deck and you're pretty sure that all eyes are on you and the unheard whispers concern your business.
Anyone reading this can recognize the absurdity of it when on the outside looking in, but if you're on the inside it feels like you're the center of the universe - which is likely a hot and smelly place to be.
The truth, of course, is that no one, save a small group of those involved in your scene, cares.
You're not that important.
The best your business can hope for is a few dedicated minutes of conversation at the local Starbucks, where people running in your circles try to fill the hours with idle conversation. Then they'll move on to the next big thing and ultimately go home where they will be consumed by their own crap.

NOW just imagine the freedom there would be in truly not giving a shit what anyone thought about you.

2009-06-16T10:17:00.000-07:00

Do a good thing and help out with a buck or two.

FROM JASPER BLAKE

Hello Friends and Family,
This year I'm excited to announce that we are putting together a team of very keen individuals to race Ironman Canada on behalf of the MS Society of Canada. Each participant is committed to raising $7500 which will go directly to the MS Society of Canada. I have officially thrown my hat into the ring and am now counting on you fine folks to help me in my fund-raising target. I am currently getting my butt kicked by one of the team members who is already at $10,000. I would really like to beat him!

This link will take you directly to my fundraising page:
https://msofs.mssociety.ca/2009MISC/Sponsor.aspx?PID=1084081&L=2

The website for our project should you wish to check it out is www.race4ms.org We will be doing the same thing next year if anyone is interested in securing a much sought after spot to Ironman Canada

Thanks to all and I hope you are doing well.

Jazz

Shawnigan - a good day

2009-05-24T21:00:00.000-07:00

Kilshaw and Mensink with the wins.
James Fry 3rd (first on the left) and Rachel Kiers (2nd from the right)

I'm tired and I must go to bed but I needed to write a short one before retiring.
Today was the Shawnigan Lake 1/2 Ironman.
I was suppose to do a relay with Sara Gross. She was to swim and bike and I was going to do the run but last night but she got a stomach bug that kept her home so I was at the race with a coffee in my hand instead of sneakers on my feet.
I was disappointed to start the day but in the end it turned out to be a blessing.
I had several of my athletes out there and I couldn't have been happier with how things went.
I would not have been able to watch and support some great performances.
I had one athlete in the Olympic race today. Cathy Noel is a new triathlete with a goal of finishing Ironman Canada this summer. She's been working hard and making big gains across the board. She finished the Oly (with a 44k bike) 6th in her age group and about 5' faster than our predicted finish.
My newest athlete, James Fry, ended up coming 3rd with a 4:31 in the Half. A solid performance with lots of room for improvement for him!
Taking the win was Steve Kilshaw, a young man I have the pleasure to work with in the Victoria Elite Long Course club we have going here.
I've been working with Lysanne Lavigne for a few years now but this was her first venture into the long course. She's a full time massage therapist with a healthy attitude towards work and sport. 15 hours is a big week for her and her 4:56 was intensly satisfying for both of us.
Rachel Kiers was back defending her title. When she won last year, she did it with a 4:41. This year the competition was a little stiffer. The win would be more elusive. Olympian Lisa Mensink was vying for the title, along with Katya Mayers, Edmontononian Annett Kamenz and Miranda Alldritt to name a few.
Rachel came out of the water almost four minutes down from Mensink's lethal swim but managed to get off the bike almost a minute up on the crowd. Lisa overtook the lead and kept it but Rachel was able to hold onto 2nd place and finished a full five minutes faster than she did last year.
It's days like today that make coaching so worth while.

Good Cause!!

2009-05-15T17:52:00.000-07:00

Was chatting with Jasper Blake the other day and he was telling me about his efforts to get some folks together to race for MS. He's got a hell of deal going and if I didn't have my summer booked I'd jump on it.
I thought I'd pass on the word and see if anyone else might like to take advantage.

Here's the website:
www.race4ms.org

In a nut shell you raise a very reasonable amount of sponsorship money and you get a great package deal to IMC.
From Jasper:

"Ironman Canada Entry and Entry fee covered
Team cycling kit
Team racing kit (both by Hincapie)
Highest Fundraiser gets a bike
Second highest gets a wetsuit blue seventy
Third highest gets some 7systems product
Team brunch on the thursday before the race
Team swim clinic with me on the thursday before the brunch
Ryders Eyewear for everyone on the team
Any other swag i can pull together from my sponsors this is TBD (Ryders eyewear is already here)
Freedom to email me anytime with questions about IM Canada"

MS is an ugly disease that is close to Jasper and over the years has touched several people who have run in my circles.
If this opportunity is available next year I'm going to do what I can to be a part of it.
If you're on the fence about doing an IM or have missed an opportunity to get an entry this season - PLEASE consider this option!!

