NBC Ironman Kona Coverage

The NBC's coverage of the 2007 World Ironman championships was aired today.

I watched the show for the first time in High definition and it was totally awesome, like being there with the racers as a spectator, I highly recommend watching it in High D.

I thought it was very well done this year. It was a good mix of the pro's race coupled with the story line of featured age groupers with there inspirational stories of doing an Ironman. One of the features was with a double amputee Scott Rigsby with no lower legs below the knees trying to finish his first Ironman after earlier this year failing after a fall on his bike at IMCda. His purpose of doing and finishing an Ironman was to prove to himself he could do it, Naturally, and to inspire other amputees in the world they to can do things being handicaped. very cool. And of course the tear jerking finally, it always chokes me up.

The coverage of the pros was at times a little graphic with norman statler puking, and I must say in High Def it is quite a site, he ended up not finishing. Then Natasha badmann crashing on her bike, breaking her collar bone, showing the true Ironman spirit, tried to continue on riding until she couldn't anymore and had to pull out of the race to go to the hospital. Both of them, Natasha and Norman were favorites to win in there respective field, but by having to pull out of the race, left the field open for a new first time Ironman winner in both the mens race and womans race.

I must say, watching the show really inspires me to race an Ironman. So with my race in Lake Placid in 8 months, I'm glad I taped the show to watch over and get some inspiration when I need it for my training.

Pro men's top 3
1.
Chris McCormack
8:15:34
2.
Craig Alexander
8:19:04
3.
Torbjorn Sindballe
8:21:30

Woman's pro top 3
1.
Chrissie Wellington
9:08:45
2.
Samantha McGlone
9:14:04
3.
Kate Major
9:19:13

Full result at http://vnews.ironmanlive.com/events/ironman/worldchampionship/?show=leaderboard&y=2007

It's December!

It's December! Ho Ho Ho! Can you believe it? it's December already!!...I know!! because I just turn the page on my calendar and it says today is December, 1. ....plus if you look at the top of this post it says so too!..

Its a rest day for me, not that I need a rest, but my new schedule says it's a rest day, so who am I to argue? heeheehee.....

I'm getting new windows.

I have a guy/salesman coming today to sell me some new windows, or should I say put me in more in debt with signing my life away for the new windows.

Yes, it seems we will be getting them installed once we get approved for the financing, which I doubt we will get the approval, because we are already over our heads in debt when we refinanced to get our roof done this summer with a little

left over for me to enter IMLP and to buy my new Trek Madone and my wife's trek pilot.

On approval we will be changing up all our windows all 25 I think? They are unique casement type windows, called Magic windows. They have a unique feature of hide-away screen so all you see is the whole clear picture window which is thermal efficient and air tight.

They are casements without the crank so you never have to worry about the crank breaking, which in our case in our home now, all our cranks don't work. They never need to be painted, they easy to open and close and when you open them, not only do they open by swinging out? they slide to the side so you have a full and open window then you pull over the screen to keep the critters out.

Basically they are amazing, they were engineered to California standards for strength to hold up to the strongest winds and earthquakes so as not to break the glass seal of the window in the frame, the windows won't twist or sage and always be easy to open and guaranteed for 40yrs!!

On top of that, the salesman guarantees a saving in home heating cost of up to 25% from the windows being air tight. I know it sounds like a sales pitch and all, but in this case I believe him because my windows now are so drafty you could fly a kite in the house from the air coming though, so no matter what window system I were to put in I know I would save 25%!

They are manufactured here in Toronto, actually 45min down the hwy 400 from me in Toronto. http://www.magic-window.com/

Wasaga Beach burned down

Early this morning the main strip at Wasaga beach burned down! more then a third of the shops are destroyed along the strip It's a big summer tourist town that boasts the worlds longest fresh water sand beach and a beach that you can walk out over the water for 500m and your still only waist high in the water from all the sand bars. http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/wasaga_fire


Wasaga beach is where I race my last race of every season in Sept. http://www.multisportcanada.com/ms/events/race_schedule.cfm


It is exactly 45km from my house, I know because during the summer I ride out there and back most weekends as part of my bike training for a great 90km or 3hr ride which ever comes first hahaha...

It is also the place where I got my M-dot armband tattoo!! I hope the tattoo shop didn't burn, I need to get another Tat still!!

Training schedule is up!!

I finished my swim challenge today for the month of Nov, with a solid 2300m swim. I did a straight 2000m set in 36min. not bad for early training. My plan is to keep up my swims Monday, Weds, Friday's, at 2000m distances mixing up my sets with drills and speed work with one long 2000m set once a week from here on in.

