Finding the right saddle

When I got my P2 I moved the saddle from my road bike over. I had been riding an Adamo Century, which was a glorious road saddle. Perfectly shaped, very comfortable. I could ride for hours on that thing.

It didn't work out quite as well on the new bike (or perhaps more specifically the new position). If all I was doing was riding around in the bullhorns I'd be fine, but extended period in the aerobars were problematic. It was almost perfect, but two issues caused repeat problems.

1) The prongs at the front were at too sharp an angle. Rather than curve downward, they abruptly turned down at 90 degrees. This meant that when riding on the nose in the aero position, they really dug in and created quite acute points of pain.
2) The prongs themselves were just slightly too wide. I'd get chafing issues on my inner thighs.

Comparing the noses of the Adamo Century (top) and Dash Stage (bottom)

As mentioned earlier, I had take time off the bike after the season to let my undercarriage heal up. When I put my bike on the trainer and started my base training, the soreness returned. "I can't do this all winter," I thought. I had to find a better saddle.

I knew I wanted my saddle to be noseless and split. But I wanted a saddle that was narrower and had more of a slope to the front end. I considered another ISM/Adamo, but was worried it wouldn't be different enough. I thought about Cobb and came close a couple of times to pulling the trigger on one. The saddle I kept coming back to though, was Dash. They're expensive, but I've never heard anyone say anything bad about them. Any other saddle, some people like or dislike, and the consensus is always that saddle choice is highly subjective. But there really didn't seem to be much dissenting opinion on Dash saddles. And I liked the shape, and especially the fact that you can choose your width.

I then discovered that Dash actually sells a "basic" version of two of their saddles. They're heavier, they're not customizable in terms of padding or colour, but you can choose from three widths. Still expensive, but significantly less so that their standard models. Realistically, given the hours I'd be spending on the trainer this winter and beyond, investing in a proper saddle seems pretty important.

Dash Stage (left) and Adamo Century (right)

It took a little while to get the Dash adjusted to the correct angle. And it's still taking time adjusting to the dramatically firmer padding - the Century was super plush. And while the firmness does lead to some soreness after a long ride, it's more a general soreness rather than the acute soreness I'd get from the prongs of the Adamo digging in or the chafing on my thighs. The Dash really is a great shape.

Riding on the trainer in general seems to be less comfortable than out on the road, so I know if the Dash serves me well over the winter it'll be great next summer.

Somersault Awards Reception

Last friday was Somersault's annual awards reception. Three of my four races this year were Somersault events, and having done three qualified me for the Champions Challenge points competition (you accumulate points based on your overall finish in each race), and I finished second in the M35-59 category. I never raced against the guy who beat me, but he was consistently a top five finisher in his races - that's where I'd like to be next season, so it's a good benchmark. He also represented Canada at this year's ITU World Championships in Chicago, and I've been considering whether that's the type of thing that might be a long term goal for me.

Realistically there are lots of faster folks in Ottawa who were not part of the Champions Challenge, and that's due to the overall emphasis the tri community seems to place on iron-distance races. I have no doubt there's lots of triathletes in the city that would dominate the Somersault series if they chose to, but they instead focus on Ironman and 70.3 races. So the fact that I finished in the top ten point-getters in the Somersault series certainly doesn't mean that's representative of where I rank among the city's triathletes.

However, if I had been told last year that I would finish my first tri season 2nd in my age group and 9th overall in the series, I would have been ecstatic. So while the award itself isn't all the significant, attending the ceremony to accept it is part of honouring the work I've put in and celebrating my fitness. It's an important milestone in my journey.

The ceremony also marked Somersault founder Terry McKinty's retirement, and it was cool to see some of the big wheels of the local tri community (Rudy Hollywood, Rick Hellard, Ian Fraser) come out to honour him and reflect on what he's done for triathlon in the region. We're really lucky to have a well-run series of multisport events in the area, that not only allows us to race frequently, affordably, and close to home, but is also so welcoming and accessible to newcomers and people of all abilities. To that end it was also cool to see a well deserving Geordie McConnell of the OTC receive a Spirit of Somersault award. He's done a lot to help grow the sport in the city, and his infectiously positive attitude and general helpfulness really helped me get through my first multisport event back in 2014 when he conducted the orientation session at the National Capital Tri at Mooney's Bay.