Welcome to the sandbox

2009-05-06T19:12:00.000-07:00

For more than a year now Jasper Blake and I have, with some regularity, discussed the possibility of forming a long course specific triathlon group. The idea was to create a series of workouts for the long course athlete - specifically the "elite" long course athlete.
Victoria is a great place to train. The roads are hilly and endless. Nice trails vein the entire island and there are two solid 50 meter pools within a twelve minute drive of each other.
Victoria is also thick with training groups. Throw a rock in this town and you hit a tri coach with a club. If you're a complete beginner there are several soft places to start out.
If you're a young Canadian athlete with dreams of representing the country on the international scene then you might get lucky enough to work with Pat Kelly at the National Triathlon Training Centre.
But if you're a long course triathlete training in this town your options have always been limited. Pete Reid and Lori Bowden swam with a morning masters group that seldom cracked 3500 m.
Jasper has been training with the junior national team for the last few years. They swim hard and have second to none coaching but the swims are designed for 18 year olds hoping to make the next Olympics.
Jasper's dream was to have workouts with the Ironman in mind instead of trying to make short course pegs fit into a long course hole.
He saw 12-15 athletes with regular coached sessions - supported rides and group runs.
Financing such a group would be a tall order. The team would need a paid manager. Lane space needs to be rented and scooter time isn't cheap. It was a big dream.
But on April 14 2009 the birth of VELCA occurred.
On that Tuesday morning nine of Victoria's Elite Long Course Athletes met at the Crystal pool and swam 4700 meters with a main set that was 2800 meters. There was little rest and a lot of work. 5 of the 9 athletes cracked on that set but none of them got out early.
Now, three weeks later, we're up to twelve, swimming twice weekly and we've had a few visitors from Vancouver join us for a session or two.
I've got a good feeling about this thing but it won't be without its challenge. A dozen elite athletes all with different race schedules, different coaches and different personalities.
Joe doesn't want to work with Bill and Coach Al doesn't want his precious Sam to work with Coach Elliot's crazy Sally.
There are some bloody hatchets in this town and if this thing is to work then we may need a front end loader to bury them deep enough but I believe we can do it. I'll have a rusty blade or two to drop in the pit myself but it's going to be worth it and the long course athletes in this town are going to get in some quality work.
We just have to make sure all the kids in the sandbox can play nicely together!

It's about time someone said it!

2009-02-23T08:39:00.000-08:00

This cat is funny - and right!!

There are bad people out there. Be careful.

2009-02-14T16:10:00.000-08:00

I have a sad little event to talk about it.
Chris Brown and Sara Gross, two professional athletes and two good people recently had a bad night.
They both have made tremendous sacrifices to pursue the triathlon dream but a few weeks ago that sacrifice took a big jump!
Right now the couple are living in a trailer in Tucson in order to get in necessary warm weather training.
As you can imagine (and some of you know) this is a tight lifestyle to manage.
It sure doesn't help to have some fuck head come in the middle of the night and steal your bikes that are chained to side of the trailer.
Brand new Cervelo P3s with SRMs. Absolutely heart breaking.

I'm not sure what makes me more angry - that some derelict might have pinched them for $50 worth of crack or they were the victim of an organized bike theft ring that will realize top dollar for a hot, hot bike?

It's a long shot but these two deserve something good to happen to them.
Anybody who might have a lead will gain massive karma points.

I'm working on a photo of Chris' black and white P3 but here's a pic of Sara's ride:

Sorry Times

2009-01-10T12:58:00.000-08:00

Non - tri related.

There are two stories everyone should read here. (click on picture)

Texas moves full speed ahead to execute a mentally ill man while another woman dies in an emergency room after waiting more than 24 hours for help.
She laid dead on the floor for an hour before someone came and took her away.

If this fucker isn't crazy then
there's no reason to even have
an insanity option on the books!

Camping with friends

2008-12-20T16:55:00.000-08:00

Last year Paul Cross, Pete Reid and Cliff English invited me to be involved in a triathlon camp they were putting on in Tucson. Paul is putting on the camp again and I have to give it my highest marks. If anyone is considering a camp in the new year, consider this one. I promise you, you'll get your money's worth and a nice kick in the ass towards fitness!

