Grizzly Geiger

College Number TWO!

2009-06-11T22:53:00.002-06:00

Greetings from lovely, and rainy Mountain Home Idaho. We are about 40 minutes south of Boise and this will be our main camp for the next 4 nights! It's a town of 11,000 people and has a Wal Mart, so were ok with it!

The drive today from West Yellowstone was pretty tiring. Rain, sunshine, rain, sunshine, rain.... you get it. It was a 5 hour drive but we managed to make it 6 because of a brief stop, in Pocatello Idaho, home of Idaho State Bengals! University number two, DONE! We got there in the pouring rain, so the visit was short and sweet. A drive through campus, a picture at the stadium, a trip to the bookstore, and out!

Yesterday, we hit Yellowstone. It was truly, not all exciting. Have you been to Banff, then you have been to Yellowstone, but smaller scale. We drove into the park to see Old Faithful, which lasted about 5 minutes after a 1 hour wait. We stopped to let Rexy run around in which she ate a boatload of bison crap. Then she ran through it. That was fun, it was fresh. Then she got to see her first bison, and boy did she NOT like it. She was practically jumping out of the window trying to eat it, as it strolled by the truck. Apparently they have a pretty big problem with wild bison just standing on the road. It actually happened twice to us, we had to stop and wait for the bison to move but they don't. They just stand there. Weird.

I was going to bike back from Yellowstone to the town but I decided not to as the weather was pretty rough. About 6 degrees and pouring rain all day. We finished the night with an Imax show on Yellowstone (which also kind of sucked; I'm starting to think I'm hard to please or something). It was pretty cheesey and dry.

Today I finally did get a bike ride in! As soon as we got to Mountain Home I jumped on the bike and started towards the Air Force Base which is 10 miles outside of the town limits. It wasn't more than 25 minutes until I saw thunderclouds and lightning bolts and decided to head back into town. I think I ended up riding a short 45 minutes and 22 km. Later tonight we tried to find this little lake to go swimming in but got lost in the Idaho back country. I think I'll have to get those directions from Sunny, the KOA guy again tomorrow!

Bright and early in the morning we head into Boise! It is registration, pre race meeting, and bike check day for Leslie and downtown shopping and Boise State University day for me! It should be a early night back at camp as Leslie gets a good sleep for Saturday, which is race day!

Later!

Chad

Some pictures from Montana and Yellowstone!

2009-06-10T23:05:00.005-06:00

Wyoming, Montana, I don't know which???

2009-06-10T11:33:00.002-06:00

Hello, Americano!

So here we are in West Yellowstone, Montana. I believe. Yellowstone National Park is mostly in Wyoming, but I don't know where it switches, hence the blog title.

We got here last night at about 8:30pm. We ended up leaving Calgary on Tuesday morning instead of Monday night like we planned. It turns out Leslie and I were a wee little bit disorganized and couldn't fit everything in the truck. I blame Rexy. Anyway, we left at about 8:30 am yesterday. I apologize Dad for not updating last night, I knew you would be checking to see if we made it here, but I couldn't get the Internet up and running, they gave me an invalid password.

The drive went well. Rexy was actually the best I have ever seen her in the truck. I made her a big bed out of all of our pillows and blankets and she just slept the entire way. Well, except at the boarder. There is an interesting story. Since I have the bike rack on the back, the 3 guards opened all the doors without warning and Rexy doesn't know what to do. Usually she tries to jump out, but the two guards on the side were jumping in! She was so confused. Then she tried to jump out of my diver window over my back while Leslie's is helping search her purse and the glove box! The main guy I was talking to liked here though, he was giving her treats and petting her like crazy, no questions asked!

We did manage to go out of our way a tiny ways to make it to the first University of the trip, Montana State, home of the Bobcats in Bozeman, Montana. For most of you that don't know, I'm a little obsessed about college sports in the US. It is just amazing to see how much a 'team' can really depict the culture of an area. It's just like the movies, they live following these teams. I always make a point to go out of my way to see the schools, the stadiums, and the souvenirs!

The plan for today when we ever get out of here is Ol' Faithful, stroll downtown West Yellowstone, go for a bike, and an Imax movie tonight! I'll try and get some pictures up later!

Until then...

Grizz!

Vulcan Tinman Sprint RR

2009-06-08T01:56:00.004-06:00

Hey!

So this weekend past was the Vulcan Tinman Sprint Triathlon. It was to be my first ever REAL distance triathlon, and would officially elevate me to 'triathlete' status. The only problem was the expected 3 degree temperatures with 10 cm of snow and rain. I wasn't too excited.

All week I debated what I would do if it actually was that crappy. I want to race but I also want to enjoy the race and not get a cold with it before we left on holidays the week after. I talked to some clients, Leslie, and tried to figure it out with no luck at all. I decided to go to Vulcan on Saturday and see, besides I had to pick up my race package anyway, and they had a free bike inspection!

It rained for pretty much the whole drive out. Cold, windy, and wet. When I got to Vulcan, I wasn't into it. Not at all. Maybe it was the snow that was falling as I walked my bike to go and get registered, I don't know. I picked up my timing chip, walked into transition to set up, then turned around and walked back out with my bike still. I decided it wasn't worth it. It wouldn't be fun or smart. I headed back over to the registration tent to return my chip while I was shivering.

That is when I met up with Leslie. She layed the guilt trip pretty bad on me and when I asked her what she would do, she said 'are you kidding, I'd do it.' So there I go back to transition, still doubting it.

I set up transition and went to go get changed in my tri gear and what do you know, the snow turned into rain. Great! Not really. I went into the pool and found out that since so many people didn't show up, that you didn't have to start in your designated heat, you could start whenever you wanted. Great! Get it over with!

Swim:

The swim was weird. You didn't start swimming and start timing; you have to start timing, then run to your lane, jump in without knowing the temperature of the water, then start swimming right away. This means no warm up. It was 5 degrees outside and my shoulders usually take about 400 m to actually start feeling good. Luckily when I jumped in the water was super warm although it was salt water which I also wasn't ever in before.

The swim went pretty well. Of course my shoulders and triceps were burning, but the salt water actually seemed to make me float a bit more. Since the heats were all random, I had in my lane a young kid who was doing breast stroke the whole way, and an older guy who wasn't really a speed demon. They finished not long in, maybe 250m and the next two in were actually faster than I was, so that made it easier on me, in the crammed 25m lane. While I was swimming, the sun actually came out!

My goal time for the swim: 10 min

My actual time for the swim : 10.57 including the run, jump in, jump out, and short run.

Rank: 83 of 347 overall

Bike:

Since it was so cold, my transition took forever! Dry off, socks, shoes, shoe covers, shirt, jacket, toque, gloves, and helmet. Then I was off. The bike was a 20 km out and back. Out went really well, I was pushing about 45km/hour the whole way down in aero and felt great. WOW! I can sure pedal hard if I really want to, I remember thinking. Then the turn around came, and things got ugly.

It turns out the reason I went so fast was the strong tailwind I had. When you turn around, that tailwind apparently turns into a headwind. I tried to keep above 25km / hour on the way back, that's how strong it was! After about 10km, that's when the hail storm hit. The hail was small but man did it sting! I couldn't even see where I was going, I had to shield my eyes to even look up so I didn't hit anyone! It stopped about 2 km later and the rest of the ride went pretty well. Pretty much flat, and only one corner back into town.

Bike goal: 30 min

Bike time: 33.23

Bike rank: 38 of 347 overall

Run:

Transition number two from the bike to the run went ok. The sun was starting to poke through a bit so the second transition was pretty much stripping EVERYTHING I spent 3 minutes putting on.

The course for the run was 5km and was just a little tour of the outskirts of town. By the graveyard (which I thought was kind of ironic), past a golf course and through some streets and back again.

One guy that passed me with about 3 km left on the bike was about 1km ahead of me on the run. I tried to push to catch up to him and almost did by the end of the race. If I had another 1 or 2 km I would have got him I think, but that's what got me through the run. My calfs were pretty tight and sore from the 1/2 marathon last weekend but it was only 5km, if I made it through all this other crap today, I can make it through the rest of the run!

Goal Run time: 25 min

Actual Run time: 22.42

Rank: 30 of 347 overall

Overall I was pretty happy with the day. I did it. I didn't want to, but I did. The hardest part was just getting to the start line, after that I felt pretty good. I definitely need to work on a little bit more race preparation and some nutrition issues again, but the three sports seem to be fitting together pretty well. I'm not great at any, but I'm not awful at any either. Win, win, right?

Overall goal time: 1 hour 5 min

Overall actual time: 1 hour 7 min, 1 second

Overall rank: 34 of 347

Gender rank: 29 of 145

Age group rank: 3 of 15

That's right! 3rd in my age group!! I was pretty happy to see that! I don't know if you get medals or anything, but we left before the awards anyway. I will try emailing the race director to see! Not too shabby at all, for a first ever REAL distance triathlon!

This next week should be great too. We leave on Monday night to head out to Boise, Idaho for Leslie's Ironman 70.3 Boise on Saturday. We are going to make a pit stop in Yellowstone National Park for a couple days, and Missoula, Montana on the way home as well. The interesting part is we are taking Monster (formerly known as Rexy) with us. My parents are going to meet us in Boise as well to help cheer! It should be great! I will definitely update when we get there in the mid week!

Have a great week workers!!!!

Grizzle

The perfect fit for my Vulcan Tri this weekend

2009-06-02T23:08:00.004-06:00

Julie, this totally reminded me of you! Thought it was funny and the perfect ad for the Vulcan Sprint Tri this weekend!

Grizzzzzzzzzz

HSBC Calgary Half Marathon

2009-05-31T23:55:00.003-06:00

Hey!

Well, my only half marathon for the year is done. It was good. It was a nice test for me to see how biking a lot really translates over to running. I expected my general fitness to be higher than it ever has been from the biking, but I didn't know how my legs would handle the race with the limited amount of training I got in running lately.

Race morning came early. Really early. My first alarm went off at 5:30. No shower, ate a bagel while Leslie dropped me off at a LRT station, and a cool bottle of water. The LRT they said was free to ride for all participants on race day, but what they didn't tell you is that the LRT's were few and far between. It took me a good 35 minutes to get from the LRT platform to the Bridgland station which was about a 30 minute walk away. Aaaarrrrgggghhhh. Disorganization number one for the day.

I made it to the start at about 6:30 am for the 7 am start and right away got in one of the three bag check line ups, and waited. And waited. And waited. The lady behind me says ' I hope we are going to make the start of the race in 10minutes' Still we waited. Bang. The gun goes off and I am still in the friggin' bag check. Finally we get to the front of the line, about 5 minutes after the race started then book it over to the start line, which was still barely moving. I think in the final numbers I actually crossed the line about 8 minutes after the gun. Disorganization number two for the day.

The first 6 km's of the race were slow. Painfully slow. My goal was to a maintain a 5 min/km pace for the first 17kms or so, but I didn't even see a 5.00 pace until about 6 km in. 5000 people (with most of the walkers up at the front?????) running sharp dog leg's for 6 km did not make me very happy. Disorganization number three.

After 6km thing finally spread out enough that I could actually set a pace. I guess it wasn't too bad that I had to start slow. At least I got a warm up in since I was stuck in the stupid bag check for 30 minutes. I kept rolling along, stopping to say hi to Rexy and Leslie on the side of 17th ave. We kept running up 17th, headed north on 14th st, then a short trek west on Memorial until we turned around and headed all the way back east on Memorial to the finish in Bridgeland.

There was not too much to report about the run. Lots of people. I managed to follow a bit of a nutrition plan and seemed to last pretty good until about the 18km mark when my right quad and calfs started to ache.

By the time I got to the finish I was hurting. The last 7km I picked up the pace to try and balance out my slow 6km at the start and to make my goal time of 1h45min.

In the end I finished with a time of 1 hour 44 min 50 sec. Exactly 10 seconds below my goal time and a new personal best in a half by about 5 minutes! I was happy. It was great to see the benefits of my training this year, even though it hasn't been running too much. It was a tough race to really run hard in though because of all the people and the sharp corners where everyone would funnel together. I finished 60 of 163 in my age group, and 349 of 2846. Wow, that sounds cool. My pace was 4.59 per km, which was my goal to keep as well. Yeah, me!

Other than than the limited train, long ass bag check, and stupid dog leg's off the start, the race seemed to be well organized once again and full of excitement.

Oh, another question I have, is why do they rank the official times as when the gun goes off and not from your chip. My gun time was 1h 52 minutes or something but my chip time was 1h 44 min. However, for the rankings they use the gun time. Weird. Just out of interest sake, why? If they would have used my chip time instead of the gun time, I would have finished 32 in my age group instead of 60! Stupid bag check!

Everyone from WOW! did amazing too. Sharlene ran her first 10km race and completed the whole thing without stopping! Peter Cutting, my 72 year old client did his first 10km run and finished a wonderful 3rd place in his age group!!!! Peggy had a strong 10km run, as did Stacey and Gary! What a great day!

