Training Camp and some races

A bunch of new exciting updates over the past few weeks: two weeks ago was the UBC Duathlon, and last weekend was the St. Patricks Day 5km road race. Two hard races, and some INTENSE training in between!!

UBC Longcourse Masters Swim

I managed a win a the UBC Duathlon, and miraculously got a new personal best at the 5k (but only by two seconds.) In between was crazy, I had a blast with Coach Bjoern and his other elite athletes, Steven Hewick, Andrew Powell, and Elliot Holtham. We did a 4 day training camp out in Vancouver, and did about 20 hours of training, from the tuesday to friday.

It was AWESOME.

So many hard workouts, every day, including brick runs as all-out hill repeats, brick track sessions, and underwater filming. And all this leading up to the saturday 5k. I was amazed I could even RUN on the saturday morning, let alone PB!! It was an insane field at the 5k, the top 15 guys went under 16 minutes, and the top 5 guys were under 15 minutes! It was a cold, rainy, very windy day, ugly conditions for a run really. But there was an awesome showing at the race (sold out, 600 people,) and probably the BEST post-race spread of food for all the runners (definitely the way to an athletes heart, through their stomach!) All sorts of goodies: chocolate mint scones (from Cobbs bread,) lucky charms, muffins, cupcakes (St. Patricks Day green no doubt!) fruits, starbucks coffee, and the best part, was the two different types of stews they had!! Delicious!!

Running hard in the pack

I've entered all the big races this season that I plan on racing (in the Elite/Pro category), which are:
San Fransisco ITU Continental Cup
5150 Provo, Utah
Kelowna ITU Continental Cup
5150 Las Vegas
5150 Clearwater Grand Finale

There's going to be other races, mostly smaller races, like the Peach Classic and a few Lifesport races (Sooke, Shawnigan Lake, Vancouver,) but the main focus will be on the big pro races.

Time to get ready for the big double swim, double run day tomorrow, with the Lifesport Crew!!

Nathan