Paul timing some laps!
(click photo for camp info)

Another camp consideration should be the one put on by Chris Brown and Sara Gross.
Chris and Sara are both celebrated long course triathletes who are also dedicated coaches.
I've had heard nothing but good from those who have taken part in their camps in the past.

Sara and Chris post IMC
(click photo for camp info)

Play Hard!

2008-12-16T08:48:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

Check Your Ethics

2008-12-07T21:36:00.000-08:00

Over the last few months I've found myself in some "interesting" ethical situations.
And one thing I'm learning is that being in the right doesn't make one right.
Just because you have the "law" on your side doesn't mean you're the hero.
Lord knows, doing the right thing is not always easy and some times it costs you - dearly, but in the long run you will sleep better knowing you did your best to do the right thing.
And really, we almost always know what we should do, it's just doing it that proves difficult.

The real evil isn't the action - it's the rationalizations we pull out of our ass after we do what serves us and not the greater good.

Too funny!

2008-11-27T09:36:00.000-08:00

I just had to post this video!

Ironman AZ

2008-11-23T18:06:00.000-08:00

Full Report Pending but check out this video to see some folks with flexible ethics.
Keep in mind this is 36 miles into the race. This is NOT right out of transition.
AND I promise you this - there was a bigger pack than this one!
I should also make it clear that the reason I was able to get this shot (start the camera up before the pack arrived) was that we saw them approaching the turnaround 3-4 minutes before they came back to us.
They were together coming and going!

Can't find my way home.

2008-11-22T20:47:00.000-08:00

So here I am in Tempe and tomorrow is another running of Ironman Arizona.
I'm staying with Scott Curry and Chris McDonald at their homestay. The owner is a generous age grouper named Carl and he has to have one of the nicest homes I've seen in a very long time.
Check out the photos below!

Tomorrow is going to be a fun race. I've got a bunch of friends racing.
Christine Fletcher is fit and I'm certain will have a good race. Trevor Wurtele is looking great as is Chris Brown. I've never seen Curry looking this good or confident. He and Paulo (his coach) are proud of the work they've done. Jasper Blake is here and I KNOW he's done some solid training this fall in Victoria. He's bringing with him young Steve Kilshaw. Few in the Ironman game know Steve's name but I think they will after Sunday.
This is the first time I've met Chris McDonald but the boy has some great tales. Today he was telling me a little bit about his journey. He's a great story teller with a generous spirit.
It seems he started out a rugby player in Australia - weighing 240 pounds! He met Scott Molina through some friends before he knew anything about the sport and certainly anything about the legendary Mr. Molina. Over the next four years they became friends and did quite a bit of training together. Chris told of two vivid memories he had that he now counts as pivotal moments in his triathlon history. He and Scott were out on a long bike ride and, like riding with many athletes of Molina's stature there was little chatter. After about 3 hours of silence, he recalls Scott looking over at him and saying, "You know, Chris you could have a future in this sport."
Some time later, when Chris was racing his last event as an age grouper - I don't recall the race but I'm certain it was an Ironman, he was making this way to the finish line, running in 5th over all, and he passed Molina running the other way, also racing as an age grouper. He remembers he and Scott seeing each other and Scott pumping his fist in adulation.
Chris and I talked about how important those moments were for him and the reasons why.
Talk to any athlete out there who has tasted some form of success and ask them what were key moments in their athletic life and a great many will tell you of a time when someone believed in them - someone who was not obliged to believe in them and then expressed that belief.
At any rate, it was a nice chat, and I'll be cheering for him to have a great race.

Now it's time to get some sleep. Tomorrow will come around quickly.
I love this sport.

And I love this house:

The front of the shack

Scott's wife Allison and his brother Brent.

Scott prepping bottles for his win tomorrow.
Allison getting her shoes ready to go for a run with me.

The Theatre Room
This picture doesn't do it justice.
Those chairs are monster recliners!

An Endless Pool within a finite pool.

Gotta have a hot tub!

The guest house behind the pool.

Chris watching football on the "small" TV.