There are probably a few pictures Leslie took and I'll try and get them up, but for now, I'm pooped. 'Night!

Grizzly G.

Thanks Leslie...

2009-05-28T02:24:00.002-06:00

So it's been a long week. I feel like crap. Darryl and I, both of which shared the room in Penticton with Leslie I might add, seem to have caught the same awful deep lung cough that Leslie has had for a few weeks. Aaaarrrrrggghhhhhh.

Needless to say it was a pretty slow week of training last week and only now am I well enough to actually do more than walk without coughing up my lung.

I got to work today feeling like a bag of ...... rotten banana peels. Just spent and discarded. I had a couple hours off and finally just said to myself, screw it, bike. Off upstairs in the gym to the spin bikes I went. An easy ride for the 30 minutes I had to spare I figured was better than nothing.

After I finished, it turned out that I had another hour off from a no show client, so I did something I haven't done in almost 2 months. Weights. Yep, the powerlifters at the gym nearly had a heart attack (not from lack of cardio, which is could have been now that I think about it), but they thought I had converted back to heavy weights and less than 5,000 reps up a hill. I managed to get in a few sets for every muscle group, and boy was it hard. Since starting to really get into tri training I feel really, well, weak. I bet off my squat I have easily dropped about 150lbs, and a good 75lbs off my bench press. I have to lift up 45lbs plates all day at the gym and they are starting to get kind of heavy. I decided that I am going to try and get 2 or 3 easy, high rep, whole body training sessions in a week just to feel better. It was good to be back today.

Later on I had a another hour off and I wanted more biking. I was feeling really good by now so I thought I would take a chance at a spin class at the gym. I could only stay for the first half, but that was enough. I had some mixed feelings about how well 'spinning' actually translates over to cycling and I kind of questioned the whole 'stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down' part of it, but it was a really good sweat. My conclusions, good for cardio, bad for cycling for sport. Kudo's to all of those chicks I was with though, they are in fabulous shape!

Finally after work, it was swimming with Darryl, Greg, and Leslie. I'm glad Leslie had a good swim while Darryl and I were stopping mid set to cough our brains out. We didn't do too much. Longer sets, easy pace to get back into it. Not too much to report.

I have some time off tomorrow again, so I think I am going to head out to Strathmore on the bike from work. We'll see, but right now that's the plan. About 45km one way, I think. Maybe a 3h 30m ride. I'll let you know!

Stay strong!

Grizz.

I survived....

2009-05-21T00:10:00.013-06:00

Sorry it took so long to write about May long weekend in Penticton but I have been exhausted since I got back..... can't imagine why?

Greg got us these sweet shirts while we were there, I kind of added to mine because I think he forgot a couple of thing to put on them....

Notice the sweet tan lines on my forehead from my bike helmet. Pretty cool, hey?

Ok, here goes...

So we left Calgary on Thursday evening at about 6pm. It was a beautiful day here in the city with cold rain and wind. The lovely Alberta May weather continued for us right up to the BC boarder as we drove through 2 blizzards. Yep, blizzards.

We ended up getting to Penticton at about 1:30 am and had to make a call to Greg to find out where we were staying, since we had forgotten. He text ed us room 52 but we couldn't figure out which hotel we were at though. Sorry Greg. The neat thing was right when we opened up the hotel room door the alarm turned on and started blaring music, in which we thought again we had the wrong hotel since there seemed to be someone in our room! We got it figured out and headed off to bed, expecting lots of fun in the morning...

Friday morning we were up at around 7:30am and were ready to hit the bikes at about 8:30 ish. The plan for the day was to do most of the Ironman Canada bike loop in reverse. We headed out to Green Mountain Road and turned west into the Okanagan outback on the quiet, lush road.

We turned off and headed south after about an hour and started towards Osoyoos. Things were going pretty good at this point. This is when I figured out that I was not as good cyclist as I thought I might be. There was a group of about 10 guys who rode together all weekend, and boy were they fast. I had no chance even remotely catching up and staying with them at all right off the start of the day, but I tried. Too much in fact.

At about the 100km mark of day 1 I crashed. It turns out that I really don't know anything about cycling nutrition. When to take in food, how much to take in, what kind of food to take in, and how to adjust during the ride. As we rolled down to Osoyoos off Richter Pass I felt like crap, but a quick chocolate bar and Red Bull and I started to feel ok.

The ride ended with the 60km ride back to Penticton and boy was I glad we were done. Wrong. Time to run. Ever run after a 6 hour bike ride? No? Me neither. It sucked. I went for a jog with Dusty (my weekend riding partner), who happens to run a 1:20 half marathon, which is FAST! We went for about a 15 min jog and I felt like death when I got back. I was so hungry and tired and already every muscle in my body hurt. The good news is I got to go to Salty's Beachouse (my favorite restaurant in the world) for supper in which I ate about 1 and 1/2 loafs of bread, and a giant plate of Rasta Pasta with Chicken! The night finished with a lecture from Coach Greg on nutrition, in which he stared at me and Dusty for a good part of it! Why???? Just kidding, I know why!

Day 1: 159 km, 5h 56min, 26.8km/h average speed, 72.2 km/h max speed

I woke up Saturday morning feeling completely......... dead. I was so tired and hungry and sore. My first thoughts were how am I ever going to swim and climb the giant mountain (Anarchist) on east side of Osoyoos today?

We headed to Oliver and got ready for our open water swim. By the time I figured out how to get into my new wetsuit, everyone else was already in the water and ready to go. I stepped in slowly. It was friggin' freezing! It was so cold that when everyone started to swim I hadn't even caught my breath yet. Oh well, here goes my first ever open water swim.

I made it about 10 feet. I still couldn't breath. I tried to get under control then swam about another 10 feet. That is when I started to have my little panic attack. Leslie and Susi, bless them, stuck around knowing that I would have a little trouble, and I'm glad they did. After some coaching from Susi, I tried again. Nope. I'm going to go to the shore before I drown. Once Leslie and I got back in and I caught my breath we tried again. It went better. Leslie swam out about 20 m then I would swim to her, then she would swim another and I would go again. I did manage to swim all the way into the shore after that though! Lesson learned, I need some practice in a lake.

After the swim it was off to the bikes and Osoyoos about 20km away. The ride went pretty fast there. We met at the Husky station and toured through town together before we got to Anarchist Mountain. It is a 18 km climb at a 8% grade. It took about 1 hour and 10 minutes to climb in which my legs were SCREAMING at me the whole way. It sucked, in a good way though. I actually enjoyed it. I seem to be a better climber then a flat section rider so I pretty much stayed close to a couple of guys and it went pretty well. Leslie made it to the top not long after and we got our picture at the eagle.

Leslie found this moose statue on the way down, I don't know what she is doing. Dad, you might?

A fast ride down, a strong 20km back to Oliver (in which Claire 'chicked' me and I couldn't keep up), a 20 minute run with Leslie, a talk on race preparation and motivation, supper at my second favorite restaurant The Barley Mill, and I was exhausted and ready for bed at 9:30!

Day 2: 80km, 3h 15min, 24.46km/h average speed, 68.35 km/h max speed

Sunday morning came fast again and once again I was still beat up. We got off at about 8:30 and the plan was to do the Ironman Canada course. The big boys were nice and let Dusty and I stick with them until we were almost 20km into the ride before they took off. Dusty took off too, but I had learned my lessons over the last couple of days. Pace, control, nutrition. It's not a race, it's training was all I could think about so I let them all go and enjoyed the 31 degree weather!

We met up 60km later again at Osoyoos and Dusty and I pretty much stuck together from there. First up was Richter Pass on the West side of Osoyoos. It was a pretty long climb as well but compared to yesterday, I won't complain. Dusty and I got some pictures at the top.

I sure color coordinate pretty well, huh? Blue, orange, yellow, green? Leslie, how do you let me out of the house?

After that were the rollers....

After about 120km into the ride we ended up at the turn off for the out and back. It is a little 20km section of course that is off the main highway to fill in the distance for the race. Mostly everyone else skipped it. I waited for Dusty at the corner and when he came up I asked if he wanted to do it? 'Are you?' he said. My response was ' I didn't come all the way to Penticton to ride ALMOST the whole Ironman course, I'm doing it for sure!' Dusty came too.

It turns out on the way though, Dusty bonked. I waited for him at the turnaround and saw him come around the last corner wobbling on his bike. He un-clipped, but his foot down and like in slow motion fell over. Hhhhmmmmmm. Time to get his blood sugar back up, so off to the nearby town for a Red Bull chug!

After that I stuck about 10 km around Dusty, and made sure he was alright for the rest of the ride since we were almost the last ones on the day. Here are some pictures I took while I waited for him at some places along the last 40km or so. These are just at the bottom of the last climb up to Yellow Lake before descending back down to Penticton.

About an hour later we were almost there. Just one more stop. Right in the middle of the road in Penticton, I slammed on my brakes to take a picture.....

There it is, 180 km of biking. It's kind of like a club you're in. It was a good feeling to see it. We cooled down and road the last few km's back to the hotel, ran, and enjoyed some pizza. Done. I survived.

Day 3: 183.6 km, 6h 43min, 27.3 km/h average speed, 72.2 km/h max speed

This is after we were all cleaned up and showered before we went for a little walk to try and relax our legs a bit.

All said and done, it was quite the experience. I wanted to come to ride the whole Ironman course and I did that so I was happy. I learned quite a bit (I'll blog about this soon) and I met and got to know some great people and amazing athletes. I wanted to test out the weekend to see if I would actually enjoy long course triathlon and I did.

Weekend Total: 423 km of biking, 16 hours 24 minutes of biking

It's been 4 days since we got home and my legs still hurt, I'm still exhausted and I am still hungry all the time. I think I did something right.

This blog is long enough, I'll talk more about it soon!

Grizz

Legend Camp and Penticton, here we come!

2009-05-13T01:27:00.003-06:00

I like the orange, in the last post. I'll try it again!

Here is a picture from the triathlon last weekend. This is right before the finish line!

So our summer of busy weekends has begun. This weekend we will spend in sunny, hot Penticton at coach Greg's Legend Coaching training camp. It should be..... well..... fun?

The plan is pretty much ride our bikes into the ground. Then run after that! I think he has planned about 300km or super hilly rides over 3.5 days, supplemented with running, open water swimming and some seminars.

The weekend will be particularly good for me and my ride for Prostate Cancer. I think it will give me a real good idea of how much crotch will feel biking to Saskatchewan. Although my ride will be about 150km more than this weekend, the time on the bike should be pretty close taking into account the wonderful hills in the Okanagan Valley.

I'm pretty excited to do the Ironman Canada bike course. Everybody always talks about it, and since I am no Ironman finisher, I don't really have any idea what is going on. It will be good to climb the infamous Richter Pass on the west side of Osoyoos, and the monstrous Anarchist Mountain on the east side of Osoyoos. This will be my first taste of an open water swim with my new Orca wetsuit, and my first chance to show these Ironfolk some GRIZZLY POWER! Oh, just kidding. No Greg, that wasn't a challenge. Please don't kill me.

I hope everyone has a great long weekend. Be careful, drive safe, train hard. I'm sure I'll have some great pictures and stories next week (if my legs will carry me to the computer after this)!

Grizz

Chalk it up!

2009-05-11T00:25:00.004-06:00

Well, there it is. First Place Overall in the Super Sprint Splash, Pedal and Gasp Triathlon!

The morning started off rough. Rexy was moving around all night and Leslie and I both had really crappy sleeps before the alarm went off at 6:30am. I was tired.

We got to the University and met up with Lisa and Darryl right away, picked up our race packages, got body marked, and set up transition. Pre race meeting at 8:15am. Then Leslie, Darryl and Julie (another tri buff that we know) were off to warm up before the Olympic distance start at 9am.

They were off. Then Lisa and I waited. And waited. My race didn't start until 11am which took forever to get to, especially since we were up at 6:30 am. At 10:35 am I got in the pool and did a good 300m warm up for my 200 m swim!

Here is the good stuff:

Swim

The goal this year was to stay around 3.45s. There were 12 people jammed into our tiny little lane and we started on 5 second intervals until all 12 people had begun. I was the 4th one to start, but luckily, the 3rd person ahead of me didn't show up! That meant that there was a 10 second gap between me and the person ahead! Perfect! I didn't have to worry about passing at all!

The swim started fast but I felt great! Before I knew it I had made it 100m without a problem and nobody had passed me! On the second 100m I felt a girl drafting off my feet as she would tickle my feet every 25m but wouldn't pass. I finished and threw myself out of the pool, running on my way to the first transition.

Swim results last year: 6m 25s, 69/79 overall

Swim results this year: 3m 38s, 12/77 overall

Transition 1
WOW! Did I ever fly through transition or what! I wore a tri top in the pool so I wouldn't have to put a top on when I got out, and I am glad I did. I bet my transition time was was maybe 1 minute. Socks, shoes with bungee laces, helmet, race belt, bike. I took a couple seconds getting my feet into the cage pedals at the start line but other than that, flawless!

