First post of July

Well this is my first July posting, and so far it has been a pretty decent month. I have been working at panago pizza as a delivery boy which hasn't been all that bad, sometimes it can get frustrating, and when you running on hardly any sleep things can turn ugly quickly.

I have been watching and following both the World Cup which is now over with a win by Spain, not the team that I had wanted to win but they will have to do. And also the Tour de France, which has been very interesting so far. With Frank Schleck dropping out of the running leaving his brother to support himself, and with Lance struggling in the second day on the mountains, this should be a very interesting GC. I just don't want Alberto Contador to win again, he is a great and rider in every aspect of the race but he is just pretty cocky, and I just don't like him.

Training though has been going very well. I have started with Add Activity and being coached by Leigh-Ann Rowe who is am excellent coach and very knowledgeable, she wants me to hold off on my ironman dreams just for a little bit, and focus more so on Olympic distance and possibly get a few podium places, and maybe even a win here or there, who knows. My swimming has really been coming along I have liked the improvement, and also my running off the bike has been great my legs have been able to get a really good turnaround. My biking is still a little choppy in the consistency, I can hammer the speed but the problem is that my average speed seems to always be lower then the speed that I am holding for a quite a long time. Not sure if my speedometer is working but it seems that everything I own is falling apart, now being my bike shoes, so I have to see if they can be fixed, or I may have to go out and get a new pair, hopefully not the latter, but I could use some decent triathlon ones.

I really want to start buying things from my sponsors and start getting things in order to represent them, but I might have to wait till closer to the end of the season seeing how things are money wise and what not.

Just leaving on this, I always get the feeling that I have started this sport later in my life, and that everyone I compete against has a step up on me. I believe that it is not how old that you start the sport, its how much heart and desire you put into it, and right now I am putting everything I have into this to make it work, cause I will go to nationals and I will go to worlds.

June 23/2010

Hello everyone,
I am very happy with my new team and support at add activity, they are a great and fun group of people and they are very athletic and supportive. I am very excited to continue my training with them and hopefully pull off some better results at Bala.

We had another open water swim, and I lead the pack which I am very happy about, after that we had a bike training route, in which I also lead the pack I think things are starting to get put together smoothly and I am enjoying it.

I just got a sponsorship deal with base performance, which is a sport supplement company, and I am very happy with it. It is only the silver package with a discount, but I can work myself up, I will have to get some of their gear in order to show off my new sponsor.

This is just a short post but thanks for reading and GO ITALY!!! in the world cup we all know they will repeat lol just kidding.

Lakeside coached session/My thoughts on life/rants

Hello everyone, this has finally happened I may now be getting some coaching for my triathlon career the first time ever. This is very exciting I am both excited and nervous about going to the session, it is an open water swim at lakeside which should be interesting and possibly a time trial and T1 training on the bike which I need lol.

I went biking today and decided to start grinding my gears on the highest gears possible, which was some advice that someone had given me. i was pushing 46km/hr without even feeling tired I averaged out about 39km/hr for the ride which was only about 20km because I didn't want to push all out just yet. I may not be going to Multisport for coaching as I was thinking, and may stick with this group, but I will have to see what happens.

During my ride though I noticed that a car decided to honk at me even though I was on the side of the road, I am sorry but cars do not own the road and must share it with cyclists. I know this issue has be exhausted to the fullest degree, but it has to be further looked into, because these motorists are not given cyclist any room, and they are getting extremely close and they don't care kinda pisses me off. All I can do is just make sure that they don't hit and that I survive to see my second year of University. Which I am going to continue with and during school, I will focus on school because right now I want a career and this is just a hobby and something that keeps me in shape. I am not getting paid for it, and I am pretty sure that these upcoming pro's are not getting paid either, they are just getting free stuff which would be nice, but I still want a life after this, and that will be sports psychology which is perfect for the sport. Human Kinetics was just calling my name, and i didn't want to be one of those dumb athletes who just go into an arts degree and take all the courses that are the easiest and don't take the most thought, I find that a waste of university, because whats the point now, what will they do once they cannot compete anymore, coach kids.

Anyways thanks for reading

Binbrook triathlon

Hello all, well the Binbrook triathlon has been completed, and it wasn't as good as I thought, I was very upset with my overall performance in the race, and I also noticed that the event itself was very badly planned I found. The run course was also completely on grass and trails and it had rained earlier leaving the entire course covered in mud making the run very difficult.

I came 16th overall and 4th in my age group with a time of 1:30:16 which was pretty decent, it was an improvement in my overall position from Woodstock, and it can all be thanking to my amazing biking. I am disappointed with my swim time, as well as my run time which can be greatly improved. I have know understood that I am in great need of a swim coach, and possibly some track sessions working on my speed. My bike speed can also be worked on.

