My days are now filled with puppy instead of training.  I get up in the morning usually to him wanting to go pee.  We then play until I go to work, which sucks!  Then Amanda fills in for the middle part of the day, walking and feeding him.  Then when I get home, more play!

He’s been pretty good so far.  We have taught him to sit and lay down.  Were working on others like "paw" and "crawl".  He’s very smart and pretty attentive.

The biggest probelm we have had so far is his peeing inside.  Since were both on weird schedules it’s hard on him to know when to pee.  He knows to wait till the morning.  He also knows to wait at night.  It’s the in between part that were both working on now.

I’ve got a lot of questions about how Figs interacts with the cats.  Amanda has two, a boy named Heatly and a girl, Cali.  Cali avoids Figs as he likes to chase her.  Heatly on the other hand is about the same size but a little heavier than Figs.  It’s an even "fight" until Heatly bats Figs in the nose which sends him wimpurring and me throwing a pillow at the cat.  Yes, I spoil him.

Luckily we have a pretty big house where they can all run around or avoid each other if necessairy.  It’s funny sometimes to find Heatly and Figs sleeping on the same blanket.  Or one of them sniffing the other when its a sleep.

As people around me are starting to have kids (guys at work) I can only think how the heck I could manage it at this point!  I am thouroughly impressed by people that can keep their lives in order balancing work, a family and staying in shape.  I at this point am happy with my choice in kid.

Anywho, I’ll upload some pics in the next little bit.  Thanks for reading!

Happy (Rest time almost done!) Trainin!

Cliff

This can be a good thing as I have come up with some ideas for products that I’d like to make.  Although I’ve been told to keep my good ideas to myself, I’ll share some of lessor creations with you.

Hand Heaters: Yes winter is inevitable here in Canada.  Were going to get at least 3-6 months of gross weather.  It’s how we can cope that makes us successful.  This product is very obvious but also quite useful.  I’d like to create a set of heaters that would go on the bicycle handle bars therefore warming your hands.  With lithium battery technology it is very feasible to create such a thing.  I’m looking into the electronics of making something like this.  Any electricians out there let me know how you’d hook this up!

Kimpex Heat Grip for Four Wheelers

Sweat Evapourator: This came to me after doing Clearwater.  Since I was at a disadvantage because of my lack of training in the heat, my body had to work a lot harder to keep itself cool.  Wouldn’t it be nice if your clothing did the work for you, keeping you cool that is.  I know there have been attempts at product creation for this type of thing but I’m not sure if any have been successful.  Looking into this a little further I thought that maybe instead of cooling the body down (for summer) why not heat the body up for winter?  Like the hand heaters this technology could be used for the winter. 

How would it work?  Well, it would have to be built into the base layer of clothing.  There are things called "heat pipes" that work at low temperatures (30-40 degrees C) that will take heat away from your body and transfer it to other locations.  Heat would be taken from the back andarm pits and put to the front where the body gets the most cold.  Also, heat could be taken from the legs and transferred to the toes.  This would be perfect for us Canadians in the winter.  Now, I don’t know a lot about heat pipes and if they can work with the human body but it’s a start.

Yup, it’s going to be an interesting off season as I already have a wack of things already on the go.  As a wise man once said  "finish one thing and move onto the next".  Good advice but I don’t tend to listen to anyone!

Yes sometimes in the past I wonder why I was ever an engineer but now I understand.  If it’s out there find it.  If it isn’t build it.  If its a good product people will want it. If it’s not, at least you tried.

Happy Trainin

Cliff

Consistency is the most valuable step in your training.  The majority of people startout with doing way too much; burning out way before they start seeing the progression of their hardwork.  What really matters is you getting out the door.  Ttry and build slowly upon the previous week.  Remember, it is always better to do a little less and remian healthy than it is to do more and be overtrained.