Bike

I got on the bike and started to spin right away. I passed one guy right off the start, and passed 3 or 4 more within the first km. I kept looking ahead but couldn't see anyone. Hmmm. As it turns out, all the other 12 people who got out of the pool ahead of me, I passed in transition. Within the first km I was in first place with the second place guy about 10 seconds behind! As soon as we got out of the University grounds I dropped into aero and started to push the pedals. By the turn around point I was about 2 minutes ahead of the second place guy. I was flying! I stayed in aero pretty much the whole time, and in my biggest gear pedalled the whole way back!

It was different being at the front of a race. Everyone would stare at me from the other side of the highway as I rode back. What was more interesting is that all the police and volunteers almost looked surprised to see me coming. I guess I'm just not used to it since there are usually more people ahead of me when I run! Anyway, I made it back alive, no flat tires, and my legs felt pretty good!

Bike time last year: 40m 3 s, 9/76 overall
Bike time this year: 31m 5 s, 1/77 overall

Transition 2
Another fast transition. I racked my bike, took off my helmet, grabbed my visor and took off. Maybe at the most 30 seconds.

Run
It took a good while to get my breathing under control once I got off the bike. The course runs strait down a GIANT, steep, gravelly, uneven hill, to a turn a round and then back up. I tried to control a little bit down the hill but still kept my foot on the gas a little bit. At the bottom there is about 500m before the turnaround, in which I used this to bring down my heart rate a little bit. I passed Leslie here who was on her way back and told here that I was in first as I flew by here with a high five! The turn around came quick and back I started. I passed the second place guy about 2 minutes after the turn around. I had a comfortable lead!

Then there was the hill. Here is what I thought. Run as far up as you can, but DON'T be afraid to walk a little. I would rather walk a little and be able to sprint to the finish line if I have to, rather than fight and use up all my energy on this giant monster. I didn't walk too much, and made it up while I checked over my shoulder about ever 15 seconds to make sure he wasn't gaining on me. I couldn't see him at all, good sign! Just a 300m jog to the finish and my first ever overall win!

Run time last year: 17m 42s, 8/76 overall
Run time this year: 15m 53s, 2/77 overall

Sure enough I was the first person to cross the line! I had to wait and see because they adjusted the final times based on that staggered swim starts, but I was sure I had it!

Last year Results: 1h 04m 10s, 4/6 age group, 15/76 overall
This year Results: 50m 37s, 1/6 age group, 1/77 overall

I told Greg last June that I wanted to win this race this year and he told me yes. I went from not being able to swim 50m, never biking, and casually running, to winning a triathlon! I took off 13 minutes and 23 seconds off of my last year's time! That is a 1/4 of the whole race! It's amazing what happens when you commit to something!

I did end up getting all three of my goals for this year. First overall, first in age group and a medal! I actually even got a brand new $100 Timex Ironman watch for being the overall winner!

I don't want to spoil everyone's news either but we all had great races. Leslie set a new PB by 15 minutes in the Olympic distance and took home a 3rd place in her age category medal. Julie finished 2nd overall for females in the Olympic distance and also second in her age category with a 15 minute PB as well. Darryl got caught in a traffic jam in his lane in the pool but had a strong bike for a 6th place finish out of 19 in his age category and 11/82 overall finish!

Here are some pictures before the race. Our camera died so Darryl has some on his phone of after so I'll post those when I get them!

I'm out!

Grizzly G.

Off to Lethbridge....

2009-05-09T15:16:00.001-06:00

Splash, pedal and gasp this weekend. I lost a medal last year by 25 seconds. Not this year!

Goals:
1. First overall
2. First age group
3. Medal!

That's it. Short, fast race. This is the race I have been training a year for. This is why I started to learn to swim. Wish me luck!

Grizz

Guess who is coming to Calgary?

2009-05-07T02:03:00.003-06:00

That's right! LL Cool J! I'm going! Ya Baby! I know, most of you think that I am a big science nerd / dork, that listens to country music and sports radio, but I'm actually an old school rap fan too! LL Cool J is one of my favorites right along with Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer. I've seen Vanilla Ice live and now LL! The concert is on June 6, I can't wait!

So here we are, the Late Night Swim Club, minus one tall lanky fellow who yells at us. It turns out he likes to vacation so he doesn't get to be in the picture. Sorry Greg!

This is us last night at the last swim before the Splash Pedal and Gasp Triathlon in Lethbridge on Sunday morning. None of us had ever tried to wear a tri top in the pool before so we thought we would give it a shot and take a picture too! It turns out that the Legend Coaching tops were a little too loose and the drag kind of sucked. I did however, put on my other tri top from Top Gun Coatings which is skin tight and that worked great. Leslie and Darryl are not going to wear tops in their Olympic distance swims but I will for my short 200 m super sprint. It won't save them any time in transition but for me it for sure will. Maybe it will cover the 25 seconds I lost a medal by last year in this event!

The swim tonight was fast and hard. We did 10 sets of 50 meter sprints with 15 seconds rest, then 8 sets of 100 m sprints with 20 seconds rest and finally 5 more 50's with only 10 seconds rest. The goal was to bring up the intensity and bring down the volume to taper us a little bit for the weekend.

The rest of the week so far has been pretty easy. After our long ride on Sunday, I did a short 35 minute recovery spin at the gym then swam with Darryl on Monday night. Tuesday I took off and enjoyed the playoffs at a pub with a friend. Tomorrow I will bike on my brother's mountain bike to get comfortable on it for the race and make any adjustments. I spent 4 hours cleaning and getting it race ready for the weekend yesterday!

I will get one more post done here with some goals and a race preview before we leave on Saturday for Lethbridge, stay tuned!

Grizzle

Leslie, I don't think we're in Beiseker anymore.....

2009-05-04T00:21:00.010-06:00

I apolgize, for some reason it won't let me break this up in to paragraphs????

First off, I want to let everyone know that Nathan, my brother, is officially a City of Calgary Fireman! He passed his very last exam on Thursday morning and begins training in a couple of weeks. He has been working on the application process for 2 years now, and it has paid off. He is pretty excited, as are all of us! The first question my family asks is 'when do you have the calender shoot?' Ha! Ewww! I do expect a tour of the firehall complete with a slide down the pole after he graduates from training in July! Good job bro!

Well, the week is over. It turned out to be the week of long rides, and a long run. Monday I had a 90 minute ride on the trainer at home, Tuesday was an off day. Wednesday was a hot tub session at the pool and a 45 minute recovery ride. Thursday I biked for 90 more minutes at home with Leslie in which we did hills, 6 sets of 6 minute hills with 4 minutes recovery. I actually went for a 25 minute transition run after too. Friday was another 40 minute recovery ride as well.

Saturday was an off day from biking, but my wonderful girlfriend convinced me that I should go for a run with her. We have been talking a lot about monitoring my heart rate and wondering where it is when I run. I have never paid attention to it, I usually just run, so I figured it would be fun to do a long run (90min) and control my heart rate the whole time.

The goal was to keep my heart rate below 140 bpm. The first 30 minutes went well. I was actually surprised how well I felt. I'm used to running my ass off then feeling like crap for the rest of it. The second 30 minutes went alright but my heart rate was between 145 and 150 for most of it. I felt like I was going soooooo slow but it wouldn't go any lower. The last 30 minutes I had no chance of keeping it low. It would rise, I would slow down, it would rise some more. I struggled to keep it between 150 and 155. Interesting, hey? The good thing is that I ran for about 16 km in 90 minutes and felt pretty good. I think I'll be doing a lot of this in my training for my marathon in September.

The other fun thing about Saturday's run is that I did it all with my shirt off! How about that? I love running with no shirt. I feel so much more comfortable and cool. I did manage to get a little burn though, even with sunscreen!

Sunday was a long bike day. We headed to Crossfield late again and decided instead of biking west to Madden, we would head east to Beiseker exactly 40km from my front door. The way out was great! I was riding a comfortable pace about 33km/hour the whole way. What I didn't notice is how much we descended coming down.....

When we were in Beiseker we rode around town looking for a gas station to relieve ourselves. All of a sudden about a block away we see a giant wind funnel or a mini tornado. We both watched it as it picked up speed and before we knew it, it was coming right at us! We stopped riding unclipped and closed our eyes as it went right through us! It was actually pretty strong. It picked up lawn chairs and slammed them into a guys roof and garbage and a kid's ball were whirling around too! We escaped unscathed, well, Leslie did get rocks blown at her which landed in her shoes and I had dirt in my contacts. Weird. The guy who had the lawn chair slam into his house came over and said 'what the hell was that?!!!' . As quickly as it appeared, it was gone.

We should have taken this for a sign of what was to come on the way home. Holy crap was it windy! We climbed up hill for a good 2 hours home against the wind, which wasn't there on the way out. The sun disappeared, it got cool, and we were dead. I was struggling to reach even 20 km / hour pretty much the whole way back!

In the end, here are the numbers:

Total time riding: 3 hours 23 minutes 55 seconds

Total distance: 82.91 km

Max speed: 57.68 km/hour

Average speed: 24.48 km/hour (it was 32km/hour when I got to Beiseker)

So for the week:

Total riding time: 7 hours 49 minutes

Total running time: 1 hour 55 minutes

Total swimming time: 45 minutes ish

Not a bad week!

Grizzly G.

GOLD BABY!!

2009-04-27T00:16:00.003-06:00

Hey!

So I finally did it! A first place finish in a race! Well, in my age category anyway. Good enough!

After work on Friday we headed to the Hat for the Medicine Hat College Rattler Run on Saturday morning. After doing this race last year severely hung over (thanks Dave by the way) I learned a few lessons to help this year. Number one, no beer. Number two, go to bed before 4 am. Number three, don't use running with your little cousin as an excuse to run slow.

The race went horrible. It was probably the worst I have ever felt in a run in my entire life. I had cramps from the first 200m in, I had labored breathing and didn't feel like I could take a deep breath, and my legs felt like lead. I did everything so I wouldn't feel like this. I might as well of had beer the night before!

Yeah, I felt like crap the whole 5km. I walked for about 30 seconds on the way up the hill, and struggled to keep my legs going. When I finished the race I had to sit down and felt like puking and dying for about 15 minutes before I started to feel better. Weird.

Anyway, Leslie finished and I told her about my run and said that I hope I don't win a medal because I didn't feel like I ran a good race. I walked in a 5km run, I should not win, right? Wrong. We went inside just in time for the presentations and my age category. My official time was 21 m and 59 seconds and they announced third place at around 24 minutes and Leslie just bursts out laughing and says 'you are going to win'! Sure enough, I did.

Here are the numbers:

Time: 21 minutes 59 seconds (personal best)
Age Group: 1 out of ? (they don't post this?)
Males: 9 of 117
Overall: 16 of 347

I'll take it. Next goal though, sub 20 minutes! When? Hopefully, this year!

Sunday was an interesting day. I would like to call this 'Reverse Tri Day'. The morning started with another race here in Calgary, the Police Run. I decided to do this one too, but use it as a recovery run and enjoy running with a lot of people from the gym. The race went pretty good. They changed the course this year and it seemed like the llloooonnnnngggggeeesssssttttt out and back ever. Downhill first half, uphill second. It sucked. I was hoping to try and place in between 24 to 25 minutes for an easier tempo jog and I did pretty well as I was about 23 minutes 50 seconds. I felt pretty crappy again though, I don't know. Everyone from the gym did great too. Allan and Marc finished their first races ever, Sharlene was close to a PB on a tough run, Peggy finished strong from just getting back from holidays, and Shauna and Monique had more fun than anyone I think. I love group runs, so much excitement!

When we got home I crashed on the couch and Leslie was in the bed with Rexy for about 4 hours. All of us were OUT! When we got up Leslie and I jumped on the bikes and watched The Rock for over an hour. It was an easy spin to try and loosen up the legs a bit and so we wouldn't nap all night.

After a quick bite to eat it was off to the pool to meet Greg for a swim before he heads back out of town. We did a nice long warm up, some drills, then the main set was 3 x 500m with a 60 sec rest. Not too bad. The only problem was that the pool was freezing cold! I think I used more energy shivering than swimming. We did get a good 20 minutes in the hot tub after though!

Now I'm dead. Pooped. Everything hurts. Calves, quads, hamstrings, shoulders, back, triceps, abs, feet. You name it. Tomorrow I am going to relax. Maybe a easy bike ride to get some time under my belt, but that's about it!

Til' then....

G

Welcome home....

2009-04-24T01:43:00.003-06:00

Hey yo!

Guess what.... I got my computer back!

Today was a day of welcoming home some new faces to the house.

First off, my new screen in the computer. You have no idea how much it sucks without access to a computer for 3 weeks. I have so much work to catch up on!