Next year's dates for the Somersault series have been announced and I've pencilled in my rough schedule. More on that in the new year when I reflect on my goals for the 2016 season.

Offseason swim improvements

I've been swimming with Technosport this past week, and it's been an interesting experience. I signed up for a stroke analysis camp last Sunday and as part of that camp you get get a week swimming with the club. So in addition to the Sunday session I swam with them Monday, Wednesday, and again this Sunday.

Last season I was pretty happy with how I swam. From just trying to make it through the swim in 2014 to consistently being in the first chase pack in 2015 was more than I had thought possible, given my limited time in the pool. 2 nights a week was all I ever did, and I know this shouldn't be enough to see any real swim gains.

Sure enough I did plateau pretty early last season. My results were good, but I wasn't getting any better after seeing some significant improvements over the first few months of 2015. Ideally I'd be in the pool at least 3-4 days a week, but with two young kids, a job that frequently demands lots of after-hours work, and two other sports to train for, it's just not feasible.

I put in a big run focus in September and October to improve my weakest discipline, and finished off that block with a 5km road race. Then my focus shifted to swimming. I still can't dedicate a lot of pool time, but the offseason is a great opportunity to fine-tune the stroke, hence the stroke-analysis camp.

I got some good feedback and some helpful drills to work on, and by the end of my time with the club I felt more powerful with less effort. Starting off the session with some 3-stroke drill really seems to help me with rotation and lengthening my stroke, so I'm going to work that into every session now.

I'm going to get back to two swims a week, with one session being a speedwork oriented session like I've been doing for the past year, and a session aimed at improving my Critical Swim Speed. I'll try to do a test this week depending on how I feel then get started with the plan. Getting up at 5:30am to swim with the club, coupled with a sick 5 year old and some rough nights with the 1 year old meant I was pretty drained by the end of the week and it was inevitable I would contract whatever my 5 year old had. I've keep it somewhat at bay with vitamin C, echinacea, elderberry, and eating raw garlic cloves - plus taking two days off training. I don't think I'll be in tip-top shape for a time trial on Tuesday, though, so we'll see if I get to that or not. In the meantime I'm back to running and the bike training is going well, so I'm full-on into my training schedule now, which last year didn't start until January.

Training with Power

The bike was my strongest discipline this past season, but I know there's lots of room for improvement. My training last season certainly wasn't haphazard - I planned out a periodized approach to the season with a base phase, build phase, and then a race-specific phase. I used videos from Sufferfest and CTXC to structure my workouts and used RPE for my intervals and heart rate training for my easy rides.

It all worked pretty well, and I put down some pretty good bike splits in my races. The only time I ever doubted my biking was in my last race, the Thousand Islands Olympic Tri. Specifically, I was unsure of how hard to go - I didn't want to leave any minutes or seconds on the table but didn't want to overbike and pay for it on the run. I still second-guessed my efforts long after that race was over.

I had planned for a while that this offseason I would train with a power meter, and it's now installed and operating. I went with a Power2Max unit - by all accounts they are reliable, accurate, and are relatively affordable. I didn't have the tool to do the bottom bracket swap so called in Adam from Velofix to do the installation (and take a look at my rear derailleur issue).

I'm using Trainerroad for my workouts and training plans and have a dual screen setup in my pain cave with trainerroad on one screen and whatever I'm watching on the other. Immediately apparent is that there is a significant difference between pacing a Time Trial based on RPE and using power. Keeping a steady, sustainable RPE over the course of a TT for my first FTP test resulted in steadily declining power. It took a couple tries to get the hang of properly pacing the tests, and I can already tell that having this tool is going to help immensely both in training and in pacing a race. It's great to have the power data to both guide my training sessions, and to look at afterwards.

