Bouq 'Emissaire

How to recover from Food Poisoning . . .

Day 1:

• fluids & electrolytes, 0 physical training.

Day 2:

• stay on the electrolytes, minimal physical training.
  
• attempt @ eating organic kefir yogurt successful.
  
• 12 noon toast test, test successful.
• 2pm massage to flush remaining poison.
• 4pm reestablish GI bacterial content with 54 grams of smelly cheese, (Bouq'Emissaire - raw unpasturized goat's milk blue cheese from Quebec.)
• 5pm -9pm green tea flush.
• 9pm organic pro & prebiotic yogurt with organic banana for dinner.

Recovery complete.

Rest well.

happy dogs

Back hanging with Rex & Kona.

There's something quite special about the relaxed, peaceful, mindful state of a happy dog. Chill'n with Rex & Kona is food for the soul.



This was taken at Juan de Fuca a few weekends ago, the epic long run double bike breaking day. Another thanks to Hicham for lending me his Redline bike right before the start.

There are a few more cross races left in the Vancouver Island series with the Double Cross weekend fast approaching.

I will definitely be peaking at the end of November. For what? We'll leave that as a surprise.

Rest well.

2xNap

Today was a double nap day.

Swim, Nap, Bike, long Nap, Run, Work, Now.

The napping seems to have particularly helped with mental recovery from the past 10 day build. Physical recovery will take longer, but in the mean time I think I have arrived to a place where I can reflect on the weekend.

Concentration Practice. Meditation Practice. Contemplation Practice.

These are things which occur during all aspects of our inner and outer lives, even if we are consciously unaware.

During our training, practice, and living we learn to become aware of reactions. These can be physical, emotional, mental . . . and on.

With practice we learn to observe the reaction, and ride past without judgment or consideration.

When the body becomes increasingly taxed physically, other aspects also become challenged and their stability can vary.

Feel the roots. Breathe like the leaves. Feel the flow.

and Rest well.

Oil!

Today the body was craving oil. Lots of it.

The mire thought of fast burning long bike ride style sugars made the body shudder.

Today's diet reflected the feeling.

Breakfast: Fruit & Eggs
Lunch: Fruit & some hemp / soy style new age drink

Snacks were plentiful throughout the day, mostly a variety of seeds and more fruit.

Dinner. I came home from work craving more oil and what do ya know. . . There's pasta & snapper with this chopped up olive & olive oil mixture waiting right there. So good. Perfect meal to appease the bodies oil craving. Thanks for the nourishment.

Recovery Monday training was good. Detox Monday diet was good. Onto another great week.

Rest well.

create - complete

Great day.

The legs seem to have found themselves, well appreciated and content with a weekend well done. This morning's run was fairly short, considering volume of the past few weeks. It's all perspective anyhow.

If today's schedule said 2:20, 2:20 it would be, and that would be that. If it said 60 easy, 60 easy it would be, and that would be that. Today it said 90. 90 it was, and that was that.

The rest of me is almost back to earth.

Tomorrow will be the real test. It will be a test to see if I can rest.

The official start will be the master morning routine which really ends up creating the rest of the day. The outer interaction will start with an easy bike to bring nutrients where they need to go, (could be a heat cranked environment). After that I plan on eating 2 pieces of cinnamon raisin toast with peanut butter and honey. Then I will go back to sleep. I will wake up feeling awesome, eat something (probably leftovers), and head over to the pool. I will stay on the water, catch it, pull it, and push it. The feet could be in fins. Next will be more eating, perhaps a shower, and change for work at Oak Bay Rec. Work will be sweet as all Monday's at Oak Bay are. Home for dinner. Eat. Master evening routine completes the rest of the day.

Thanks for a sweet one today. Tomorrow will be another wicked awesome one.

Rest well.

Shelled

Fed and ready for bed after a full day of practice.

Even though it's after 10, I'm still a little high from the day.

Sometimes it can take a day or two to return back to earth. Generally I start to feel normalized within a day or so. Complete physical recovery may take 10 days, then there's the emotional recovery. Who knows how long that takes. One thing is for certain, the big days take their toll from multiple angles.

It's a feeling I've only really experienced a few times, mostly during some kind of extended solo exploration, whether it be on the water, in the mountains, or on the bike.

There are definitely hIs and certainly lOs. The important thing to remember is there is always comforting companionship.