Secondly, Rexy. Today was Rexy's big day with Dr. Sean the vet. This morning my poor little princess got spayed. Apparently, she was pretty excited to get to the vet clinic, and even more excited to leave. She did really well. Everything went fine, got some teeth pulled and an intestinal check up from the inside. She has been pretty groggy all night and is still feeling the effects of the morphine and sedatives but she is now sleeping comfortably in my spot on the bed. Boy, did I feel sorry for her though. She has just been knocked out since I got home after work. The good news is, she won't have to go through this again!

Third, the Green Dragon. It's finished. The other night I got decalling put on my kind of new bike. It looks pretty sweet. I'm excited to get it outside and see if it makes me faster! Check it out:

Before

After

There are a few more things I want to get done to it as well. I want to get some more relaxed aero bars that sit more horizontal rather than vertical, and I want to get black wheels to make the bike completely black and green. Both of which can wait!

This weekend we are off to Medicine Hat. The 5km Rattler Run is on Saturday morning and the Calgary Police 5km run is on Sunday morning both of which I am doing. I am going to run hard in Medicine Hat then use the Police 5km run as a recovery run with clients. Yes Marc, I am going to be on your ass screaming!

I hope everyone has an enjoyable weekend and I'll update with photos and a couple medals (hopefully) on Sunday!

Chad

My first Cochrane Hill ride!

2009-04-20T00:44:00.007-06:00

Well, well, well. I think I saw sunshine for a bit this last week. Allllllllmost summer. Let biking begin!

That is pretty much the jist of the last couple of weeks. Since we have been getting some nice weather I have been taking the bike to work for a good 12km ride each way. I know, nothing crazy, but have you tried biking through downtown Calgary in rush hour with clip ins? Not cool. Luckily I haven't been hit yet, actually, I haven't even had any close calls yet either. Don't jinx it.
The paths to work after I get out of downtown are alright, at best. Rutted pavement from tree roots underneath, a 20km / hour speed limit, and creeps along the river make up the worst parts. I'm actually surprised I haven't got a ticket yet. I hear the bylaw people are out and about. I would actually get two tickets, one for speeding, and one for no bell. Who actually puts a bell on a time trial bike anyway? More weight to carry, right? I'm pretty good about slowing down and letting people know I am passing, but that is still a ticket. How much is a no bell ticket? Anyone know?

As for Sunday, Leslie and I made our way to Rocky Ridge and biked out to Cochrane. It was windy. Really windy. We went through Cochrane, then turned North on the Horse Creek Road which is part of the Calgary Ironman bike course I'm doing in August. I wanted to check it out so we went a ways, turned and started home. The road is kind of shitty to say the least. Rough, dirty and hilly. I think next time we are going to do the whole loop backwards and end up a Ghost Lake where the swim will be. On the way home I got my first taste of climbing the Cochrane hill. It sucks. Enough said. I did do it seated the whole way, but got into my real easy gear pretty quickly. We cruised back into town with what was left of the dying wind at our backs going about 40km / hour. When we finished it was a 2 hour 39 minute ride, 64.36km, average speed 24.22km/hour with lots of climbing, and a max speed of 61.54 km/hour.

In the past 13 days, I have now rode my bike on 11 of them. I have done 10 hours and 39 minutes, so almost hitting about 1hour a day average! Not too bad for a newbie.

This weekend is going to be a busy one as well. I actually have two 5km races to run. On Saturday morning is the Rattler Run in Medicine Hat. We did this one last year and Leslie got a 3rd place medal so she was insistent on doing it again, which is fair, I would too! Sunday morning is the Calgary Police Half Marathon and 5km run. I have done this one for the last 4 years and like it. I will go hard in Medicine Hat, then use the Calgary one to recover and enjoy a jog with the 15 people from the gym that are doing it as well. Should be a good time!

Hopefully I will have my computer back soon as well then I can upload some pictures of my new bike and of some rides. I am still using Leslie's loner work one now!

L8R

Grizz.

Oh yeah, I get to ride by the zoo when I bike to work and see real grizzly bears on a regular basis. Kind of neat, huh?

Still No Computer!

2009-04-14T00:15:00.002-06:00

Hey everyone,

I know it's been a long time blogging but this one is not my fault, I swear! It's been two weeks since our computer broke and the place I took it to get it fixed hasn't even gave me a quote yet. I've even called and harassed them but still no news! Leslie so kindly brought her work computer home and I can get a quick one done here but the wireless signal sucks and keep fading in and out!

So, what's new? I have made the transition now from powerlifting to triathlon. Things are pretty good, and I'm enjoying it which I have never said about cardio at all in my life! I am still swimming regularly, tonight a 3000m swim in 1 hour 10 minutes. Lots of biking, 7 days in a row in fact, totalling over 5.5 hours. Running, well, it will come! I have two running races at the end of April then that Super Sprint triathlon on May 10.

As most of you probably know, I have decided to do a charity bike ride in July benefiting Prostate Cancer Research here in Calgary. I will be biking from Calgary to Prelate, Saskatchewan, 458 km in 3 days. I have made a new blog for the ride specifically you should check that out: www.458in3.blogspot.com . I hope to raise over $3,000 to benefit the cause. I won't talk much more about that since that is what the other blog is for!

In other news, the Red Baron (my bike) is no more. My awesome sponsor, Top Gun coatings has powder coated my bike for me! It is now called the Green Dragon! It's pretty neat! It is a nickle plating underneath with a lime green coat on top. When you take it outside, the nickle underneath shines through the green so it appears to sparkle! The best part is, it is a custom paint job, which means NO other bike in the world has this color. You can't even buy this color in a store if you wanted to! I'll get some pictures up when I get my computer back, but I still have some decaling to put on before it is complete!

I should go before the Internet cuts out again! I just wanted to let you all know things are great, summer is almost here, and life is good! Hope all your training is rockin' and most of all, I hope I get my computer back soon to get back to regular blogging!

Grizz

An Update from Chad!

2009-03-31T10:48:00.003-06:00

Hey blogees,

Leslie here for Chad just letting you know that our computer broke on Sunday night, so until we get it fixed there won't be too many posts coming from the Grizzmeister.

I am happy to report his training is going strong; swimming twice per week, biking a lot, and the running....well until it stops snowing there won't be much of that!

Hopefully we will be up and running soon!

Staying consistent!

2009-03-27T01:01:00.002-06:00

Hey blogees,

I am pleased to announce that everything is going...... just going, which is a good thing. It seems that I have been training pretty consistently with triathlon over the past few weeks.

Since the weather is almost dare I say, nice, I have found that I have been concentrating with a lot of cardio lately. On Monday, I biked with a client on the spin bikes for a good 55 minutes then feeling the weather I headed outside for a quick 15 minute transition run. I think last year in total I did 1 transition run, so I was pretty excited about it. I felt pretty well, the whole time and didn't seem to feel any jello leg syndrome from the biking right before hand. After work on Monday I headed to the pool to meet up with the swim club. As soon as I got in the water I felt like a lead weight. I made it about 25 minutes or so, then decided to cut my losses and headed to the hot tub to warm up, then to the weight room to get a short arm workout in.

Wednesday night was swimming again. This time as soon as I got in the water I felt good. We didn't do too much stuff, just some shorter faster sets and I am pleased to announce that I can ALMOST keep up with Leslie. Once the sets got longer than 150 m I started to fall off a bit but I am pretty happy about that anyway.

Thursday I got a quick ride in again at the gym. I did a 5 minute warm up, then 1 minute single leg with a 1 minute rest x 5 for each leg. I was telling Leslie about how dead my legs were after it and it turns out that I was pushing a little bit too hard for the single leg sets. Triathletes apparently have this thing called Max Aerobic Power in which you get the lactic acid build up in your legs but you can still filter it out. You're legs are burning but you can barely keep going. Correct me if I'm wrong! Anyway, that is what I was doing for my single leg stuff, which would signify why my legs felt like falling off after I finished the 30 minute ride. Oh well, after a couple of hours they loosened up, and are just tired now! What doesn't kill you makes you stronger! Right???

I hope tomorrow to get some strength training in. I have been feeling kind of weak and soft as of late, so I hope to get some heavier stuff tomorrow. I haven't decided what yet, but hopefully something. I also need to get my butt running a bit more as well. I just don't like treadmills and the weather doesn't seem to be on my side yet. One day, hopefully sooner than later!

Keep rockin'!!!

Grizzly G.

Busy week of exercise!

2009-03-23T01:05:00.003-06:00

Hey everyone,

I apologize for the long break between blogs, but I have just been busy with this cardio stuff. I should probably get a grip on it before I have to do all of those triathlons that I have signed up for!

It all started Sunday last week. We had day number two of rock climbing in the morning, then I headed out to Crossfield for a visit. We left Calgary and it was sunny with +8 temperature, get to Crossfield and it was -2 blowing wind and some light snow with lots of fog. I was pissed. Why, because I brought my bike with me for the first outdoor ride of the summer. I decided I didn't lag my bike out to sit there so I bundled up and headed out for a ride. I went 1 hour total, 25km, and only froze my neck and thumbs. Not bad. After dinner we headed right back into the city to get in a swim with the Late Night Club. Greg killed us and completed my climbing, biking, swimming night.

I rode the spin bikes at the gym on Monday, and Tuesday trying to loosen up my legs that were dead from the race, then Wednesday was swimming again. Thursday I went home and hopped on the bike at home inside for 25 minutes (on our new trainer!) and Friday was a day off. As was Saturday now that I think about it.

Sunday was our last session of climbing and because of the GIANT crappy weather storm, we only had 11 of the 21 climbers show up. We took advantage of it. We climbed a bit, then got to rappel off the top of the wall, and my personal favorite bouldering. Bouldering is like climbing but there are no harnesses or ropes. Instead of climbing up, you climb side to side following the paths they lay out on the wall. It was WAYYY harder than climbing, but more fun. I liked the stretching and lunging, and hanging by your arm stuff. Josh (a client) and I climbed a path that was tough. After we finished the instructor told us that the path was actually a 0 out of 15. That's right, 0 being the easiest and 15 being the hardest, this was a 0. WOW! My shoulders, fingers, quads, and arms are dead, from a 0!!!

Sunday night I headed to the pool early to get it done. There was a swim meet on, which sucked, so it was chaos all over. I did 3 sets of 500m and went faster on each one. I figured that was enough, since we are going to go again tomorrow night with the Late Night Swim Club.

Here are some pictures of climbing from the last couple of weeks!

Grizzle

Moonlight Run Results

2009-03-15T01:56:00.004-06:00

Hey!

We just got home from Lethbridge, it's 2 am. A pretty well done day, I should say!

We got to Lethbridge at about 4pm. We ended up taking Rexy since Nathan (my brother) and Tara (his girlfriend) had some urgent matters come up that they had to take care of. We picked up our race packages and headed out to Stirling (about 30 minutes South of Lethbridge) to meet our friends for a nice big supper and to see their new house. We ended up eating late and just sneaking out to make it to the race on time. Oops, almost late, not good!

The race went well. There were some problems though. The first one is that there were 1400 people racing in the 6km event. Fine and dandy. The problem is that every single slow or young person decided to line up right at the start. I was up there too and I nearly got DESTROYED by grandmas' running like gazelles. Once we got going things were tight. Too tight that I couldn't see what was in front of me and was jumping around to pass people. All of a sudden a giant sign pops up right in front of me at the last second. It was in the middle of the road and I think it was for traffic control but I didn't have a chance to read it as I SLAMMED right into it. It caught the corner of my leg, flipped me around and I fell on my back and rolled about 3 times over. I managed to get up and keep going but my leg was numb like somebody just gave me a huge charlie horse. Not cool. What the &$%# was there a sign doing in the middle of the course with 1400 people running at full speed down the coulee? I was a little angry to say the least. Thank you to the two people who did slow down to ask if I was ok, whoever you may be!

The rest of the race went well. Once I got to the bottom, people were already walking. The pathway narrowed and the walkers took over. It was like reverse bowling, try to get around the pins without knocking them over. I don't have a problem with walkers, but stay on the side and don't bunch up to chit chat on a tiny path in the dark!!! I might have cursed a few times. Sorry.

I passed probably a hundred people (not lying) and started up the hill. For some reason, it didn't feel as bad as I remember. All I said was 'you screwed up last year by letting yourself walk, don't do it again'. Before I knew it I was up and a short jog to the finish.

The numbers:

Total time: 28 minutes 57 seconds

Placing Age Group: 9 out of 45

Placing Gender: 64 out of 570

Placing Overall: 70 out of 1645

So, goals reached?

Goal #1: Win Medal. Nope. The last medal was awarded to 27 min 10 seconds. I missed it by 1 minute 47 seconds. If this was last year, I would have finished 3rd.

Goal #2: Under 31:25. YES! I was 2 minutes 28 seconds faster than last year, which is a big improvement for a 6km race. I didn't walk up the hill at all and I made it under my goal of 29 minutes.