Communication Breakdown

2008-11-21T17:41:00.000-08:00

So here I am in Phoenix and early this morning I get a message on my Blackberry saying I can no longer receive or send text messages or emails until I reset my Shaw account password.
Four hours later I get to a computer with an internet connection to find I can't access my Shaw account through webmail at this time - no reason given. So I get on the phone (long distance of course) with tech support at Shaw - 1 hour and 7 minutes later I get through. Apparently for no reason the tech guy can give me he says he has to reset my email account. Any email messages sent to me in the last 7 hours are lost.
If you think you communicated with me today - you may have not have.
When it rains it pours.

Opportunity

2008-11-08T21:17:00.001-08:00

"I've got a defective gene."

Opportunity by Edward Sill

This I beheld or dreamed it in a dream;
There spread a cloud of dust along a plain;
And underneath the cloud, or in it , raged
a furious battle, and men yelled, and swords
shocked upon swords and shields. A prince's banner
wavered, then staggered backward, hemmed by foes.
A craven hung along the battle's edge,
and thought, "Had I a sword of keener steel -
that blue blade that the king's son bears, - but this
blunt thing... !" he snapped and flung it from his hand.
Then the king's son, wounded, sore bested,
and weaponless, saw the broken sword,
hilt buried in the dry and trodden sand,
and ran and snatched it, and with a battle shout
lifted afresh, he hewed his enemy down.
And saved a great cause that heroic day.

DON'T BE A CRAVEN HANGING AT THE BATTLE'S EDGE!!!

Kickin' it Ol' School

2008-10-28T22:01:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally figured out how to work my scanner and as I have no shame I thought I might throw up a few snaps from back in the day.
I think if you click on the photos you'll see them full size.

Here's a shot of me in my first race. It's the Sri Chinmoy Triathlon, 1984 - the 5th running of it.

Sometime in early 84, I'd gotten a call from a high school friend, Rob Hanke asking me if I'd be willing to be his "handler" for the upcoming triathlon.
Rob explained the race to me - a 1 mile swim, 38 K bike and a 10K run.
Remarkable how close they came to guessing the Oly distance that would surface about 8 years after the first race 1979.
I told Rob I wasn't interested in being a handler. I wanted to do the race! After all, I'd played soccer in high school. How hard could it be?
I remember that night going for a run. I ran 17' - close to 2 miles.
In those days, 800 meters was a good swim. I never biked more than an hour and I logged my runs leading up to the race - 18 runs averaging 3 miles each. (I was always a journal keeper)
My time was something like 2:45 - I'm too lazy to dig up the results.
That helmet was a used one I found at the old Sport Traders. It was WAAAY too big for my head but you had to have a helmet.
I love my cycling gloves!

That first race costs $18 to do.

My first race

My Second race was a year later. Sri Chinmoy, 1985
The guy running beside me is Rob Hanke, who didn't want to do it the following year but came over to be my Handler.
The shorts I'm wearing are a pair of cut off rugby pants.
I have a new pair of cycling gloves for this one.
If you look in the back you can see a dude with some original compression socks on!
I remember I ended up going a few minutes slower this year and bonking terribly. Of course I didn't know what bonking was but wow - did I ever do it! I almost passed out.
Still I kept coming back for more.

My Second Triathlon

Here's a fun picture from a few years later. Probably 1988. I believe this is from the Pioneer 8k.
I was running around a 37' (for 10K) in those days. The guy behind is named Carl. He and I traded back and fourth a great many races before I finally notched things up and got faster.
In the background you can see a woman with glasses on her head talking to some folks.
That was my partner at the time. She didn't see me come in - or she was pretending not to know me, which would be understandable.
I'm wearing a jersey from The Tri Den. That was a tri specific store that I opening in 1987 - but, as many of my athletes could tell you, I'm a terrible businessman. I sold the store for a loss 3 years later. It closed a year after that.

Bring your A game or go the fuck home!!

Here I am training indoors. Yes, that's a sweatband on my head. Note the ultra cool socks. Also note the saddle bags - and my autographed album cover from Billy Joel! I still have that, of course. And dig that swag lamp and knitted plant hanger. My mom made that plant hanger. Those are a pair of very expensive Hind Tri shorts I'm sporting!
My stereo would have been cranking.
I'm 25 years old and 150 pounds.

Training in the 80's

I love this photo, grainy as it is. This is me and my friend Mike Basanta training in Palm Springs. We rode 3 hours this day. Those are Scott bars on our bikes. I think it must have been around 1989. The heat was staggering - well past 100!
Mike won a good many races in his day.