Riding past a sheep farm, sailing through the kelp, climbing through the trees. These are times where we find companionship, and find balance. We can release the excited and/or agitated energy and simply thrive on calm, the calm knowing of ourSelf. We ease into the connectedness between us and our surroundings.

Most of the time it's invisible, although it can help to attach something which in the past, has helped us create and sustain the silent calm feeling. Simply breathing out the excited/agitated energy, and breathing in the earth, mountains, and fall colours can be enough to spark change in our perspective.

Bike: 75min warm up, 4 x 75min @ pace with 5min rest, 30 min cool down.
Run: 20min @ pace.
Swim: 1K @ floating pace.

I think the bike pace volume was about 205K for a total of around 240. Soleeeed Ruben. Soleeed.

Run tomorrow will be a fun one. Thanks for a great day.

Rest well.

In the Long Run

We're post Wednesday ride and it's now pre-Saturday ride.

Wednesday was good one, and tomorrow will be even better, but first a catch up story from last Sunday's long run.

It was a run which brought me back to the fall training camp days of Gryphon Nordic Racing. Good old GNR.

These runs were long, perhaps the longest to date. Then there were the epic roller ski sessions. For some reason we figured 1 500mL bottle of watered down Gatorade would suffice these sessions. A roller ski bonk is a bonk of it's own kind, much different from a bike or run bonk.

Fortunately, the past few years have rubbed off a little wisdom. This time I brought along a flask of diluted gel & 1 bottle.

The workout was pretty straight forward. Warm up, main set, cool down. 20 minutes, 105 minutes @ pace, 15 minutes. Just run.

Perfect day for a run at the lakes. Fall colours, soft & moist earth, cool temperature, loose arms, welcoming water, and a pair of legs which felt fairly decent.

3K loop for a warm up, shed the coat, pick up the bottle, head off. There's really little to say for the run. Time just seemed to disappear. It's really arbitrary anyhow.

I had the watch timing HR & km splits, but the overall run time was hidden. Before long, the run evolved to a steady hummm, much more than just a run. There are however, 4 memories:
1) starting
2) at 23 K I forgot if we had done 2.3 or 1.3 loops. Same difference, either way it's just running.
3) at 24 K the Jazz man said, "We need to stop for a moment." I wondered why. Why @ 24? The important numbers are 3:50/K, 155HR . . . why 24? ahhhh . . . 24. Quick birthday celebration and back running. Wicked awesome party. That was definitely the best one yet. Thanks dude.
4) finishing

Great run, about 34k to the day. Ice the legs. Back home and transition for cross.

3 bottles of gleukos,
1 can of coke,
1 bowl of spicy squash soup,
1 piece of toast,

Pack up Jalapeno, throw some clothes in the car, cross shoes, compression socks, a we're off.

3 energy bars in the car,
1 more can of coke,

and before you know it we've arrived to Providence Farm in beautiful Duncan. Mt. Tzouhalem provided a phenomenal backdrop. Great place for a cross race. Thanks to Providence farm for hosting the event.

warm up,
1 bottle of gleukos,
1 energy gel,
1 handfull of jelly beans,

Race ready.

As usual I took the first loop fairly easy. Keep it cool, test the legs, feel it out, find a groove for the course.
Ok, the legs feel 1/2 decent, try an attack to move through the group. That was easy. Sit in, feel the groove. Keep riding. Things are good with this group.
Ok, you're here, may as well race it up. There's a group up ahead. Take the technical parts easy, allow the HR to drop, recover a little and hammer the hill. Easy way to move up.

The rule with Nordic racing is that he who can recover the best on the downhills can race the fastest up the following hills. Apply this to cross and technical sections become the downhills.

Smooth like chocolate. Ride up to the group, sit in. 4th place and things feel good on lap 4/10. Hmmm maybe a little too smooth. That back tire is starting to feel a little flat. Ahhh who cares. Keep riding. Hmmm now it's rough again. Back tire is totally flat at the bottom of the course.

Sweetness. More running for today. Jalapeno fits nicely on the shoulder. The trek back to base camp and the wheel pit was wicked awesome practice running with a bike.

At the pit . . . Do you have a pump? We do have a wheel you can use, but it's campy. Well, I'm riding SRAM, so I suppose we'll find out if it's compatible. Toss it on . . . hiii -- hoo -- silver, and we're off.

Shifting works, sweet. We're good. 1.5 more loops. Chase 'em down.