Goal # 3: Get prizes. YES! I ended up coming home with an Asics back pack, an Asics hat, and a Runners Soul hat! None of which I stole from a kid, only an adult with slow reflexes. I almost had a gel too, but it bounced out of my hand!

The big achievements were also tackled by two others. Leslie set a new personal best in the 10km run with a 52:?? and Peggy my client also finished with a personal best for the 6km run. She finished 27 of 80 in her age category! Great work gals!!

When said and done. A good day. No medal, but hey, there is always next year!

My consolation prizes!

My battle wounds from the fall.

Grizz

Moonlight Run Goals

2009-03-13T23:37:00.002-06:00

Hey,

Alright, here are some goals for the race. I don't really do "I hope to try my hardest and really put forth a good effort" type of goals. I prefer numbers.

As coach Greg says you always go into a race with 3 goals. Best case, good case, and last case scenarios. Here they are:

1. Win a medal. Medals go five deep in each age category and I'm always within a couple minutes. I don't care what my time will be, just good enough for a medal!

2. Beat my last year time of 31:25. I walked up the hill on and off which cost me a medal. I was 9th in my age category and was out of 5th place medal standing by 1:05! A sub 29 minute run would make me happy!

3. Steal prizes from the kids! There are a lot of giveaways and last year we cleaned up. 2 hats, socks, and a thermos mug. I'll be happy to go home with something! I know, I'm a jerk.

Oh, the race plan. Gun goes off, I run, I hopefully don't fall over and die on the hill back up. That's pretty much it. I'm going to try and start closer to the front so I don't get stuck behind slow people, and I want to make sure I go slow enough to really push up the hill at the end where I probably lost a couple minutes last year. Also, don't puke. I was close with that last year too!

Talk to you soon!

Grizz

Ready to Run!

2009-03-12T00:13:00.002-06:00

Hey!

Well, it's almost here, the first race of the season. Saturday sure seems to be coming fast!

On Monday, I finally had enough of this cold weather crap and waiting for it to get warm and not slushy enough to run outside since I despise treadmills. Leslie and I headed down to Talisman and signed up on a couples membership. For both of us it worked out to only $20 more per month than we were paying already for the $5 drop ins every month. Good deal. Now we can go at any time, not just the last hour and a half, and I can finally get some running in not freezing my ass off.

Monday was also a pretty productive day workout wise. I did 45 minutes of a whole body program on my TRX training system in the afternoon, then had another hour off in the evening so I did a little more chest and back work in the free weight area. After signing up for our membership I did a 3 km run on the track, nice and easy, in 14:30 I think. I didn't want to do too much and push too hard since my running has been a little slack as of ohhhhhhh, the last 3 months but I did want to get a little in before the race on Saturday. I think I am going to try and get another short faster run in tomorrow night with some short sprints then that's it until race day.

Tuesday I was pretty sore from everything on Monday so I went out for a beer and watched hockey highlights after work since we don't have cable at the house any more.

Wednesday was a swim night. Greg was going to be late to the pool so he called and said get an endurance workout done. Long and slow. He mentioned 4 sets of 400 or 500, or 2 sets of 1000. I decided to do a set of 2000m instead. I feel a lot more confident about the half ironman in August if I know I can swim the 2km no problem. I felt pretty good tonight and my watch time was 3 minutes faster than the last time I did it, not to mention a few short stops for people in the lane, goggle empties, and a short chat with Darryl and Greg. All in all, it was probably about 5 minutes faster than last time which is good. I would rather be confident in my swim and worry about the other stuff like the ice lake on race day!

Things are well, except this stupid weather. It's safe to say, I'm ready for spring! I'll update before the race with some goals!

Grizz Flexarama

Rock Climbing, Day #1

2009-03-08T23:57:00.003-06:00

Hey!

So Sunday was the first of 3 indoor climbing sessions at The Crux Climbing and Bouldering here in Calgary. I organized a group of 21 people to take 3, 2 hour sessions for consecutive Sundays in March. Today was the first day and it was AWESOME!

We got there at about 9:45 am. The building doesn't open to the public until noon so we were the only ones in the facility. We spent about 45 minutes going over all the technical and safety stuff, then found partners and got to climb right away!

I started with Josh, one of my clients who already climbed before and boy was he good. We were only first supposed to go up about 10 feet to learn things but since Josh knew what he was doing, Steve, the instructor, said I could go as high as I wanted. I had never climbed before and made it up about 50 or 55 feet before I looked down. Holy crap, that is high. It was pretty challenging. Everything was hurting already, shoulders, arms, forearms, and mostly my fingertips!

Once I got down Josh went up and scaled up the wall even going over the part where the wall goes into the middle on a incline at the very top. I was much impressed! We all got a few climbs in before the 2 hours were up. I am super excited for next week. Steve said next week we get into climbing techniques and body positioning and some bouldering (which I had to ask is like climbing from one side of a cave to another on top, no ropes). On the third session, more climbing then repelling from the very top down. We got lots to look forward too! Everyone there seemed to enjoy it as well, so it will probably be something we do again in the next few months.

As for the rest of the week it was pretty uneventful. I slacked off and only made it for 2 swims and a run all week. I just can't seem to get over the motivation hump that I have hit with weights. I'm excited to lift, but ready to go home when it's time to do it after work. Hopefully more next week.

Tonight the late night Legend Coaching Swim Club (what we call ourselves) met again. We were all pretty tired and unmotivated but having everyone there sure helped. We got lots of warm up done, drills, golf with all my 4 scores under 80 for the first time ever (78,77,78,76 - which is a new PB), then we got into the work. He wanted 4 x 100m building which means on each set you should be faster than the one before. I did 2:02, 1:57, 1:54, and 1:48 or something like that. Needless to say I did it right! Good things! Then we were supposed to do 4 x 200m build. I only made it through 3 of them before I ran out of time but my times were 4:38, 4:17, and then I'm VERY EXCITED to say a new personal best EVER at 3:50. My last one last week was my best before at 3:53. Every week is getting better. Greg said we are going to get under 3:30 by the time of the Super Sprint Tri in May! Top Gun Racing, Team Legend REPRESENT!!!

Other than that, we have our first running race of the year next weekend in Lethbridge. It is the Moonlight Run that we have done for the last 4 years. Last year was the first time I did the 6km race and that is what I am doing again. Am I ready? Nope. Not close. I have a funny feeling I am going to be one hurting unit come next Sunday morning climbing after the race on Saturday night! Hopefully I can get a couple light jogs in this week but the weather doesn't seem to be helping. More news and goals for the race to come this week!

Until then,

Grizzle

Saskatchewan is COOOOOLD.

2009-03-03T01:13:00.004-07:00

The last elevator standing. I believe (Dad correct me if I'm wrong) there were 7 elevators before.

Main Street Prelate! Those couple of parked cars in the distance is the bar!

Hey everyone!

WOW! What a weekend. I headed out east to bum-cheek Saskatchewan to visit my Grandma this weekend. Rexy, Dad and I left on Friday after I got off work. Leslie and Mom stayed home to get some alone, no responsibility time, to rest and recover. Little did we know, it was far from that.

So this was pretty much my first venture alone with Rexy, or any pet for that matter, ever in my life. I thought it would be good to get some alone time with Rexy so she would start listening to me instead of just eating me all the time. No sweat, one weekend!

We got to Prelate (about 1h 30m NE of Medicine Hat) at about 1am (with the time change). Rexy was her usual self, chewing, biting, jumping, running, and sorts. We went to bed and all was great.

Saturday morning Rexy would have NOTHING to do with her food, which is weird since she usually demolishes it. She wouldn't drink water, or even play around. Weird. All of a sudden she starts vomiting all over my 83 year old grandmas floor in the kitchen. What the %$^#? I had never seen a dog throw up, but it was huge, and like a rocket coming out! She ended up puking 3 times in a row, then two more later. I started getting worried, not having any idea what was going on. Not good. So I call Leslie.

It turns out that Leslie was missing one of her Nike socks and couldn't find it. I checked Rexy's kennel and sure enough there was a Nike sock covered in slime that she must have got out during the night. That dumb dog.

The rest of the day Rexy wouldn't do anything, eat anything or drink anything. I was worried but we decided to let her rest a bit and see. 10pm rolls around and she is still not looking so good, so I call Leslie to get a hold of the vet and he says get her back to a hospital as soon as possible.

We are in the middle of nowhere, at 10:30pm, it's minus 32 outside. We decided to wait out the night and if she was bad still in the morning we would go right away. It turns out Sunday morning she is back to the crazy, bad, hyper dog that I know. Since then she is completely fine. Man, I'll tell you, I was scared. What do you do in that situation. Driving that late, in the cold with all the deer and icy roads, it's almost too risky. But then again, you love your dog. Needless to say, it was quite the opposite of the relaxing weekend we planned.

Today I did my first outdoor run of the year. Well, now that I think about it, my first run of the year period. It went ok. I did a 40 minute out and back from the gym and the conditions were pretty bad. Snow, slush, mud, and ice pretty much sum it up. The route was really hilly too, which I didn't really enjoy, but considering the Moonlight Run is only in a week and a half, I better get some practice it.

Tonight I went swimming to make up for the missed one last night as we drove home. I was there by myself again, and late again too so I had to squeeze it all in. Here is what I did.

200m warm up
6 x 50m @ 90% with a 20s rest
6 x 100m @ race pace with a 30s rest
4 x 50m @ 95% with a 20s rest
4 x 25m @ 100% with a 15s rest (the rest was supposed to be 30s but I messed up, oops)
100m cool down.

It was short speed work, and boy was it tough. Everything hurt at the end, and I was breathing like I was climbing Everest with no oxygen. WOW! I am happy to report that I did get all the stuff done that Greg told me to do while he was gone in Hawaii!!! Whoo hoo!!!

All right, this is getting long! I'm out!

Grizzle Beast!

Swimmin' Solo

2009-02-26T00:31:00.002-07:00

Hi!

Well tonight was kind of a loner workout. I got caught at work late finishing paperwork and I was fearful that I was going to be 15 minutes late to meet everyone for swimming. As it turns out, Greg is in Hawaii, Leslie was sick, and Darryl has apparently caught the bug too. Talk about unmotivated to go swimming. Did I mention that it is -20 outside, plus a windchill. Well, I talked myself into it and I'm glad I did.

Tonight's agenda (from coach Iron Fist Greg in Hawaii), was 200 m warm up, 200 drills, then 5 x 300m sets with 45 second rest, and a 200 m cool down. As it turns out, when nobody is there you tend to, ahhhh, lets go with 'alter' the workout. Yes I did a warm up, maybe only 150 m. No I didn't do the drills, oops. What I did do though, is all 5 sets of the 300m swims, not even cheating on the rest. I was supposed to alternate without and with the pool boy (that's what apparently is correctly called the 'pull buoy' as I'm informed), which I also did. That thing is supposed to float between your legs lifting your body up so you can concentrate on stroke technique. Yes, it is supposed to make it easier. I HATE that friggin' thing. I think the majority of my muscle mass is in my ass and my legs since every time I use it I feel like I am drowning and barely moving. My shoulders feel like they are pulling a cement truck along the pool floor. I don't know how everybody likes them, I can't stand it!

Anyway, after my sets I started to cool down. I did half a length then looked at the clock and realized I still had 30 minutes left. Well, my cool down turned into a 200 m time trial!

The last time I did a 200 m test was about 2 months ago. I did my fastest one in 4 minutes and 38 seconds. For the super sprint triathlon in May, you have to tell them what your predicted time will be for the race. I figured if I tell them the truth I will be stuck in a lane with 8 people trying to get by them, so I might have fibbed a bit and told them my predicted time was 3:45 so I get to swim with faster people and let them worry about having to pass me! As it turns out my time tonight in the 200m was 3 minutes 53 seconds!!!! Holy cow, hey? That's almost 1/4 of my time gone in 2 months! I nearly fell over (maybe from the dizziness from jumping out of the pool) when I saw it! Now I have to get a hold of the race directors and tell them that I can swim in under 3:30! I was happy.

My shoulders are dead, my legs are beat, and my abs are cramping and sore from that TRX training system. I'm tired.

Take care everyone, and stop getting sick!!!!

Grizzly G

The big news....

2009-02-24T23:10:00.004-07:00

Hi!

So here is the big news. I wanted to keep it on the down low until I knew for sure but now it's official.........

Top Gun Coatings, a local powder coating company is my sponsor for the upcoming triathlon season!!! One of my clients at work (thanks Larry!) has offered to help cover some of the race costs for triathlons that I am competing in this summer! They have given me the green light to go and get some tri gear in which they will put their logo on if I wear it for the triathlon season! They sponsor race cars and I will be their first racer other than on the track, a proud member of Top Gun Racing I am!!!!!