I took some time off at the end of the season to let my saddle sores heal up, and then biked somewhat sporadically in an unstructured manner. I know my bike fitness has suffered a little, but I'm also confident it'll come back and I'll be able to make some gains and hit next season better than ever. The base phase for next season begins this week.

Healthy Eating Part 2 - Lunch

I find wraps to be really convenient foods to eat - they travel well, don't make much of a mess, and you can eat them on the go pretty easily. So far all of my lunches this year have been wraps.

The tortillas are easy to make in batches - I've used white flour but also sprouted spelt flour from the bulk barn (spelt is more nutrient-dense than regular wheat and the glutens break down easier; sprouting activates enzymes that aid digestion, increases vitamin content, and reduces phytic acid).

I've used a few variations on fillings, based on vegan athlete recipes such as those found in Brendan Brazier's Whole Foods To Thrive.

My favourite so far is based on the Indian Spiced Lentil-Hemp Patties found in Whole Foods to Thrive (recipe here). I don't shape them into patties or fry them though, I keep the mixture as is and scoop it into my tortilla.

Another good one from that book is the African Yam and Bean patties (here's a variation of that recipe). Same deal as the Lentil-Hemp patties - I don't make patties but keep it as a mushy mixture.

The common thing here is just trying to get as complete a protein load as possible with some carbs (I always eat raw veg like carrots and cucumbers on the side), so coming up with a wrap filling isn't all that complicated. Rice and beans is a common staple of many diets around the world and works well enough for these purposes too, and leaves a pretty blank canvas for aromatics and herbs/spices.

As with my smoothies, I can make up the tortillas and fillings on the weekend and then have them ready to go for my lunches all week. Fast and easy.

Biking the Gats

The hot spot to bike in Ottawa is in Gatineau Park, but I've never biked there myself as the whole reason I switched to road biking was to avoid having to get in the car and drive somewhere in order to bike. I've wanted to try out the Gats for a while now though, and as I was on my own this weekend, I took the opportunity.

My power meter purchase is going to necessitate new chainrings, so I wanted to assess my gearing and see if I wanted to stick with the compact 50/34 chainrings I have now or go for something a little bigger. Riding in the flatlands as I do, I don't have a lot of opportunity to use the small ring, so it sometimes seems like that gearing is wasted space. I can max out my top end gear, but haven't yet come close to maxing out the low end. So Gatineau Park would let me test both - the climb to Champlain Lookout would let me see if I would actually get all the way up to the biggest cog in my cassette (25t), and I figured on the descent I would be hitting the speeds needed to see if I would spin out in the smallest cog (11t).

So far all the races I've done are pretty flat, but it's possible at some point down the line I try a race in Tremblant or Muskoka, which are pretty hilly courses. Besides assessing my gearing, I also wanted to assess myself. I never train for hills so wanted to see how my legs responded to the climbs.

Lots of people (roadies, mountain bikers, hikers, and drivers) out in the park on this beautiful fall day. Perfect weather and the leaves are just starting to change. It took me about 45 minutes to get up to Champlain lookout from P3. I didn't do a race effort but certainly wasn't doing a Zone 2 ride either.

In terms of gearing, I think my current setup is fine. For some reason I couldn't shift into my biggest cog, so rode the steepest grades at 34/23. I could have used the 25 a few times but don't think I'd need a 28. I got down to 50/11 a couple of times but never got the feeling of spinning out. I could have pushed it harder but descending over 50km/h on a twisty road got a little scary. This is actually where I really noticed my lack of experience with hills. The climb was fine, but I didn't have a lot of confidence going down. I ended up catching a pack of cyclists and stayed off the back of them for the descent, following their lead. I rode all the big descents out of the aero position.

I topped out just under 55km/h, which I've actually done before, but on a much smaller, straighter hill, and primarily under my own power. It's much scarier to coast at that speed than it is to pedal it - I felt less in control. So I don't really know if I'd need a bigger chainring. Based on some calculations I should be able to go over 65 km/h in 50/11 without spinning out (68.3 km/h @ 120rpm). Going to a 52t chainring would get me up over 70 km/h, but I don't know if I'd ever have the opportunity to go that fast (or want to).

