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

VO2 Max Testing Mishap

first spirometry test

So I decided to participate in a research study on shunting in asthmatic athletes, and I started the initial testing a few days ago. It all starts out with a spirometry test, where you take the deepest breath you can, and blow it out as hard and fast as you can through a little plastic mouth-piece.

6mins of hyperventilating

Then you do a simulated effort by breathing a mixture of carbon dioxide and air, breathing in and out as fast as you can, for 6 minutes. The carbon dioxide keeps you from passing out (pretty much like hyperventilating, actually much harder than it sounds!)

second spirometry

Then the spirometry test is done again, to see if the results have changed (ie, to see if the athlete has exercise induced asthma.)

Warming up on the Velotron

Then, I was whisked away (well, actually walked 10min to another building) and did a VO2 Max test. It was my first test, and I was looking forward to finding out the results!  But there was a problem.

getting sweaty near the end of the test!

As I was nearing the end of the test, I was working so hard that I jerked my head to the side a little too hard, and ripped the front of the face piece right off! It was disappointing, but for the purposes of the study, I passed (VO2 Max was 63.2 @390watts when the mask fell off, they needed athletes with a VO2 Max of 60 or higher.) They've invited me to go back and try again (hopefully no more mishaps!)

It was a beautiful day outside, so I went and did my first ever run in the UBC Pacific Spirit Park, and it was AWESOME!! 2 hours of trails (longer than it was supposed to be as I got lost a few times,) and on a sunny beautiful day to boot. I've been starting to ramp up the volume the last few weeks, soon it'll be time to do some speed work to get ready for the UBC Duathlon (first multisport race of the year!) Sounds like a bit of a cold weather front is moving in, hopefully we can get some decent weather for race day.

Enjoy the weather everyone!