Next time up the big hill. Snap. There goes the chain. Too much torque??? or perhaps despite seemingly smooth shifting, campy is less than compatible with SRAM.

So that was that. Fun racing, fun running, and mud is always sweet.

Conclusion: Even after the long run, there's more running to be done.

Rest well.

Application

Everything is good. In fact, it's all becoming better all the time.

The past month.5 has had the overall theme of application. What have I learned up to this point? How does it apply to what I am doing right here and right now?

Application to all aspects.

I remember talking to my Dad from my Glacier 361 residence room in Guelph during first year. I was excited about something we were learning in one of the Aggie classes, and at the same time a little overwhelmed by the massive amount of information which was being thrust our way.

My Dad told me, "When you graduate you will have to think about what it is that you actually learned. What was important? What lessons did I learn? What is the valuable information which I will carry with me?"

Most of the important stuff from Guelph came from experience and building a foundation of curiosity for the following years.

In the same way, training has become about understanding and applying what I actually learned, what I am learning, and what I think I know.

A few short examples:

In my case, swimming comes down to the myelin sheath. Ahhhh . . . the myelin sheath, Jane Robb, Cell Bio 2480. Also the myelin sheath, Neil Harvey, NTC 2008.

Through concentration and practice, we control the myelination of motor neurons. We create the path of least resistance through which an action potential travells from brain to muscle.

Every thought, every action changes/creates the path.

Make sure the path we create is the one we want to follow.

"Stevo, this is exactly what you need to be doing right now." - NH.
Ok, I'll make it perfect.

I'll leave it there for now and will continue post Wednesday ride.

Enjoy your morning and as always,

Rest well.

concenplate

Good few days of training with plenty on which to concentrate, or perhaps at this time of night, contemplate . . .

Time to slow down. Rest well.

Thistle Root

Focus the picture, a transcendental gaze,
All but the image, a translucent haze.

A flicker of light, beneath the chin,
A guide to dive deep, deep within.

A speck of light, above the eyes,
A path to climb, beyond the sky.

Roots from the Souls, they dig like trees,
and search for water, source the seas.

They hold the branches, to carry the leaves,
abundant beauty, a purpose to please.

Swim set this morning was 8 x 400 in pairs, first a smooth swim, then pull on descending effort. An eye opener in a different sort of way. The effort was far from aerobically challenging. In fact, you could almost call it aerobically easy. Remove the legs from the equation, and there go a few large muscle groups which no longer need to be fed. The result was swimming with complete focus on the catch and push. Just let the arms do what they need to.

Jalapeno is back in business with a new fork/steer tube. We went for a dance through Beacon Hill to reconnect. This weekend will be a fast one.

Oak Bay treads to spin out the legs. Keep the feel.

Full moon, and a gaze.

Now this is really starting to feel like a few days of recovery.

Rest well.

Raggle Taggle Gypsie - O

See the True Reflections . . . and we're back in business.

Nux. Vomica will come to the rescue today.

Rest well.

One more to go . . .

A few awesome days.

Something new on Wednesday, something true on Thursday, and something new times two today.

Wednesday's ride was the typical Wednesday ride, but with added intensity (something new). Set number 2 (of 3) had a build up to what felt like just above my lactate threshold. Good ride, and a good flush swim, which left the legs feeling well appreciated and happy.

Long nap, legs up the wall, eat, and sleep some more. Much appreciated recovery.

Thursday was fairly light. I would like to thank whoever invented fins. They made Thursday's 12 x 100 set much more recovery like. Treadmill run, 5 x shakes, back to the fort, then something true ;).
In the evening during the OBRec shift we further established the Oak Bay Recreation Centre for High Performance, experimenting with HR's to prepare John Miller for his race across the Sierra. Definitely big-time-hard-core-raise-the-bar-max-the-envelope-go-big-or-go-home intense.

And today. Just one more to go. Remember those 40 x 50 swim sets on 40/50, or 20 x 50, or whatever it happened to be? Remember when there's just one more to go? Ok, I'm going to do a really good job on this last one. It's the last one. Only one more to go. Here we go. Last one. Go -

Before the last repetition of today's bike set, I noticed the same sort of feeling. Only one more to go. The only difference being the 50m swim piece takes approximately 30 seconds (well above race pace), while today's main set was 3 x 70 minutes (@ race pace).

The thing is, both are exactly the same. Time really becomes irrelevent. It sounds kind of lame I know, but seriously, it's exactly the same thing. One more to go.