Me and Mike

My first and only victory. It was the first leg of the Coor Island Relay probably around 91 or 92.
Note all the neon shorts on the fans - but me sporting a cool pair of Tinley originals!
I still have those shorts but couldn't get one leg in them now!!
This was a 3 mile race. I don't remember my time.
But I remember the feeling of starting out with all those runners and finishing all by myself.

My First Win

Finally it's out

2008-10-24T12:15:00.000-07:00

The Word is Out

There's more to this story.
It'll all come out in the fullness of time.

A few Kona Shots

2008-10-23T22:32:00.000-07:00

The problem with going away for a week is that you come back to a shit storm of stuff to do.
Anyway, I took lots of pictures in Kona but few of them are worth looking at. Here they are anyway:

Press Conference
Craig, Beke and Welchy (back to us)

I haven't even looked at the results but I heard Beke was 3:57 out of first with a 4' drafting penalty! Crap that's got to hurt if it's true!!!

My buddy Dan Smith after
the race. This was not a setup photo.
That's what he looked like!!!

I LOVE this photo of Sara Gross finishing!
It's blurry but her smile comes through!

I spent a little time with SG out on the run course. She has the heart of a lion. I believe this girl can be a giant killer.

Check out this broad! Smiling away like it was
a little fun run!

Since Kona I've been hearing some pretty crazy rumours but until I read it on slowtwitch I won't believe it's true.

CM X 2 plus Lisa Mensink

Three Olympians.

Rumour has it one of these girls may dip her toe into the long course waters. If that happens I'm predicting devistation!!

I'm currently out of the office right now

2008-10-09T20:08:00.000-07:00

I've been writing on Triathletemag.com

Here
and
Here
There will be more as well as an article or two on Pete's site as well. I sent Shawn (Pete's webmaster) an piece about 20 minutes ago. Not sure when he'll be able to get it up.
but it'll be at
Pete's Website.

A few photos.

My view at the pro press conference

Two Champions

Bennett and Normann exchanging digits.

Wonder what he's thinking about?

24

2008-10-08T14:45:00.000-07:00

"Next year your skinny ass is mine!"

I arrived in Kona at 8:30 AM local time this morning. Exactly one rotation of earth after leaving Victoria. I'm not a big fan of traveling at the best of times. I like my own home and prefer to be there over other places but you won't hear me complaining when it's an Ironman I'm going to - especially the world championship - but the was one arduous trip.
I booked the flight Expedia and was pleased to find a flight 2 weeks out from the race at about $300 less than any other flight I've gotten there.
So I leave Victoria at 11:30 AM, fly to Seattle, sit for 6 hours, fly to Honolulu, sit for 90 minutes, then fly to Kona - in theory arriving about 12 hours after leaving.
The night prior to leaving a wind storm hit Victoria with a fury, keeping me awake most of the night but by morning it had largely blown out and all flights were on time.
I arrived at the Victoria Airport with plenty of time to have a bit of lunch but didn't count on the power being out. There was no food. The flight leaves as scheduled and about 50 minutes later we arrive in Seattle with what was inarguably the roughest landing I've ever experience. Some residue wind from the storm the night before hit us hard as we hit the tarmac. I was at the back of the plane and for a brief moment I believed the pilot had lost control. We were fishtailing back and forth and cries from terrified passengers unnerved me as much as the turbulence - the pilot, bless his soul, did not crash us and I, along with a few of the Lifesport gang got off the plane head to a fish place in the airport for a really nice meal. We were all starving. We would learn that their flight on Northwest is delayed 2 hours and my later flight will also be delayed about 45 minutes.
I don't mind the 6:45 wait as I have lots of work to do and I get lots done.
When it's time for me to check in I get to the Northwest counter to find the computers are down and we can't board. After about forty minutes a few nerds show up and fix the problem and we're allowed on the plane. It takes off about an hour five behind schedule for the six hour flight. I'm sitting beside a lady so obese she's not able to have the arm rest dividers lowered. Her flesh pressed against me for the entire flight. She never even got up to pee. Neither did I.
After some quick math I determine I would have about 30 minutes to transfer planes in Honolulu.
The inflight movie comes on - a stroke of luck - it's the Kevin Costner's Swing Vote. I thought it was a stroke of luck because I hadn't seen it and I mostly enjoy Costner. I did not enjoy this one. What an ill thought piece of trash, but I watched every minute to try and distract myself from the discomfort of being smooshed into the window.
At long last we touch down in Honolulu and my name, along with about a dozen others, is called. We are to report to the Northwest man waiting at the gate. I knew then we wouldn't be going to Kona tonight.
Of course I was right, but not for a moment did I really care. It would have been almost 11 PM by the time I would show up at the house. I didn't relish the idea of waking people up to find out where I was suppose to sleep.
We, the inconvenienced travelers after 20 minutes in a line up, are given two vouchers, one for a hotel and one for a meal. I'm told the meal voucher will work at the hotel or any vendor in the airport. We are told also to grab out checked luggage.
But the conveyor belt won't start. Instead an alarm starts up. For 15 minutes we listened to the ear grating screech of that thing. The crowd was getting hostile.
Suddenly it stopped, the belt started to roll and luggage began to pour out to a loud cheer from the crowd.
My luggage along with several other passengers is lost. I'm not really concerned about this as I assume it's just gone on ahead without us. This turns out to be true but it didn't stop one big son of a bitch from just losing it on the poor airplane rep. A few of us tried to calm the guy down but only half succeeded.
Now we're told to head out the of the airport where a shuttle will take us to the hotel. We're also told the shuttle comes every 10 minutes. 22 minutes later the shuttle arrives.
At 2 AM 14 and 1/2 hours later I lay down in the hotel bed. The place was had the smell and ambiance of the 70s but I was just fine with that. I don't recall sleeping so soundly in a very long time.
This morning things went mostly uneventful. My flight was scheduled for 7:30. Unfortunately the hotel cafe didn't open till 6:30 so I would have to use my voucher at an airport vendor.
No luck - the airport vendors didn't accept the vouchers.