In terms of climbing ability, I felt fine. I passed quite a few fit looking roadies and never felt really taxed. Seems like cycle fitness is cycle fitness and I think my tendency to ride at a high cadence and use my gears probably serves me well in hills. So unless I end up doing Muskoka or Tremblant I don't think I need to add hill training to my plan, and even then I don't think I'd need to be heading up to the Gats on a weekly basis.

It was a nice ride though - fun and beautiful. Not sure when I can get there again, but I will be back.

Healthy Eating Part 1: Breakfast

Last year I made a commitment to becoming healthier, resulting in my transformation into a triathlete. In addition to exercise and cutting out alcohol, I also made an effort to eat healthier. I had been cutting back on red meat for years, and cooking vegetarian meals a couple of nights a week. I'd also gradually phased out most dairy.

Over the winter I shifted from cereal (with milk) for breakfast to smoothies, initially using yogurt, then completely dairy-free. I felt better, and while the occasional bacon and egg breakfast was delicious, it made me feel gross afterwards, making it lose its appeal. As I trained for my race season, I learned what I could about the role that nutrition played in fueling exercise and aiding in recovery. In particular, my post-workout eating and pre-race meals became very deliberate.

Over the summer, after lots of reading and thinking about my diet, I've stepped up my nutrition game even more. Reading stuff from people like Rich Roll, Brendan Brazier, and Matt Frazier, the whole-foods vegan philosophy of eating made a lot of sense to me, and I realized I had already been heading in this direction. I'm not quite there in terms of a full-on vegan diet, but I've committed to it for the two meals a day where I'm on my own: breakfast and lunch.

I've been doing the smoothie thing all year, but have now put more effort into making nutrient-dense smoothies that include protein and omegas. Last year it was basically bananas and berries mixed in a blender - now I'm including dark leafy greens and grains/seeds.

NoMeatAthlete has a good smoothie formula. Mine's a little more simple, and rotates a few ingredients around the base of bananas. I include a lot of dark leafy greens (kale, chard or beet greens), another fruit (blueberries or mangos - I buy a bag of frozen organic stuff from Costco), water, and either chia seeds or a mix of hemp and ground flax. I've also been taking advantage of our rhubarb patch this summer but that won't last much longer.

To save time in the morning, eliminate the need to fire up the blender should the baby still be sleeping, and ensure that my greens are nice and fresh, I premake the week's smoothies on sunday. They go in single serving container and into the freezer. I take them out the night before and I'm good to go for breakfast.

I also eat a small bowl of oatmeal (actually more often I just eat right out of the pot) mixed with a tablespoon of almond butter. Then I'm off to work nice and full and with a solid start to the day. And ultimately that's not much different than what I'd been doing on race mornings, and it's always good to avoid giving your body any surprises on race day.

Next, I'll talk about what I'm doing for lunches.

Planning the Offseason

Officially in offseason mode now - haven't biked since the 1000 Islands race in order let my saddle sores heal up (TMI?), but I have been running (more on that later). In terms of swimming I'm mostly in rest/maintenance mode until January when I'll start training hard again, and it'll be the same for biking when I get going again. Fall is an awesome time to be riding out in the country.

I'm currently going back over this season to shed a little more light on how I should approach training for next season. Here are some stats on how I did in each of the 4 races this year in terms of how high up I finished compared to the rest of the field in each discipline.

You can see the huge disparity in Perth - being in the top 4% of bikers, but top 25% and 33% in the swim and run respectively (though the swim stats are skewed by all the Perth Stingrays who participated in the event), whereas by the end of the season in Brockville things are a little more even. No real surprises here, my run is consistently poor.

But this stat measures stand-alone performances - there are triathletes who are very good swimmers, for example, that finish way down in the standings. This table shows where I rank in each discipline, but not really how that might relate to the overall race.

So here's another table where I took an average of what the top 3 racers got in each leg of the race. I'm setting a goal next year of making the overall podium, so these are the performances I'll need to approach. I then took what your average podium finisher got and compared it what what I got, effectively showing how much time I was losing to the race leaders in each leg.