One is one.

One more to go.

Sweet ride, smooth run, flush swim, and a great day start to finish. Plenty of lessons learned, along with some decent fitness. Now it's time to absorb a little of both.

Rest well.

Wicked Westerly Wind

Wind is awesome.

There is something comforting about a westerly wind storm, something familiar. What could possibly be comforting about a wind storm? Who knows. Perhaps it's the excitement factor which is really the most reassuring. It's cool to know there is something happening, something going on, something out there which we are a part of, something which is right now making it's Self heard.

It's as though we can really see, hear, and feel the world's air being alive. Of course it's always there, always alive; the wind just makes things more noticeably obvious.

Wind is awesome.

Good swim today. The legs had a few thoughts on the weekend of adventure, so it was an arms and torso focus sort of day.

Elizabeth, our Yoga instructor, speaks of the bodies lines, connecting links going from tongue to toe. Today there was connection from the ulna's olecranon process to the iliac crest. I think this is good. Either way, it seemed to save the legs.

Back to the rollers on the bike for some technical practice. High cadence, single leg, no hands, all the good stuff. Good spin.

Treadmill run of the tempo type. Lately I have been considering the energy systems engaged during activity, and keeping this consideration present in my mind throughout practice. It seems to help. Kick off the shoes and spin around the fields to wake up gastroKnemius, among others.

Early sleep tonight. Tomorrow will be a sweet one.

Rest well.

I like . . .

Rest well.

Nachoooooo

Ok, we're going to start slow as there is a lot to cover today. It was an eventful day in an epic sort of way.

In the beginning there was Cafe Awasa and immediately I noticed something unusual. What could it be? It's a smell, and it smells good. It's the coffee. Hey, I can smell again. The head is finally clear. Sweet start.

We met up for a group run at the Lakes for an 8am start. The workout: 20 minutes warm up, 70 minutes race pace target HR, 15 minutes warm down. Today was the first time I've done the long hard run following a long hard ride the previous day. The plan was to notice how the legs react to TT time. Be aware of this.

Decent run overall. Legs felt pretty good and I was happy to be running in the rain, a nice bonus. Rainy runs are among my favourite.

Thanks for a sweet run.

Freshly picked Mackintosh apples for the drive home and massive bottle of sugar water.

Home for a lunch of leftovers: Arctic Muskox, Ratatouille, Polenta, Dill Potato Soup, and a cup of extra potent green tea. Feet up and a 25 minute power snooze.

Throw together a kit for this afternoons cross race.

Jalapeno and I rolled out of the house around 1:15 for a good warm up before our 3:15pm start. Now this is where things become interesting.

I was a little unsure how the riding legs would feel at effort, and knowing there would be plenty of this to come, I kept the warmup fairly easy but of substantial duration (about 70 minutes).

Ride out to Juan de Fuca, loop the lagoon, back to register, and pre-ride the course. On my way up one of the steeper climbs I literally pulled the handle bars right off, cracking the carbon steer tube in half. No joke. Just pure torque from the arms managed to crack this thing climbing the hill.

Wow. That was very lucky. If I were descending when the steer tube broke in half, that could easily spell impalement.

Well, maybe this is a sign that today was not meant for me to cross race. Carry Jalapeno back to the race course.

"Hey dude, that's harsh! Do you need a bike to race on?"
"Yeah, totally man that would be wicked. Are you sure that's cool?"
"Yeah, man. Let's swap the pedals and get you ready to race."

Big time shout out to a dude named Hichem. Thanks mano, I owe ya one.
This was sign enough for me that today would be a racing day.

Off the start I kept it pretty chill. As chill as things can be for a cross race. Feel out the new ride. Feel out the course.

1 Lap in and this is too easy. Legs feel pretty good. I'll kick it up a notch.

There was one super steep pretty long hill which a few riders could make it 1/2 way up. In this situation, I always choose to run. For me, this is just simply faster and there's no point riding with 35 cadence only to stall in about 30 seconds.

The hill was my place to move. I dug in there pretty deep and found myself running past a group and into no mans land. Dig the flats, run as fast as possible over the barriers, and chill where it becomes technical (bmx track).

The next time up the hill I found myself coming up on Norm Thibault (wicked awesome race, thanks for putting it on) and a dude who I think is called Andrew. These guys are pretty technically proficient cross riders.

I thought, "Hey, I might actually be in this thing. May as well give'er a rip."

