Weekend Recap

Friday:

Early start with a 400TT in the pool. Not the performance I was capable of, but useful none the less.

I spent the few hours prior to our run preparing for a solid effort of 7 x 1000m with 5 to 6 x 400m, or something to that extent. It's a funny thing, when I am expecting a hard workout I really put in the time and effort to make sure I will be prepared for it. If it's just a simple base or steady state effort, I have a little more relaxed attitude in preparing. I don't pay as close attention to when I eat, stretch, or hydrate before the practice.

It turns out our track work was a "feel good" workout: 20 minutes easy, 20 minutes Steady State, drills, strides and hop on the track for 8 x 400m descending from 5k to 3k pace. Beauty day for a beauty run. Sometimes you need a feel good workout.

This situation was a bit of an eye opener for me. Of course we will prepare for different workouts accordingly, that goes without saying. Imagine the possibilities if we were to put the same kind of preparatory energy into our "simple base or steady state" runs that we do for our hard track workouts. The same goes for recovery.

Scotty and I flushed the run with a 60 - 70 minute spin while watching a video of Ironman Canada 1997. That race actually came up in conversation today at OBRec, and I was able to sound intelligent by knowing a few of the stats. good timing.

Saturday:

Solid effort on the bike. We added one loop to our W-WS practice, and subtracted the Willis Pt. repeats. I figured since there were no hills, we could push a 1/2 decent pace around Wallace-West Saanich. Shout out to Scotty, who kept the pressure on the pedals for 4 solid loops. Good workout. Also, thanks to PK for lending me a sweet set of ultra fast Bontarager wheels. Feel the power.

I woke up from my mid-Saturday-mid-afternoon nap to the post race leg feeling. Therefore, it must have been a good workout. Time for an easy (and I mean EZ) swim at Crystal. 3k later we were flushed and ready for the Hatley 8K.

Rex and Kona took me for a relaxing walk to the park where we had fun chasing squirrels, and howling at the moon.

Sunday:

Hatley Castle 8K.

To sum it up quickly, I was disappointed with my final performance and result. The pre-race prep was right on, warm - up was great, fast start, all face cards. At the end of the day though, I was happy to have been taught a few important lessons.

Dope, Sick, Phat, Brattta Taattaaat props out to the break through star Sharpie. That was a solid race buddy. Kirsty broke the Womens course record by 21 seconds; that clearly deserves a few props as well. Alex set a Junior Womens record too. Nice one.

Another hand shake to the Nordic super star Andrew Russell who finish 3rd Senior man at the 30th Whistler Cross Country Ski Loppet only 4 minutes back from Tom McCarthey. That's a good result.

So in conclusion, Sunday was a great day.

After the race I hit the gym to burn off some steam, and take a crack at the the red weights + a couple bonus pies on either side.

I enjoyed Sunday dinner with my good friends the Millers. Killian, great to see you back back in Victoria, if only for a short while. Like I've said before, it's a powerful thing to feel grounded with the roots. Keep 'er going strong in Waterloo. You're doing great work out there.

Now I sleep. rest well.