What's interesting is that the time I'm giving up is surprisingly even (and in Perth I put in a better bike split than the average top 3 finisher so actually gained time) especially in Smiths Falls and National Capital. But I am losing the most time in the run, as expected.

Which brings me to the offseason game-plan.

Swim
I'm a decent enough swimmer, and I know that without swimming with a masters group or getting some sort of coaching, and certainly with the limited swim volume I'm able to put in, I will likely plateau pretty soon if I haven't already. So be it. With two young kids at home and a demanding job (and living a considerable distance from a pool) I'll make do with what I have. Overall I've been happy with my swim, and over the offseason I expect to make minimal gains.

Bike
My strongest discipline, but certainly room for improvement. I'm especially wondering whether its possible that I overbiked the 1000 Islands course, which led to my implosion on the run. With only one solid year of bike training I know there are still gains to be made, and I know that improvements in bike fitness will help me to be fresher for the run. My plan is have a more structured training schedule this winter and a more exact approach to periodization, so my plan is to go the TrainerRoad route, and to get a power meter. The power meter will obviously be useful for training but also for pacing when it comes time to race.

Run
This is where I really need to improve, and I think where there's the most potential for gains. If I could have run a 50min 10K in Brockville I'd have made the top 5, and just under 45min would have put me in the top 3. 45 minutes is not a super fast 10K, and I'd like to think that with enough work I can get there for next season. Step 1 is to focus almost exclusively on the run until December. I'm going to target a road race sometime in October and at this point am looking at a 10K with the goal of trying to get to 45min. May not be all that realistic, but I've never done a stand-alone 10K (or even a 5K) so I don't have much of a baseline. Holding 4:30/km for 10K does seem attainable to me though.

I'm already excited about next Tri season, but that is a long way off, so it's nice to have shorter-term goals to keep me motivated.

Reflections on the season

Overall I'm happy with how my first real triathlon season went. As 2015 began I hoped to make an Age Group podium at some point in the season, and set that as a broad goal. 4 races later, and 4 AG wins has to count as a successful season. I'm still a little irked at getting passed in the last 100m at Smiths Falls to bump me out of the top 10 (that would put me in the top 10 in every race) but all of this would have been more than satisfying back in January when I started my training plan.

Melissa and I talked about this a few times, and this season really has been a team effort. I could not have done this without the love and support of my amazing wife Melissa, so any successes I've had belong to her as much as to me.

I also want to thank my daughters Lily and Nora for inspiring this season. Wanting to set a good example for them, and wanting to make sure that I'll be around to see them grow up and start families of their own is what motivated me to take this on.

A few other thanks yous:
- As expected, the bike was my strongest discipline, and thanks are due to Dan (RIP) for the mag-trainer which allowed me to have a productive winter suffering in the basement, and to Jesse at Bushtukah for the Retul fit and help getting a good price on the right fitting bike.
- I didn't expect to be consistently near the front in the swim, but I made great strides this season despite limited pool time and having not really swam since I was like 13. Thanks go to Bo Simpson out in Calgary for his mentorship and helping me get the most bang-for-buck in the pool.
- My run was terrible, but given where I started from the season is a success. I achieved my goals making it through the season without getting derailed by injury, and being able to race 10km. Getting a head start on the season with a treadmill was instrumental in that, and I owe mom and dad a thanks for lending me theirs.

Thoughts on the off-season and next year to come later.

Finishing up my first full tri season

So the National Capital Tri went well last weekend (race report is up). In any race there's positives and negatives, and this one was no exception.

The positives:

• Really happy with my 6:17 swim time
• Improved on my best overall position (got into 7th place)

The negatives:

• The plan it take it a little easier on the bike in an effort to improve my run failed
• I had a relatively slow bike time and my run was pretty much the same as last time
• Didn't seem to make any significant improvements on my run
• Overall time was considerably slower than previous best

Now, every course is different, and every field of competitors is different too. So improving my overall placing could just be a reflection of a weaker field, or my slower overall time could be a reflection of a slower course. Both could be true - the Olympic distance event would likely have drawn some of the stronger racers; the bike leg of the course was indeed slower (traffic, turnarounds, and longer from T-zone to mount line than Smiths Falls). Comparing times with people who raced in Smiths Falls, everyone was slower on the bike.