Storm the hill. Run fast. Run past.

On the way back down, I heard one of the Berg's say, "Come on Killer, you're bringing back in the leaders." Cool. This is good.

Dig in. Dig in. Dig in. Next time around the BMX loop Russell had one of a few Technicals right in front of me. Roll past. Ok. Here's a chance to pull right up. Let's make this hill flat.

I managed to reach a new max HR this time up the climb, beating my previous run max by 2bpm, and cycling max by 12bpm. Sweet.

On my way up I heard. "Your fighting it out for second with Russell!"
Really? I'm actually in this race.

Next lap. "Your pulling in Jeff Kabush!"
For real? Jeff Kabush? This is going pretty well.

Next lap. Barriers. Somehow, after 6 or 7 laps of running the barriers with ease, I managed to forget of there presence and rode straight into one of them. Crash. Over the bars, and over one of the barriers.

Up. Faster. Quick transition. Run. Hop on the bike. The front wheel isn't spinning. TacOOOOed.
Seriously tacoed front wheel. We're talking 2 inch difference from 6 to 12 o'clock. Well that's an easy fix. Just disengage the front brake and keep going. 2.5 laps to go. Hang in there.

Hmmm. . . my balance seems a little off. Probably a mix between fatigue and the wheel. Wobbly front wheel was a challenge for sure, especially climbing, and through the mud.

Now the descent. A serious descent with only a back brake. Should I get off and walk/run the descent? Are you kidding me? What kind of lame question is that?

Just what all the Mt. Doug Papaya practice last year was for. Lock up the back wheel and hang on for dear life. One of the more sketchy moments of the day for sure.

You might think that no front brake factor would make things faster. It in fact makes things quite a bit slower. The wobbly factor also contributes to an overall decrease in velocity. Fortunately, both these things increase the fun factor.

A bunch of the other guys sailed past on the swervy muddy bits with about a lap to go, and that was that.

Awesome, fun, sweet, epic race. Wicked cool and definitely one of the funnest races I've ever been a part of.

Now batting .667 for the Most Aggressive Rider. Sweet.

Thanks for a wickedly awesome day.

Big week on it's way. Time for sleep.

Rest well.

October de 4t

Happy Birthday to the G-man himself!
You're looking a year wiser and stronger!
Here's to the double deuce bro!

Pretty sweet day today. I woke up at 3:15 with the cough still lingering. Ahhh. I would really like to do a good job on today's ride. Stumble over to the bathroom, wash the face, look in the mirror. Ok, when I wake up in just under 4 hours I will feel great.

7:00 came and I felt pretty sweet. This time it worked.

The main set for today's ride was 3 x 55 minutes @ speed with a fairly decent warm up. A good breakfast definitely helped the cause. I've been fooling around with positioning on the TT bike, mostly just seat height and fore / aft postion. Today's position was definitely an improvement from Wednesday's, although the adductors & flexors made themselves heard loud and clear towards the end.

Remidy could be: higher + yoga = quite hips.

20 minute HR pace run off the bike. Just find the pace to match a number.
Flush swim at the crystal. Feel good.

1h45 run tomorrow morning with some pace work to wake the legs up before the Juan de Fuca cross race in the afternoon. It'll be another sweet one.

Thanks for a great day.

Rest well.

Sweet & Short

Two quick thoughts and thanks before bed.

Thought on the last few days: An absolute gift. Thank You.

Thought from Dr. Guan: It's all ok. Great advice. Thanks.

Much more from Heart form.

Rest well.

ahhhhhhh.....

finished a sweet morning / afternoon of training.

3 cups of Spiral Cafe organic coffee, followed by 4 cups of Ethiopian level trade were the perfect way to roundhouse kick the day. (I may exaggerate slightly.)

Ok. Bike time. On Wednesday the red workout is bike. Bike the emphasis. Bike the quality. Bike the quantity. Today's set was 50 minute Warm up, 3 x 45 minutes @ race pace HR, 40 minute cool down. The HRM is your master to prevent disaster.

Lesson. . . You can fake the nutrition component on a short course workout of 3 - 4 x 20 minutes. The longer the set, the harder it becomes to fake nutrition.

Homework . . . Figure this one out, and follow the figure.

Flush swim and the stroke comes around after a few faster 50s. Flush and Frequency seem to be working well in the pool. Note that one.

Time to be honest with nutrition and throw the legs in the air for a short while.

Rest well.