So 24 hours after leaving Victoria I arrive in Kona and it's perfect here.
The universe was kind. It gave me something to write about.

Starting to feel it

2008-10-06T12:24:00.000-07:00

So tomorrow I'm off to Kona. I'll be writing the column again for Triathlete. I enjoy that gig but it's a bit of pressure due in part to the numbers reading it. I've got my nine regular readers here on my blog and you guys hardly ever pressure me to be bring my A game with every entry - it's a different matter with the crowd checking out the Triathlete Mag site.

So my swim game on Friday turned out to be a pretty fine success.
I'll do my best to explain it here if anyone wants to try with their groups.
First you make a game board:

I made mine with 33 squares.
The first sq is your warm up and the last sq is the cool down.
After that you put the name of each of your swimmers on an individual sticky note and start everyone in sq 1. They all do the warm up.
After the warm up the swimmers each draw a poker chip from a bin. The chips are labeled 1 through 6. Whatever number the swimmer chooses is how many squares they advance.
Then they do the set written in the sq. I made each set approximately 300 metres.
The first person to get to the cool down and complete it wins.
I had prizes for the first 3.
Some tips - have all the swimmers draw their first chip prior to doing the warm up. This will help spread it out a bit. They come in fast and furious.
Also make sure you have different lengths for the the level of swimmers - eg - a set might be 3 x 100 or 2 x 100 - one for lane 1 and one for lane 4.
Make the sets on rest interval and not on a time - don't have 3 x 100 on 1:40 have it 3 x 100 on 10" rest.
If anyone gives this a try let me know how it goes.
With thanks to Norm Thibault and Peter Reid.

Now I have to pack.

2008-09-29T20:40:00.000-07:00

So I coached the Tyee session and it went just fine. There were some new faces for me and I was a new face for many of them. Working with that group is going to be a good thing.
This Friday I have something special lined up for them - a swim game idea I got from Norm Thibault. I'll let you all know how it goes.

So my news this week is I've decided to go to Kona again this year and take in the race.
I'll have a lot of friends there racing and the boys over at Lifesport, Paul Regensburg and Lance Watson, extended a generous offer of a nice room in a sweet pad right on the drive. I couldn't turn that down.
Another World Championship. It'll be good for me.

Once more to the brink

2008-09-25T21:55:00.000-07:00

It's been a nice holiday but it's time to get back at 'er!

Tomorrow morning at 6:15 AM I will be on deck and there will be between 25 and 30 swimmers in the water expecting me to bring my A game.
I haven't been on deck, coached a track session or a trainer ride in more than 5 weeks.
I'm curious to see how it goes. There are few places in the world I'm as happy as I am on the pool's edge or beside a track.
I'm expecting good things.