The run is what it is though. Disappointing that I didn't seem to fare much better in this race, given that I am feeling stronger in training and came in (relatively) injury free. The 10K at next weekend's Oly in Brockville will be interesting. If I put 22:30 down for my 5K time, the McMillan Running calculator seems to think I can do the 10K in 46:44. That's running 10sec/km slower, which doesn't seem like much of a change of pace. And I will be coming off 1.5km of swimming and 40km of bike riding, so we'll see. If I come in under 50min for the 10K I'll be happy.

I'll be back to a normal taper routine this week after the fiasco leading up to the National Capital event. Looking forward to getting to this last race of the season fit, rested, and ready to test myself at the Olympic distance.

Training on Vacation

My next race is this saturday (National Capital Triathlon), so it's been a bit of a taper week for me. Not necessarily by design (this is more of a warm-up race to my "A" race in two weeks, so I'd rather "train through" this race) but by necessity since we took a family vacation to visit friends in Oshawa then spend a few days camping down at Sandbanks.

Not a big deal to go lighter on the training in the week leading up to a race, but I certainly didn't want to take 5 days off from training altogether either as that would leave me pretty flat for the race. And I've been feeling in pretty good form lately - no nagging hamstring/pes anserinus injuries that have been the bane of my season so far, and I finally managed to break 22 minutes on a 13.5km loop I use for bike intervals (there's that goal-setting thing again). So I planned to get some degree of training in while on this trip, and packed my stuff accordingly.

I got a run in before we left on Saturday, and managed to sneak out for another run with Nora on Sunday morning in Oshawa. I didn't have my ice pack for my knee though and over the course of the day and the days that followed some patellar tendonitis reared its ugly head in my right knee. Doing more running less than a week before this race was not going to improve my fitness, but it could aggravate the tendonitis and make things worse, so I decided not to do any more running on our vacation.

I brought my mountain bike with me so I could get a bike session in - I remembered last summer in PEI the red sand that penetrated every nook and cranny of my bike, and didn't want to repeat that with my tri bike. I also wasn't really sure what the roads would be like, and it ended up being a good call as there were definitely some rough sections. I'll say this though: riding around on a steel-framed mountain bike with fat tires and a suspension fork is damned luxurious.

Also got a good open-water swim in - some hard 100m and 200m intervals, and got to work on sighting.

The other complication though was getting enough rest, and the combination of a somewhat uncomfortable sleeping arrangement, drunken Quebecois on their construction holiday, an 8 month old baby, and the birds greeting the day at 5am, meant I was in a bit of a sleep deficit when I got back. I had planned on getting my last good bike session in on wednesday evening but couldn't muster the energy.

Normally thursday would be a rest day and I'd do an easy brick on friday to get tuned up before saturday's race. But it was already a lighter than ideal week for me, so I went with a hard double-brick thursday and will take friday as a rest day. We'll see how it goes on race day. It's looking like it'll be a hot day and my wave isn't going off until 10:15.

Setting Goals

A recent revision to my goals for this tri season, but more on that later.

I remember a couple of years ago when I started jogging I mentioned this to a colleague. He was an avid runner and said something along the lines of "That's great! What are your goals?"

Goals? My only goal in taking up running was not to drop dead of a heart attack at age 40. Other than that I was just doing an activity I mostly despised for the sake of getting it over with.

I wasn't until a couple of years later when I started road biking, and specifically when I got a cycling computer, that I started to see the value in setting goals. The computer let me see distance covered and time, and soon it become fun to try to beat personal bests. I had a few routes around my house that were 20, 30, or 40 km. I'd set target times and try to hit them, and it felt great when it happened. This not only drove me to get out on the bike more, but drove me to ride harder and increase my fitness.

And this is essentially what got me into triathlon. Having an event in which to compete provided another, bigger, longer term goal to work towards, which in turn drove me to exercise and train even harder.

