Training Update

For those who care, here goes.

As of 2 weeks ago, I've now started swimming 3x a week with the Markham Masters Swim Club.

Given that I've only swum no more than 30 times since the year 2000, this is a major training addition for me. Why the change? I started swimming in September due to my recovery from Achilles surgery. I could not do the amount of running I wanted to do so this was the easy option. I only planned on swimming once a week from September to June, but I've been enjoying my swimming so much that I extended my membership to swim 3x per week.

My right shoulder is holding up ok due to all of the swimming. Some days are better than others but I can feel the strength building up despite the pain. In fact, I hit a personal best time of 1:36 for 100m last week (although I've never timed myself before at a full out effort). I was not looking to make serious time improvements for my Ironman swim but that may happen as a bi-product. I will gladly take it if it comes. I know I can swim tons faster if I push it, but I will focus on getting faster at a fairly easy effort. After all, there is still 180 km of biking and 42.2 km of running to do afterwards.

The Achilles is making slow but steady gains. I am up to 1 hr and 20 minutes of constant running (avg. pace 6:27/km). So I am not breaking any speed records yet.

That's all for now, thanks for reading.

H

Lance to race an Ironman

According to Outside Magazine (Lance is featured in the February issue), Lance has confirmed that he will enter an Ironman after he is done with his cycling comeback. And when he does do it, he isn't just showing up. He wants to go as fast as he can. This should be very interesting indeed but we will have to wait for at least a couple of years.

The online article can be found here:

http://outside.away.com/outside/culture/200902/lance-armstrong-reader-questions.html

Here is the exact question and response to the Ironman question.

Will you ever do the Ironman? You've got a lot of triathlon fans out their desperate for an answer.

Yeah. Whenever I'm done with this [comeback]. I can unequivocally say yes to that. That's a fact. And I get asked that question every day. I don't know when it was, less than a year ago, that I got some of these Ironman DVDs. I said, Let's see what that's all about. So we've been watching them for the past year. I'm definitely motivated to do an Ironman. We'll go back and I'll be close to 40, but I've swam more in the last three years than before that. And I don't want to just do an Ironman. I don't want to approach it like I approached the marathons. I want to do it as fast as I can.

WTC buys out NA Sports

What does this mean for us racers? Hopefully, not a thing as far race prices or race quality is concerned.

Graham Fraser puts on the best races period! So it will be interesting to see what happens to these U.S. races. Apparently, the deal is that the NA Sports staff will remain intact to do their jobs. Only time will tell and I will find out first hand at Ironman Lake Placid this summer.

The interesting thing is that Ironman Canada remains under Fraser's control. Will it be stripped of official "Ironman" status in the future? Will it matter? Or will it become like Roth which still remains a juggernaut despite losing that official status and Kona slots. Are those who are really serious about Kona going to IMCAN to qualify anyway? That race is unique and has a cult-like following so I think it keep chugging along and I'm glad to have done it twice. I really love that course. Maybe I'll go back one day. When I win the Super 7 or 6/49?

Will Fraser try to get another "Ironman" race going in Canada? Again, it is all speculation but all pretty cool as well. I see it as a win-win for all of us. If there are more races there will be more competition and maybe some reduction in race fees. And maybe we can will see more of those races happening in Canada. Time will tell. Graham, since you a few extra bucks in your pocket, can you adopt me? You can reach me at hosspro@hotmail.com

Click on the link to see the official announcement.

http://ironman.com/mediacenter/pressreleases/world-triathlon-corporation-acquires-seven-u.s.-based-races

Happy New Year!!!

Sorry for the tardiness of this post but......




I hope you didn't celebrate so much that you looked like this Boston Terrier.

I am busy writing articles for the HSBC Triathlon Series, Triathlon Magazine Canada, doing assignments for my courses, etc. So I will try and post some triathlon related stuff soon or whatever interesting things I may find.

In my own training related news, I finally eeked into the double digits as I did 10 hrs and 1 minute of training last week. Capped off by 2500m of swimming last night. I've done more swimming in the past 4 months (still only once a week) than I've done in 10 years and I think it will definitely pay off this summer. My right shoulder is taking a beating though. Which is why I didn't swim much in the first place---too many years of competitive tennis and cranking out serves in the 144 mph range. For a vertically challenged dude I am paying for those efforts now.

If you want to know about the nonsense that an elite athlete has to go through on a daily basis check out this classic post by Simon Whitfield.

http://simonwhitfield.blogspot.com/2008/12/unreal-my-whereabouts.html

Til next time
RH