The night before the race was horrible also, me and my mother stayed at the Pines motel in Hamilton which I do not recommend ever staying, and were given a real treat at around 3am in the morning which went on for a few hours enabling us to get a decent nights rest, that may also be a contributing factor to my disappointing performance race day, but it was a very unpleasant evening, and hopefully better accommodations will be able to be had for Bala Falls.

I have planned to go to Multi-sport zone and work on my swimming as well as do the Bala falls bike course, also I have planned to go to the mega day on June 26th to improve some other things as well. But I really need to start to speed up my swim time in order to stay with the leaders so that I can take the lead on the bike and keep it on the run.

But yeah I have to work on my speed on running off the bike that needs to improve, as well as increase my bike speed greatly.

Anyways it was a decent race, but I am not sure if I will ever do it again.

Thanks for reading and the support will be greatly appreciated and any tips that you may have for me.

weekend before Binbrooke

Ok, its just a few days till the Binbrooke triathlon, and training has been going smoothly I think. I'm not totally sure on where I'm at in training and in my preparation. I think my swimming has improved greatly then last time, I have really attempted on focusing on my speed in the swim, because I have the endurance to last its just that I am still extremely slow at it.

Biking has been really good, I think I have gotten some good speed work down for it, and I have been able to maintain some good pace on the bike, it is still my strength above all else but I still have to work on it. My run is pretty decent gotten a little faster on it so hopefully that goes well.

I just now have to put them all together, and I am afraid of that, I am still afraid of being ready for the race. I am really nervous about the race, but I hopefully have a strategy worked out for it.

I am hoping to push myself a little more so this time, and throw down a solid performance, this is all on the road leading up to me becoming a pro, being 4th in my age group I think is a pretty good achievement for me, and 20th overall. I am hoping that I will be able to improve on that placing, and that I can report good things for after the race.

I would still very much appreciate any suggestions or comments that anyone has for me for training, I am pretty much going into this blind, but I feel respectively confident about my abilities.

I still feel weird starting out into triathlon's a little later in my life then most of the other athletes, who seem to start at 16, while i started at 19. I will hopefully just try to rip up the course, being 20 and all, and not yet pro I guess, but I'm working on that. :)

Anyways thanks to whoever reads this, and I will hopefully have something good to say next week after my race.
Peace

June 7th/2010, Woodstock Triathlon/ and thoughts so far

The Woodstock Triathlon went well for my season opener, I finished really well 20th overall and 4th in my age group. It wasn't the speed that I had wanted but I thought it was a good start for being my second triathlon in my life.
Back to training for the next one which is actually coming up very quickly, at Binbrooke (Hamilton), gunna be crazy and I'm not sure if I'm ready for it, going to the Multisport zone to check about some things maybe get my swim tested and put in some time on the compu-trainer. My swim has improved since my first one, but my biking should be a lot better after spending time in the Mountains in Kelowna biking with the semi-pro teams.
I feel like everyone though is a step ahead of me, and that I should have started this sport at a younger age to even compete with these guys. But I am gunna take everyday one step at a time and just keep up with my training.
Also everyone has these coaches that seem to cost a lot of money to join like 200 bucks a month just as the cheapest amount thats kinda insane. I guess if I were to quit University and focus all my time and energy and money into this I could afford these guys. But I will never in my life do that, school is very important to me and it is something I can always fall back on.

I broke my collarbone in January and it seems like it has never fully healed which causes incredible stiffness in that area and sometimes pain. I am hoping that this subsides eventually cause I really want to be able to get past it, cause it might be holding me back a little bit.

I finally found a job for the summer to help pay for University, which is pizza delivery for Panago, the pay kinda sucks but it is a job, and it is gunna provide me with money over the summer, but not sure if it will be enough. Hopefully OSAP comes through for me and provides me with more money so that I am not living in poverty next year lol.

This sport is very expensive, and everyone is always wishing for better equipment, but its not the equipment that makes the triathlete its the determination, and attitude, mixed in with training.

I am hoping to become pro one day, it will prob take a long time at the rate that I am going though, but hopefully someday it will happen. Like I said before I guess it pays to have started the sport when you were 13 years old, unfortunately for me I started at 19, which as I heard from everyone that I am too old, and should have started younger.

This is also the first time writing a blog, but I thought it would be an interesting thing to do, and hey it might come in handy once I do turn pro. I am still looking at all the guys who started triathlons later in their lives like me, such as Craig Alexander, Chris Lieto, Chrissie Wellington Scott Neyedli who I have met, and is a very cool and chill person. But like I said before, I am gunna take life one step at a time and hope for the best.

Well thanks for reading if you have, and if you have any comments please feel free, Like my title says I am looking for any support that anyone might offer.