It really blew me away when he offered. I have not even really done a triathlon before unless you count the super sprint and the team one last year and I have a sponsor already! How exciting! The more I think about it though, what better place is there to get your logo out there than at a triathlon. All the athletes, spectators, and locals will all see it, where else would you get more exposure in just a few hours!

I made sure to ask if there are any performance guarantees but thankfully he said no! First, last or in the middle is all good! Thanks again everyone at Top Gun, I look forward to be part of the team!

In other news, I got a new toy in the mail today. It is called the TRX training system. It is really interesting. It is two nylon bands that you can strap to anything and use them for a workout! I played around with it with some clients today at the gym and fooled around after myself with it and it is quite the challenge. Lots of stability, lots of core, lots of coordination and all body weight! The neat thing is it only takes a few seconds to put up so you can use it anywhere from home to parks and in the gym. I'm excited to learn to use it better, it will be a good tool in the old tool box I'm sure!

BYE!

Grizzle

Bring on summer!

2009-02-20T00:23:00.002-07:00

So, I am sick of winter. I am sick of snow. I am sick of cold. I'm ready for summer. When it started snowing today, I'm not going to lie, I got kind of disappointed. I want it to be light out until later at night, with warm weather and not a cold truck! I think Rexy would agree!

Well, besides that, what's up? We got home from Edmonton Monday night. It was a short, long weekend. Time just seems to fly up there. We got in lots of visiting, lots of food, and I even got lost on a walk with Rexy. We ended up in some random neighbourhood and I didn't bring my cell phone or money to make a call so Rexy and I ended up wandering around Sherwood Park for a while. Nice town!

Tuesday I got squats done early in the day. I had a client who didn't make it in so I took advantage of it. I built up to my working sets of 235 lbs for 4 sets of 5 reps. No belt or spot, and pretty comfortable. In my last 12 week power program I did, this workout was equivalent to week number 4 so I'm getting back up there. Next week I will do 4 sets of 4 reps with 250lbs.

Wednesday after work I headed to the pool. We didn't get to the pool in Edmonton so that week without swimming I knew was going to get me. So my excited surprise it was time trial night. Pretty much what that means is that you do a certain length (in this case 500m) as fast as you can. It was the first one I ever did so I took it pretty easy, had one stop for leaking goggles and I finished in 11 m 26 s. I was kind of hoping for 10 minutes or so but hey, this is a benchmark for next time right? I am going swimming on Friday after work again so I think I am going to try it again, I know I can do a bit better!

The only other interesting news from swimming is that we had to do 4 lengths of 25 m at 95-100% as hard as we could. I challenged Leslie to a race and sure enough, I DESTROYED her! She claims I was only a arm length ahead of her but I was standing at the end of the pool waiting for her to finish!!!! Ha ha ha. I'm sure she will comment on this, and tell you it's not true, but really who are going to believe????????ME!

Thursday I had a few cancellations again at work. I managed to get two workouts in. In the afternoon I did some benching. 5 working sets of 155 lbs with 6,6,5,5,5 reps. I did some shoulders and triceps to finish. My later workout I got my back and forearms done. I want to get my deadlifting done in the afternoon tomorrow so I thought it would be good to get this out of the way now. My back is sure a lot weaker than the rest of my body. I need to start getting it more regularly and intenser in the next while!

I got some other big news lingering on the horizon but I don't want to make it official yet. That is how I am going to end this blog, with built up excitement for the next one!!!

Soon.....

Grizzle

I'm bad with peer pressure.

2009-02-16T23:31:00.002-07:00

Ok. I did it. I am now officially signed up for Ironman 70.3 Calgary Triathlon on August 02, 2009 at 7:00am. Ouch. What have I done?

Hhhhmmmmm. No turning back now!

I'll update a bigger one soon!

Grizz

No Greg, I haven't signed up yet!

2009-02-12T01:14:00.002-07:00

Hey!

So now that I can officially swim the Ironman distance of 3.8 km non-stop, I am starting to get a lot heat from a few people (GREG! LESLIE! DARRYL!) about signing up for the Calgary 70.3 Ironman in August. Greg keeps checking this every day to see if I have posted about signing up yet. No Greg, not yet!

So why not you ask. Hhhhmmm. I don't really know. First of all, it costs $250 to register. That is a hitch for my truck, or a bike rack, or Rexy's spay bill in a month or so. That seems like a lot of money to do cardio for 6 hours straight. Secondly, even though I can swim, why would I want to? Ghost lake is apparently freezing cold. I hate early mornings as it is, let alone jumping in a freezing cold lake at 7 am???? Thirdly, I don't think that I can commit to the training for it. The best way to hurt yourself is to do something like this without being properly prepared. I know that I can swim for 2km, and bike for 90km and run for 21 km but I don't know how I would do all three of them without having some structure in the months leading up to it. I'm sure I'll continue swimming in the summer, biking with Leslie on weekends and running a couple times during the week (especially since I am going to do the marathon in September), but I am not entirely convinced that this is the way to approach a 6 hour race?

So needless to say, I haven't signed up. Will I? I'm sure I'll probably cave into it sometime. If not this one, there are others as well. I hear Sylvan Lake Half Iron is going to be kind of exciting this year!

What else is going on? Things at work have kind of being stressful as of late. There has been a lot of stuff weighing on my mind so that is keeping me tired, not to mention it's pretty busy still too. I still managed to get some squatting done on Monday, 225 lbs for 5 working sets of 5 reps. Pretty comfortable too. I again tried to limit the rest and keep things going a little more up tempo. Monday night I swam with everyone, since we missed it on Sunday night. I had a pretty crappy swim. I just felt dead and everything was sore and cramping (maybe from squatting???). Probably, hey? I copped out early and went and sat in the hot tub to at least enjoy my time there so I would be ready for the next swim.

That next swim was tonight. I felt great. I set a new personal best in golf again, 78 total. I think it was 31 strokes and 47 seconds for the 50 m swim. Greg said he could only get a 77 tonight so I'm sure coming along (on a good day anyway). I had to make a little run for the men's room after the warm ups so I ended up staying in the pool late after everyone was finished to make sure I finished everything as well. We did 10 lengths of 100m with a 25-30 second rest in between, then 2 sets of 5, 50 m lengths with a 10-15 second rest in between. Not so bad to be honest. I kind of expected it to be harder. Greg watched me for a length or two and said that I look great and my technique is really good. It was nice to hear, after the long, tiring day I had! Thanks Greg!

I plan on getting in some bench and deadlifts tomorrow night after work. I haven't got my weekly tan in yet either so I'll hopefully squeeze that in after as well.

This weekend we are headed up to Edmonton to visit Leslie's family. If I don't update before then, happy Family Day everyone!

Grizz

Working out well!

2009-02-05T00:33:00.003-07:00

Haaaaaaaaalo!

Well Greg and Allan. You will both be happy to know that my triceps / shoulders / and pecs are dead. Yep, toast. Kind of more like burnt toast. Just done.

Monday night after work I got some squatting done. It went pretty well. My old workout buddy Colin showed up and we worked together. I got done a few warm up sets then into the working sets of 215 lbs for 5 sets of 5 reps. Pretty clean. A little bit wobbly on a few of them but none the less a big step above last week for sure. I have found that I have been thinking so much about technique that I almost have over taught myself what to do. I noticed that I had been really off balance as of late and couldn't figure out why. I attributed it to a weak core from lack of serious training lately and kept going. Guess what, that's not it. I actually have started sitting so far back on my heels during squats that I was losing my balance. For the last couple of squat workouts I concentrated on shifting a tiny bit forward, still keeping pressure on the heels but keeping more surface area of my foot on the ground tight. It seems to be working. It's funny how you can almost get too perfect sometimes, hey?

Tuesday night I benched. Allan was there and as always things seem to get tougher when he's around. Not that I'm complaining but it's kind of like a kick in the pants. He doesn't really have to say or do anything in particular, but it's tougher. Anyway, I stuck to 135 lbs since I hadn't benched in a few weeks and shot for 5 working sets of 8 reps. I think I got them all except on the last set I missed 1 rep (or 2?), I can't remember. I will do it again hopefully at the end of the week with some technique adjustments and see what happens.

Tonight was swim night with Greg, Darryl, and Leslie. FINALLY after everyone got ready (slackers) we got into the pool. We did a couple hundred meter warm up then 4, 50 m lengths of golf. I'm happy to report I've figured out the secret to golf. Only take as much strokes as absolutely necessary to keep your pace. When I started golfing (in the pool) my scores were upwards of 100 and tonight I got a new personal best of 79! Greg and Darryl are in low 70's and high 60's so I still got some to go, but it's a lot better than 100!

After golfing we got into the main sets. We did one set of 50, then 100, 150, 200, and 250 m. Then we worked all the way back down again. It was tough. I was pretty pooped by the end of it but I managed to only finish about 10 minutes or so after everybody else! Ya me! I'm starting to be able to hold my own with these guys/girl. Another year or so and I'll be right there with them! Well, hopefully anyway.

That brings me to know. Dead arms. Sore shoulders. Tired legs.

Good night!

Grizzle Flex

Iron Chad!

2009-02-02T01:55:00.002-07:00

It all started after I swam the 2000 m non-stop a few weeks ago. I got home and told Leslie that I did it and it went really well, and I thought I could do the full Ironman swim of 3800m non-stop. Leslie responded by saying that 2000 is a lot different than 3800m. Being a little bit stubborn, and maybe a bit competitive, I took it as her saying that just because I did 2000m I couldn't do 3800m. She might of called me a 'goggle waste' in there too, even though she claims I called myself that!

There it was a challenge, with myself. Since then I have been itching to give it a shot. Two problems though. Number one, I know it would take me longer than a hour and a half to swim it, therefore I would have to go to the pool and cough up the $12.50 drop in fee rather than the $5 I usually pay for the last hour and a half. Secondly, when would I ever feel like swimming for that long?

On Saturday afternoon Leslie got home from her haircut and told me she was going to hop on the bike for a 1 hour 40 minute ride. I had already taken Rexy to the off leash park, watched some tv and was kind of getting bored and didn't feel like sitting around anymore. Off to the pool I go.

I jumped in. No warm up. I thought to myself, now or never, you already paid the $12.50 cheap ass, take advantage of it. I started swimming. 3.8 km is equal to 152 lengths in a 25 m pool, so I decided to count up. By the time I got to 52 lengths I felt great, already 1/3 done, no problem! I kept going.

I found counting up kind of was getting boring so at 100 left I decided to count down. 90, 80, 70 left. It kept going, then BAM! Leslie told me that at about 2.5 km things start to suck. Boy was she right. I remember thinking at 41 lengths left that I would never finish. My arms started to get so heavy that I really wasn't even lifting them out of the water and I started flopping around with my body and legs. Kept going though.

I had a little voice in my head, it kind of reminded me of this Iron Fist triathlon coach I know. It kept saying 'efficiency, efficiency, efficiency'. I tried to keep everything in the proper places, controlled my flapping legs and tried to keep my elbows high out of the water. Before I knew it I had only 10 lengths left.

I won't lie, those 10 lengths felt like FOREVER! I am happy to report though, 1 hour and 36 minutes after I started, I completed 3.8 km, an official Ironman race distance swim, non-stop! Wasting no time I hopped out of the pool, so dizzy that I nearly fell over from the vertigo of being horizontal the whole time. Strait to the hot tub.

I think I sat in the hot tub barely keeping my head up and eyes open for a good 20 minutes or more (I'm still kind of woozy at this point). I finally started feeling human again then showered and headed home, a champion!!!!!!

Whoa, that was tough! I can't fathom that you still have to hop on a bike for a good 5 or 6 hours after, then run a good 5 hours after that. Mind you, that is what I said about the swim a mere three months ago when I couldn't even swim to the other end of the pool, ONCE! I've come a long way, and I'm pretty excited about that! Thanks Greg! What really boggled my brain, is that I asked Leslie (pro swimmer) how many times she has swam 3.8 km and she told me only once, in Ironman Canada last year! As for my time, I'm pretty happy with it. Leslie was about 1 hour 20 minutes last year and Greg and Darryl were just under a hour and 10 minutes I believe (sorry, if I'm wrong!). The cut off time for Ironman Canada is something like 2 1/2 hours, so I for sure would have made that!

All in all, not a bad day. My neck hurt later, I had a bad headache that night, and I was so tired I could barely function for the rest of the night, but Sunday I felt fine!

With a strong desire, coupled with commitment, you CAN achieve anything! From 0 km to 3.8 km in 3 months. I hope this inspires all of you as much as it did myself!

1/3 Iron Grizz

Lots of news....

2009-01-28T01:04:00.003-07:00

Hey!

Where do I start.......

All right first and most important, workouts. I am feeling pretty good this week, still hacking ever so often for a fit, but not too bad at all. Sunday night I hit the pool with Darryl and Leslie. I wasn't great yet, so I stuck to doing sets of 100m trying to work on some technique things. At the end of the workout I tried a 200m (race distance) time trial to see how I was sitting. Last time I did it (in a 25 m pool) I was hitting about 4 minutes 45 seconds, and Sunday night in the 50 m pool (which is slower apparently) I hit 4 minutes and 30 seconds on the nose. Not too bad. I am still about 45 seconds slower than I want but I still have 4 months too. I figure 10 seconds per month is pretty achievable!