If you noticed I posted a schedule on the right side of my blog with my schedule of training per week for the month, where I just repeat the weeks training over every week all month.

<---It's the same as this one here.
It is only a template of what training I will do day to day throughout the week with distances and times varying and all done indoors over the winter months.

I like to mention to, on my run day's I do a set of weights as a warm up before my run, then the fun swim comes after the run for a cool down.

My plan is to keep this schedule of training for the next few months as my base training until I get into my longer runs( if my foot lets me) and bike training with more hours training in the week to get ready for my early races in the spring and finally IMLP.

The numbers I have in the boxes are the minimum times and distances I want to do, but most of you know some day's you just don't have it in you to do what is scheduled, and like I said the other day with biking? I just can't get into it yet! but I will try next week.

I will keep track of my actual distances and times in my training log on my computer in excel, which I may post.

The schedule on the right side of my blog, is a good way for me and you to keep track of what I have to do on what day. .....Like today being my swim day I was scheduled to do 1 x 2000m long set, but I did an extra 3x100m at 1:30 after to let my arms know there is more to swimming then long easy strokes hahaha.....

Want To Trade!!

In a nut shell I need a new body.

I went to the gym did some weights, lat pulls, sit-ups, bench press, curls, leg press, dips, squats, as my usual warm up before getting on the treadmill. I set the treadmill for my usual intervals of walk speed of 3.5m/hr and run speed at 5.5m/hr. I start walking and my foot is hurting as usual but usually the pain subsides after a short while, but today it's not subsiding and feeling tight as well as hurting on impact, So what? I say, I have to run, no pain no gain! I hit the interval button to start running at 5.5m/hr and toggle it up to 6m/hr, Ooooo aaaaaaa ouch Eeeeeeow, my knees are tighter then a rusty door hing!! but I keep going. huff...huff..huff....no! not really? I'm not running fast enough to be huffing like that, heart rate is only at 130bpm. I keep the pace going at 6m/hr until I reach the mile mark and hit the button to walk. I can't do this? I'm saying to myself. I walk it out for 5 min after toggling it up to 4m/hr to keep my heart rate up a bit. When the five min were up, actually 4.5 min, I hit the button to run again, I feel a bit looser so I run it out until I get to 2miles and walk it out again for a couple of min, I kept doing this for an hour.

It was a pretty good workout , but I need a new body!!...Want to trade?? ...


Another Breakfast of Champions!!....
When I got home I got out the Maple Bacon and Egg, Cheddar Cheese and Tuna and had the best omelet. Mmmmmmmm Yum!


My bike is calling!! .....
I hear her in the basement, but I'm not listening........I just can't seem to get my arce on the leather lately....I don't know whether it's because the basement is enclosed and dark, even with the little windows and lights on, it's still dark. Maybe it's because I don't like to get all sweaty riding the trainer, I hate getting all sweaty! or maybe it's a mental block that is saying to me? I don't need to ride because riding is second nature to me and I have lots of base built up over the past summer, and I have lots of time to get ready riding with IMLP 8 months away, what ever it is? I'm just not motivated to do my rides on the trainer yet. I'd rather be riding outside, but being the climate it is up here this time of year, and all the snow, I can't ride outside. So I have to will myself to get riding the trainer.


Will.....Will.....Willlllll!!!..........It's not working!.........I'm going to watch some TV.


My training room in the basement....



A different angle......







Have a good day.

My Goldrusher ultra friends

Post edited due to possible litigation.

Not so bad

Ok, that wasn't so bad, I swam 1500m, my stomach growled and I called it a day. I'm still tired but after I got home and made breakfast i'm feeling better, but still tired. I need a nap.....Zzzzzzzzzz.

On another note!..

I think this cold weather is affecting my bad foot, and my ankle is all tight too, like if it was swollen, but it's not.

In the pool after my swim I took time out to stretch out my foot against the pool wall. I'll put my foot on the wall and grab the ledge and straighten out my leg and put my head to my knee to stretch out my hams, and with my foot in a 90 Degree angle to the wall stretch out the bottom of my foot or the PF. and it was tight! I did it slow and easy until I got the full stretch. Now my PF feels better but still hurts to walk.

BTW, my knees are still hurting, but not so bad, I think it's more of my arthritis now, as once they warm up with movement they feel ok, again I think it's this cold weather.

I HATE COLD WEATHER!!

That is all for now. ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Run down

I think I'm getting run down with over training........NOT!!

I haven't trained enough to be run down, yet? but I am tired and have no energy these past morning.