So now I always have goals in mind when training. There's good goals and maybe not-so-good goals. The good goals are the solid measurable ones that are within your control: time. For example at my second tri of this season, I set two specific time-based goals: run the 5km under 25min and complete the full tri under 1:10.  Both were realistic and attainable - I knew what I should get in the swim and bike portions, had a rough idea of transition times, but was not confident in my run, hence the generous target. I knew if I raced my race it would come down to the run and if I hit my run target I'd hit my overall target. And I did.

I have a few long term goals in mind too (run a sub-20min 5km, bike 40km under an hour, swim a sub-24 1500m). The not-so-good goals are the ones you don't have any control over. Specifically, where you place in a race. Totally depends on who else shows up and how they perform. I could have a great race, hit PBs in all 3 sports, and finish way back, or have a crappy race when nothing goes right, and still end up near the front of the pack. It's a common caveat not to set goals relative to others' performances.

But it is a good motivator. I had a goal for the year that I wanted to get an Age Group podium spot. That motivated me as much as any time based goals to train hard. Getting the AG win in my first event and a top 10 overall finish made me revise my goals.

Which brings me to the rest of my season. I had originally wanted to do two sprint distance and two olympic distance. And I'm confident now that I can complete an Oly, but the two races I wanted to complete at that distance are 2 weeks apart. Realistically, I don't think two weeks is enough recovery to be in peak condition for that second race. So I'm going to do race #1 as a sprint, sort of a tune-up to get my body ready for the main event 2 weeks later, which will be my one and only Oly this year, my main goal, and my A race. I'll have some time-based goals for each, and for better or worse, some placing-based goals too (I can't help myself).

Breaking Bad Habits with Athletics

Trading one addiction for another?

I thought I would get this blog started by talking about some inspirational stories. My wife and daughters are what motivated me to get healthy, and that has entailed getting fit, but also stopping some of my self-destructive tendencies, namely, unhealthy drinking habits. There are lots of stories of athletes who have made profound changes in their lifestyles and used athletics to give direction and focus to their lives. I'd like to share the stories of two such individuals - while my own story isn't comparable to theirs, I can relate to their transformation and am inspired by what they continue to do.

Lionel Sanders is one of the fastest rising stars in long-course triathlon. 2015 has been good to him with wins at the North American Ironman 70.3 Championships in May and more recently at IM 70.3 Mont Tremblant. He's not the fastest swimmer, but he's got terrifying power on the bike, and is a beast of a runner as well. On top of this, he along with guys like Cody Beals, Taylor Reid, and Andrew Yorke, are part of a crop of young triathlon stars hailing from right here in Ontario. Lionel's already regarded with almost god-like status amongst the triathlon community based on his impressive bike and run performances, as well as posting a new record up Mt. Lemmon on Strava earlier this year. But perhaps even more astonishing is that back in 2009 he was abusing various drugs and on the verge of suicide. This article sums up his story pretty well and how he turned his life around to become a world-class triathlete. Heck, he's even been profiled by USA Today.

Ray Zahab is part of Ottawa's community of endurance athletes. He's the main force behindImpossible2Possible, which works to educate, inspire, and empower young people. He was a pack-a-day smoker with a penchant for drinking, and no direction in his life. He realized he needed a change, and quit smoking cold turkey to take up endurance running. He entered the the 160km Yukon Arctic Ultra in 2004 on a whim, and won it. He's since accomplished all kinds of ridiculous feats of running, including running 7,500 kms across the Sahara desert in 111 days. Not bad for a guy who describes himself as a kid who never played hockey and hated gym class. He's an inspirational speaker and a powerful symbol for what we can do when we put our minds to it. Here's a good profile on Ray and his philosophy on making change happen in one's life.

I look at these guys as examples of what you can do when you put your mind to it. You don't have to be Lionel Sanders deciding to sign up for Ironman Louisville or Ray Zahab deciding to run across the Yukon (in February). It doesn't have to be that monumental. But those guys are living proof that no matter where we're at, all it really takes is a commitment to making a change, and anything is possible.