I didn't lift weights on Monday, since I had a pretty long day but I did hit squats tonight. After my warm ups I did 5 working sets of 195 lbs for 6 reps, trying to limit the rest in between. That is the same weight I did 2 weeks ago before my little lung issue, so I'm happy to say it's on the way back up! Next week I'm going to push for sure over 200lbs still maintaining a six rep max. I followed with 5 sets of lying leg curls, some shoulder and chest work and forearms to finish up.

In other news, I received my learn to speak German kit in the mail today. I have been playing around with the cd rom a little tonight and truthfully, it looks tough! I did tell my German speaking Grandma on the weekend that next time I called I would talk some German to her. Uh oh!

Ohhh, what else? I booked some holidays for the summer. In June Leslie, Rexy, and I are heading down to Boise, Idaho for a Ironman 70.3 (half) race. I was booking accommodations on the weekend and noticed that Yellowstone National Park is only about and hour out of our way. I figured since we were there, we might as well stop by. I booked a Kamping Kabin at KOA for 2 nights to visit the park then we are going to spend 4 nights at a KOA outside Boise in a Kabin as well! It's about half the price of a hotel room and you bring your own linens but it has a fridge and stove in it too. It will be perfect for us usual tenting folk!

I also added a few links to my link list. One is a blog for our trip to Cozumel in November. I will be updating that one along with the other people going throughout the year. It will talk about where we are going, our plans and of course all the race news from Ironman Cozumel on November 29. The other links are blogs for other people, one is a client of mine Marc (who only talks great things about me!), one is Leslie's little sister Amber up in the Yukon, and the other is Stacey who is a member at the gym and an avid Rider fan! Do check them out if you get a few minutes!

The only other news is that Rexy continues to be a monster! We think one of her teeth fell out, which hopefully means she will stop eating us soon!! She is doing well otherwise. She is putting on about 1kg per week and as of Friday last week officially passed the 25 lbs mark. Still cute as ever though!!!

Be strong!

Grizz

Dead lungs....

2009-01-22T01:29:00.004-07:00

Hey,

Yeah, I'm sick. I woke up on Saturday for Chad and Dad day (I'll get to that later) and I felt like I had a sore throat. I shrug it off, and keep going. It turns out, I still have a sore throat and the matching dry, hacking deep lung cough as well.

Needless to say, there hasn't been much exercise this week. By much, I actually mean none. It sucks. I felt great the last couple of weeks fitting in all my power training and swimming then this hits. I hate January. The good news is I am feeling better today so hopefully after work on Friday I can get a workout in of something!

Like I said before, Saturday was Chad and Dad day. It turns out that dads are hard to buy presents for, mostly because everything they need they just go out and buy it for themselves. This year for Christmas I gave Dad a whole day of activities to do together rather than a physical present.

The day started out at the Aerospace Museum for a guided tour with Allan (in which I owe him HUGE for!). My dad is a big World War buff so this was perfect for him. We planned on spending 3 hours there but didn't end up getting out of there until 4 1/2 hours later! I think we spent about an hour alone playing in the cockpit of the Lancaster Bomber! My brother, Nathan, came along too, so we had some great bonding time, us boys!

After the museum, I took him to Princess Auto with some money to spend. He ended up getting himself a tow rope and some other gadgets. From there, we headed to the Keg for a steak supper. I love the Keg! We had some good conversation and a great meal!

The casino followed the Keg since we had about an hour to kill until we headed to the movie theatre to see Valkrie. It is the Tom Cruise movie about the attempted assassination of Hitler in WWII, so I figured it fit the whole 'war' theme day pretty well. We both had a little snooze in the slow part of the movie but it turned out to be pretty good.

We met Mom and Leslie after for a quick drink, before we split up and headed our own ways, which seemed kind of odd considering we spent about 14 hours together!! All in all, it was a good day, and I'm sure he'll remember it longer than some useless present I would have got him in the other case! Merry Christmas Dad!!!!!

Have a great day everybody!

Grizzster

A dog's thoughts!

2009-01-15T00:24:00.003-07:00

Hey!

On Monday night I was playing fetch with Rexy in the living room. She would chase down her little soccer ball with strings, attack it, then bring it back to me running full tilt with a lunge into me at the end. She was doing great, but I got bored so I figured I would add a little bit to the mix. I threw her yellow tennis ball one while she was running back to me and all of a sudden, a dead stop. She stood there staring at it, not knowing which one to get. She ran back over and tried to get both, unsuccessfully. After about 10 minutes I increased it to 3 toys.....hhhmmmm. She would stand there for 5 minutes strait, start bringing one back, turn around get a different one, turn around, and so on. It was really interesting to watch her think about this. It was probably the biggest decision of her little life!

So it kind of got me thinking and how I am in the exact same boat with triathlon and powerlifting. I go really hard at one, then fall off track, switch, go hard with the other, then switch back. Just like Rexy, I can't juggle two at once and I know that, but how and when do I choose which one to train for at that time. I love lifting, and I am starting to enjoy triathlon the better I get at it. How can I take a bite at both? I want to squat 4 plates, but I also want to win my super sprint triathlon. Thanks Rexy, you really made me ponder!

In other news training, for both, is going pretty good. By pretty good, I mean I am getting back at it, regularly. On Monday, I had a solid night of squatting, Tuesday was bench press, then tonight I got to the pool for a long swim. I actually did 2,000 m tonight! The distance of a Half Ironman! I told coach Greg I would do 1500 for the first time (Olympic distance triathlon) but things were going well so I finished the Half Iron distance. My Olympic time was 36 m 04 s, and my Half Iron time was 48m 51 s. Yes folks, I swam for almost 50 minutes non-stop! What a difference from the 25 meters I could only do before!!! My shoulders are pretty dead though, maybe from benching or from swimming, I don't know! Maybe both!

Leslie just dumped Rexy on me to watch, gotta go!

Grizz!

Good Training Week!

2009-01-08T23:32:00.002-07:00

Hey!

So I finally seem to be back on track. Workouts are happening this week which is good. Even though I am so tired, I feel really good to get back in the groove!

I had big plans on Monday for a good squat workout. I was changed, about to head out of the staff room to meet Allan, when I checked my cell phone. Poor Leslie was at home throwing up and Rexy seemed to want to play! So, out of my workout clothes and home I went to rescue Leslie and give her some private puke time. She seemed to have gotten food poisoning from salmon she ate at the Keg on Sunday, but I'm happy to report is feeling better now!

Tuesday night I made up for the lack of squats on Monday. Allan was there again, so I worked my way up to working sets of 195 lbs. I did 4 sets, hitting 6 reps on all except set number 3, which was 5. It was really hard. My hamstrings were not very happy about half way through and my balance and foot position seemed off the whole time too. I guess that's what happens when you don't squat for over a month, huh? I finished with some leg curls then about 15 minutes of 'playing' on the ball trying to find that stability again.

Wednesday turned out to be a wacky day. I had a client at noon, then all my clients until 7pm cancelled! I had 6 hours at the gym to do........... bench press! I got benching done during the afternoon and did some lighter shoulder and triceps work as well. Lighter because after work at 9pm was swimming. I met Darryl at the pool (coach Greg blew us off, for another athlete:)!!) and we swam for a good hour. I repeated the 100,200,300,400,300,200,100 workout I did on Sunday and felt a lot better doing it too!

Tonight I came home after work to relax for a night. I had a full day of 8 clients non-stop so I was pretty pooped when I got home. Rexy is in terror mode, so I finally shoved her in her kennel for a time out, hence, why I'm on the computer now.

The only other interesting news this week is that I signed up officially for the Splash, Pedal, and Gasp triathlon in Lethbridge on May 10 (sorry Mom, it's Mother's Day!). I had to write down my predicted swim time so I put 3:45 seconds for 200 m. I can't do it that fast yet (about 4:20) now, so I do have some work to do! There is only 1 other male in my age category so far, so I don't have to research opponents yet!

I plan to get deadlifts and back done on Friday night, then hopefully get outside for a first run of 2009, providing it is as nice outside as they predict!

Have a great Friday!

Grizzster!

Funny Story!

2009-01-06T00:42:00.002-07:00

It's going to sound kind of weird, but I wore my underwear inside out and backwards all day today! They kept bugging me but I didn't even notice until 11pm tonight! What an idiot! I apologize if I offend you, but I thought it was funny!

Grizzidiot.

Back to the Grind!

2009-01-05T01:11:00.002-07:00

Hi Bloggers!

So, it's time. Work starts tomorrow. I'm kind of indifferent about it. I'm definitely not bored of sitting at home and watching movies all day, but I am tired of not being in a routine. It will be good to get back and get my habits back together.

I finally got my butt back into some exercise as well. Tonight Leslie, Greg, and I met up at the Talisman Center to go swimming. I ended up swimming for a good hour. I ended up doing 1700 meters total. I did a warm up set of 100 meters, then got into the main sets. I did another set of 100 m, then 200m then 300m, then 400m. After that I headed back down 300, 200, and 100m increasing the speed as I went down each step. It was pretty good. I could definitely tell I hadn't done it in a couple of weeks though, my shoulders, triceps and abs were burning! The only funny thing is, that every time I got back to the end of the pool, Leslie and Greg would be chatting. Hhhmmmmmm????

When I got home I hopped on the bike for a quick spin too. My legs were pretty tired right off the start, expected I guess. I did a 10 minute warm up then did:
1m @100RPM with equal rest x 3
45 seconds @110 RPM with equal rest x3
30 seconds @ 120 RPM with equal rest x 3

I did 1 set of a 15 second set @ 130 RPM but was done by that point. I finished with a 5 minute cool down and that was lots, I was tired.

Tomorrow should be a easier day at work, a few clients cancelled, so I am going to get my weights done after work for sure. I think I will do some lighter squats and benching but who knows, I'm so unstructured right now!

Happy New Year everyone, it's going to be a great year!

Grizzster

Lazin' around!

2008-12-30T23:02:00.003-07:00

Hey!

Well, Christmas is done, and I am in RELAX mode! I got home from my parents house on the 27th and haven't even started my truck up til now and don't plan to tomorrow either!

Christmas was well. We spent it at my parents house. Ate a lot, had some beer with dad, and mostly just layed around! I did get the absolute coolest present ever from my brother and Tara though, it's a bobblehead..... of ME! Since I collect bobbleheads they figured it would be good to have one of myself, so they took some pictures like 5 months ago, without me knowing, sent them to this company and the company made a bobblehead of me! Even the facial features are close, the only problem is I think they gave me a little too much muscle, and hair! Check it out:

I got home on the 27th and Rav, one of my clients, and I, went to the Senators / Flames games. It was pretty good, Rene Bourque got the hat trick that night so there was lots of energy in the Saddledome.

Since then I have done nothing. I'm not saying that I did nothing interesting, but I actually did nothing. I am not heading into work all week and I don't think I even wore more than my pj's for 2 days. We re-arranged the house and I have been watching tv and catching up with Rexy time. It's been great. Rexy is now nicknamed Monster but other than that it's been a lot of Cold Case Files and Lost! We have reservations at the Keg New Year's Eve for supper, after the Canada / USA world junior game, and nothing after that. It should be a light New Year's!

I do plan on swimming one day soon, maybe bike or run, but that is about it. I decided I want to watch ever single dvd I own before next Christmas so I will start with those at night. We probably have about 150 dvd's, so I gotta get going with those. Here is what I watched so far:

1. Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring

Hope everybody had a great Christmas and enjoy your safe New Year! I'll get some more interesting blogs in 2009, I promise!

Your very lazy trainer this week,

Chad

Christmas in the air!

2008-12-22T22:31:00.002-07:00

Hey everyone!

Yeah, I know, long time NOT blogging. It's just that time of year, things to do, people to see, dog to entertain! Most of which don't include much exercise at all!

As I write this right now, Rexy is chewing on the chair that I am sitting, nipping at my feet when she forgets what is what. She is doing pretty well, growing like a weed, and almost as annoying as some some days! I don't know how many of you know, but 2 weeks after we got her our landlord called and said that even though she said it was ok, we had to have condo board approval before we were allowed to have a pet in the building. If you know me, you know I get pretty anxious about stuff like that and it drives me crazy not knowing. So for the last 2 weeks I have wondering where we are going to live and what we can afford if we don't get approval. The good news is, tonight we got approval! Whew, one problem gone! We got her licence in the mail today too, which is also good! She has a vet appointment for her twelve week shots this week, then all should be settled down for a while with her!