COFFEE.....I need COFFEE!!!...then I'll be ok.


I think all this tiredness has to do with the coming of winter less light and sunshine. I like most people get effected with the coming of winter and the lack of light and essential vitamins. This is the time of year I need to start taking in some supplements to counter effect the natural elements of nature of wanting to curl up in a cave and sleep all winter like the bears do.


Coffee as you know is a stimulant, and stimulants get you up and energized, but for the most part the effect only lasts a short time before you crash and feel drained and tired again, so before you know it you're grabbing for another coffee to get you going again.


What to do? ...Well the first thing I need to do is cut back on my coffee and start taking vitamins and hopefully I will feel more energized naturally. I need to get out into the sunlight as much as possible, but it is hard when it's so cold outside.


I think we can learn a lot from our animals/pets, I need to do what mocha my cat does, she sits in the window with the sun shining on her or if the sun is shining brightly on an area in the room she sits or lays in the light.


Mocha grabbing Sunshine where ever she can.

I do what I can to get in a little sunbathing in the winter months.

Ok, off to the pool for some torture. Have a great day.

Tuesday funny's

A teacher gave her fifth grade class an assignment to have their parents tell them a story with a moral at the end of it. The next day the kids came back and one by one began to tell their stories. Kathy said, "My father's a farmer and we have a lot of egg-laying hens. One time we were taking our eggs to market in a basket onthe front seat of the pickup when we hit a bump in the road andall the eggs went flying and broke and made a mess. "And what's the moral of the story?" asked the teacher. Kathy said, "Don't put all youreggs in one basket!" "Very good," said the teacher.

Next little Lucy raised a hand and said, "Our family are farmers too. But we raise chickens for the meat market. We had a dozen eggs one time, but when they hatched we only got ten live chicks and the moral to this story is, don't count your chickens until they hatch."

"That was a fine story Lucy.""Johnny, do you have a story to share?"

"Yes, ma'am, my daddy told me this story about my Aunt Karen. Aunt Karen was an AirForce flight engineer in Desert Storm and her plane got hit. She had to bail out over enemy territory and all she had was a bottle of whiskey, a machine gun and a machete. She drank the whiskey on the way down so it wouldn't break and then she landed right inthe middle of 100 enemy troops. She killed seventy of them with the machine gun until she ran out of bullets, then she killed twenty more with the machete till the blade broke and then she killed the last ten with her bare hands.

"Good heavens," said the horrified teacher, "what kind of moral did your daddy tell you from that horrible story?

Little Johnny said,"Stay the Hell away from Aunt Karen when she's been drinking."




This is what I call extreme sports

Don't you just hate it when someone takes the words out of your mouth?

Today's swim

I didn't feel to much like swimming today, but I got my Arce up and out to the pool. I ran into Mischele, Ted and lisa and others from my triclub at the pool. Mischele is the president and coach of our club ( Kempenfelt Triathlon Club ) http://www.kemptriclub.ca/

After chit chatting a while in the water I got to swimming and did 4 x 500m sets for a total of 2000m today. Another good day of swim training deposited in the bank.

Happy Birthday Joanne

Happy Birthday Joanne......

You're a year older then me again...hahaha!!!

I won't say how old, but I'm only 48 hahahaaaaa!! ....( I think??)

Have a great day and I'll give you your present later tonight.. [wink], [wink]

Rest weekend

I didn't do any training Sat.

Today I went to the rec center and ran a 3 miler on the treadmill at a slow pace better known as long slow distance or LSD. Ya , ya i know your saying 3miles is long? ....well it is to me at this stage of the game. The idea is to go long on time and not so much in distance. What took me under 30min the other day to run 3 miles, took 40 min today to do the same distance. Then I walked out the remainder time for a total of 50mins on the mill.

I felt good during and after the run, my foot hurt as normal but I have to get my runs in if I want to do IMLP, "no Pain, No gain".... I could have gone longer on the run but right now I set my distance goal at 3miles for my steady long run for the next few weeks, until I'm feeling strong enought to lengthen my mileage. Remember I only started running this month.

After my short LSD run, I went down to the pool and did a easy cool down swim of 500m and came home to relax for the rest of the day to watch Football.



My training totals for this week....


Monday,....... 2500m Swim
Tue, .......... 500m Swim 3mi Run
Wed,.......... 2000m Swim, 30min bike
Thurs,......... 500m Swim, 4mi run
Fri,............. 2700m Swim,
Sat,
Sun,........... Swim 500m 3mi run

Total Swim... 8700m...
Total bike .... 30min
Total run...... 11miles



Have a great day.