There is so much information available about how to train, how much to do or how little.  Creating a schedule that builds at the right intensity for you is something that every athlete struggles with.  Some of the things you should think about before starting a plan is how much time you can set aside, what facilities are available to you, and if you want to join a group or do it by yourself.  Take sometime to think about what it is you truly want to go out of your plan.

A very typical training plan is 3 weeks of build with a rest week following.  Each week should build on the next with the rest week being a chance for the muscles to regenerate. 

Include optional workouts in your weekly plan.  This way not everything you do has to be done.  If have a cold or feel tired, skip it and don’t worry about it. 

Each week, specfic workouts should be set aside that pertain to your goal.  For example, if your goal is to run a marathon than make sure to include a long run each week to help train your body to deal with the stress of running 26 miles. 

Having a few workouts will give allow you to build consistently without overloading your system.  Training gains sometimes will go un-noticed for the first few weeks.  Keeping this in mind, know that your body will adapt to the gains made on your body. 

Some good websites to checkout are the following for workout plans:

http://www.coachgordo.com/

www.triathletemag.com

www.slowtwitch.com

Here we go race day.

Swim: Nothing special. This was an ocean swim following a rectangle buoy line. The swim was also done in waves with mine the last to go.  And did it ever go!

I found myself struggling to get into a groove. I strayed too far away from the buoys, lack of openwater swimming (haven’t done a tri since July!). Exiting the water I had the exact same time as I did in Rhode Island. I’m faster now but it didn’t show.

Bike: This was something I had to see to believe. My buddy Chris (who did the race last year) told me about all the drafting. For the first 15K, it seemed like any other race but I was in for a real treat!  

After the first aid station I found myself in a small group of 4. We each took turns on the front pulling then another would take his place up front. The course is mainly flat so it made it hard to drop any less skilled rider. At one point on the course you could look across a median and see the riders that were ahead of you, I thought our group was bad for just having the 4 of us. But I saw a peleton of at least 20 riders on the other side working together!

At about the 35K mark we had a turn around and then had 40K straight of road with no interuptions. During this stretch our group grew to over 15 people. Again no hills so dropping people was very tough.

I had a lot of fun though. I know drafting isn’t allowed but we were going really fast at points. If you ever wanted to bandit a race (jump in without paying) go for the bike portion of this race!

I did my fair share of the work though. I drove to the front whenever I felt I could go faster than the pace. As I said, it’s hard to drop bad riders cause they’ll just glue themeselves to your wheel.

Two bad things happened on my ride as my magnet got hit on my bike and I couldn’t tell how fast or how far I had gone. Also, my water bottle cage broke so I only had my front water bottle on my bike.

Run: Coming into my final transition I felt hot as the temperature from the get go was in the mid twenties and was now creeping up to 30. Hot for a kid who was wear tights the week before and had to scrape snow off my car!

I did my best to try and keep cool pouring water over my head and drinking lots of fluids. Aid stations are the best things ever!

The run was mainly flat with one bump, a bridge in the middle on an out and back course. I though if I could keep a good pace that maybe I could place well in the overall. It was hard to gauge where I was as I passed hundreds of people.

If it wasn’t for looking at the results, I thought it was a solid finish. Not perfect by any means but besides the swim, it was the best I could do with what I had. I just couldn’t believe at how good the caliber of athletes were here! Goes to show why you need to save everything for the fall, so you can do your best for the World Championships.

This year I was happy that I managed to stretch my season further than I did last year (overtrained in September and just kept getting worse). Going into this race I didn’t feel as strong as I had in Rhode Island. My body was tired and I had to keep my volume down for a couple of weeks in fear of whiping out any chance of racing here in Clearwater. I learned a lot of valuable lessons that will hopefully finaly give me a good shot at placing well in a world championship race.

Where to now?  I guess I’ll take a few days off and see where I want to proceed.

Anywho, I’m going to moisturize this burnt face! Thanks for reading!

Happy (Ow Ow Ow Ow) Trainin!

Cliff

 Pics/ Video to come!