Christmas is coming fast. I thought I would get ahead and get presents taken care of early this year, but as it turns out, I am going to be running around on Christmas eve, AGAIN! Typical guy, I guess. We headed up to Edmonton this past weekend to see Leslie's family, which was great! The roads were pretty brutal with this cold, but we did get lots of visiting done too!

As for workouts, it's been just swimming. Things with Greg on Wednesdays are advancing well, and a couple of weeks ago I went with Darryl on a Sunday and I did my time trials to see how fast my 2oo m was. Last year in the triathlon I did it in 6 minutes and 38 seconds, on that Sunday I averaged between 4.30 and 4.40. that is over 2 minutes off in 2 months! I want to get it down to about 3 minutes before May! Do-able, I think so!

I got a good week off of work next week, so it will be a good chance to relax. Not much plans for Christmas, just heading to my parents house for a good chunk of time. I am going to the Flames/Sens game on the 27th, and that is about it. I am fish sitting my cousins shark too, so that will keep me occupied!

Gotta go, Rexy is getting into something! Have a great Christmas!!!

The Grizzster!

Santa Shufflin' not in the snow!

2008-12-09T00:12:00.003-07:00

Hi!

The Santa Shuffle on Saturday was fantastic! It was one of the best organized races that I had ever done! The weather cooperated, there was lots of excitement, lots of festive cheer, and lots of food and entertainment after the race including free footlong subs from Subway! How can you go wrong??

Everybody from WOW! who participated did great and it was one heck of a holly jolly time! Good job gang!

As for myself, the race went well all things considered. I have been sick over the last few days so running was pretty much the last thing I felt like doing on Saturday morning. The weather was not cold but crisp, and I wore a festive race belt which had 2 battery packs attached with 3 AA batteries in each one (in which I stuffed down my pants for the run). I finished the race in 22 minutes and 50 seconds which is a new personal best for this guy! I was happy, my legs and my lungs were not. I'm excited to break that 2o minute barrier next year when all things are well! It was not a timed event so I don't know how I placed but there wasn't very many people at the finish line when I got there, maybe 6 or 8 people who were running ahead. I think I did alright. I'm happy!

The rest of the weekend included fighting the snow to get shopping done on Sunday. The good news is that nobody else really wanted to go out. I think I waited in line in Costco at 3 pm on Sunday for about 30 seconds. It was dead in all the stores! I love it!

Happy shopping, I like BIG presents by the way! :)

Grizzster

1000 meters, and no sleep!

2008-12-04T02:49:00.002-07:00

Hey!

Again, sorry for the lack of updating lately, but really nothing has happened unless you want to hear a blog about a dog!

Rexy is doing alright. She is really cute but not so much cuddly. She is teething apparently and likes to chew on everything from myself to the cage door on her kennel. She is either whining or chewing and that is about it. She just fell asleep now, so I got about 10 minutes until she wakes up to go for ANOTHER pee, either on the floor or outside, depending on how fast I move!

Needless to say, she has been a handful, especially in the mornings. I've been going to bed late and waking up early so I am pooped. I look forward to getting off work and heading home to try and relax for a bit befoe Leslie goes to bed and I am on dog duty. How long til she is done this phase????

On a training note, I did make it to the pool tonight to go swimming. Coach Greg didn't make it back from Montana in time to meet me so Darryl and I met up and went for a swim. The pool was so crowded and at one time there were about 8 people in our lane, 6 of them non-swimmers. Not cool. At least when I am the slowest one in the lane I get out of the way for others but not these, I actually ran into one of them who was walking in the middle of the lane!

The swim went pretty well. Instead of working on speed stuff, I did a nice long endurance swim to see how far I could go. I did about 600 m broken up into warm up stuff, then started the main set. My old record was 500 m and tonight I did the full 1000 m non-stop. That's right folks, 1km of swimming. That is 1/4 of an Ironman race. You triathletes are still crazy. I actually felt really well once I got in the groove, and felt like I could have done a lot more. I figured 1km was enough otherwise Iron Fist Greg might start to expect too much out of me next time!!!! :) For that comment, I will now be destroyed last week. Oh yeah, I also got my score down to 94 for golfing which is also a new personal best in the pool. All in all, things are going well.

As for weights, I plan to hit them soon. I find that I have a lot of other stuff on my mind and frankly just don't feel like being in the gym when I get off work. I think I just need a good kick in the pants!

Lastly, if I don't update before the weekend, I want to wish all my clients and members at the gym the best of luck in the Santa Shuffle 5km run we have this weekend at Eau Claire Market. It should be a good time and apparently the weather is supposed to get a little warmer!!

Back soon!

Grizzle

Crazy!

2008-11-26T01:44:00.003-07:00

Hey!

So the first few days of my life with a pet are sure turning out interesting. Right now, the dog is FINALLY sleeping, in her kennel. Thank you Leslie for bringing it to work today and tiring it out! Maybe I'll get some sleep tonight!

I had a client today tell me that raising a puppy is tougher than raising a kid. I believe her! The first day Rexy was great! Slept all day, was calm, only tinkled a moderate amount. Yesterday and today though, somebody switched my calm dog with psyco-excited dog??? It's nuts! The normal thing for it when I get home is go pee outside (or on the floor still once in a while), play with the 7,000 toys she already has in the last 3 days, then sleep and wake up half an hour later for a pee again. Repeat this cycle 12 times. Finally after that, it's go into the kennel she HATES, whimper all night long, driving me insane (and probably all the neighbors), then pee. Hhhhmmmmm. Today especially, it has turned into some crazy dog. It plays, and plays, then plays, and plays, and pees. I tried to keep it from napping since I got home after work to see if it would sleep more tonight and it seems to be working. She is in her kennel sleeping for now what has been 1h 30 mins! Whoo Hoooo!

I had never understood how somebody could love something that isn't a human. I have never had a pet and I didn't get that bond that pet owners share with their pets. Having Rexy though, I'm changed! I love this dog! All I think about at work all day is getting home to see her (and Leslie :) too). I can't wait to take it for a walk and play with it! It's amazing how you can go from liking animals to obsessively loving something so incredibly much in only 3 days! Unbelievable!

I hope everyone is having a great week as I am! Rexy is looking forward to meet all of you as soon as she gets her last shot on Friday morning!

Grizz

Early Christmas!

2008-11-23T00:47:00.004-07:00

So, it turns out that I am a spontaneous shopper. When I bought my truck, I woke up one morning and said 'I'm going to buy a truck today', then did. I did the same thing with a computer and my bike. Today, I had that feeling again. The real big problem is that Leslie did too!!!

Meet our new family member, REXY!

On our way to Spokane last month, Leslie put forth a convincing argument (with tears involved), that she wanted a dog. We have been dating for over 6 years now and she has been asking for about 5 of those. I kept saying no, but she got me good on that trip. Right after we got home, she started looking at breeders and breeds and we finally decided that we were going to get a Weimaraner, a German hunting dog bred for hunting wild boar and deer in the forests. It is considered to be a very prestigious dog and was once only for the higher class. Hitler actually had 2 of them. She found a breeder just east of Olds that had just had a litter and was going to have another litter in the spring. We decided to go out and take a look, meet the breeder, the mom and dad, and hopefully commit to a puppy in the spring or early summer.

Boy, did I learn my lesson. NEVER go to look at puppies unless you plan on taking one home!!!! We spent a hour or so playing around with them and chatting with the breeders, thoroughly convinced that this was the dog for us! As it turns out, they had one female puppy from the litter left and ready to go home. I was strong, said thank you and we headed to Olds to have lunch. Sometime during lunch, it turns out that we figured now was as good time as ever, made a call to the landlord for the ok, then called the breeder back. We were taking Rexy home today!

We ran to get a dog home thing (whatever they are called), some toys, money, and we were back at the breeders signing papers!! Whoaaaaaaaa! What just happened? I've never had a dog in my life, so to me I was kind of overwhelmed. Leslie was quite the opposite however, bouncing around, even shaking she was so excited! Soon enough we were headed home, with 7 week old Rexy on her lap!

I LOVE that dog!! It is sooooooo cute, and cuddly, and clumsy. It has spent the first half a day pretty much sleeping, but it did seem to start bouncing around after we got home from supper tonight with the family. It's pretty good so far, only 2 messes to clean up, no barks, and no hair around. It has however seemed to take quite an interest in my running shoes though. Uh oh. I can't wait to see how it goes tonight. We had it in it's kennel while we went for supper and it stumbled in, laid down and did not make one single peep! So far so good!!! I'm pretty excited, but I think my dad is more excited! He had the puppy stuffed in his coat the whole time at the breeders and I thought he was going to run away with it! I don't think he would have got far though, it's pretty flat east of Olds!

Leslie and I both have to work tomorrow, so it will be alone for a few hours. Leslie has been saying she is going to call in sick though for a little extra doggy time! She better not, I want the extra doggy time!

Have a good Sunday! Rexy looks forward to meeting all of you soon!!!

Grizz daddy

This last one is Rexy's mom, and probably what Rexy will look like in a year!

Keep on fighting!

2008-11-22T02:41:00.003-07:00

Hey everyone!

I just thought I would throw up a quick post. I've been having a rough week. Nothing serious, just one of those weeks where you kind of hit that imaginary wall.

I've been working quite a bit, and it just seemed to hit me this week mentally. I'm tired. I didn't workout at all, just swimming on Wednesday night and trying to push through it. I'm kind of disappointed, I had some good workouts last week, but it just didn't carry me through this week. I think a day of down time and it will come back!

I'll get a bigger update soon!

Have a great weekend!

Chad

Lovin' lifting

2008-11-14T23:42:00.002-07:00

Hey!

First of all, YEAHHHHHHH JASON!

My cousin is playing pro hockey down in Amarillo, Texas, for the Gorillas. Last weekend Jason got his first pro hat-trick getting three goals against Rapid City Rush. For his performance, he got nominated in the Central Hockey League weekly poll for outstanding performance. The poll ends on Monday, so you should go to this link and follow the directions to vote for him!!!!! Right on Jason!!!!! (I already tried, you can only vote once!).

http://www.amarillogorillas.com/news.php?id=84

So Allan was in the gym tonight and Jody at the front desk told him to have a good 'workout'. I was chatting with him and he told me not to workout, but to 'train'. First I was like 'OK???', then we got into the details about purposeful training compared to a leisurely workout. Here is the email he sent me when I got home.

You got me thinking…

- It is not a workout, it is training. Let the guys in the designer gym gear do a workout, you have a purpose.
- It will always be “only” so much weight. You are to be in command and the weight is just a number, it is your state of mind that will move it. It will never be TOO heavy and if it is just plain old heavy then that is OK as long as it is finished off by “but I am strong!” or a derivative of the same.
- A missed lift is OK provided you busted your gut trying to move it. It is the effort that builds a champion.
- It is all about the process, not the product. Look far enough ahead to fire yourself up but not so far ahead as to disregard the stones that you are setting in your foundation today.
- Focus perfectly on today’s training session. Stay in the moment for each exercise, each set, each rep, each individual movement that makes up that rep. If you don’t pay attention then your foundation will be weak and your beautiful house (of pain) will tumble like a deck of cards.
- SPORTS CLICHÉ ALERT!!! Practice doesn’t make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.
- “Can’t” is out…
- “I’ll try” is WAY out. “There is no try, only do.” I think some sage wise man once said that. OK, it was Yoda, but it still applies.
- Never be in awe of the weights that you lift. If you can pull 500 lbs then you should be able to pull 501. Everything you do is just another link in the chain.
- That said, be proud of your accomplishments. Very few people have the drive to do what you are doing.
- Look down upon those people. Well not really, but it is OK to feel superior about your lifts and compare yourself to the mere mortals who are breathing in your precious oxygen, provided the trash talk is kept inside and it is used to elevate yourself, not to demean others.

I’m sure there are more but this is where we will begin.

Allan

I love it! Awesome! What is the best about this is that it is not just about powerlifting, it can be applied to everything! Writing a test, triathlon, a job interview, and even everyday life. So many people are so worried about the outside, but this is more than that. It's deep. This is what makes you strong. This is what makes you fast. This is what makes you confident. This is when you accomplish things you never thought you could do. This is TRAINING! I don't know about the busting your gut part, Keith the strongman actually literally busted his gut and got a hernia from deadlifting, which didn't seem like much fun, but the good news is, hernia's can be repaired!!!!

The next heavy powerlifting cycle is going to start in January. We have been throwing ideas around and goals but never the less, I'm ready for it. I'm excited for it. I want to move MORE weight. It is looking like a 365 squat, 245 bench, and a 430-435 deadlift for a total of just under 1050 lbs! It's not for sure yet, but time to start thinking about it!!!

The workouts this week went pretty well too. I swam again on Wednesday with Greg, in which I was dead after. We played golf in the pool. You have to take the total number of strokes you take and the time it takes you to swim 50 m then add the two together for your 'score'. On the next set your score has to be lower than your previous set, making you more efficient. Either you swim the same speed with fewer strokes, or you swim faster with the same number of strokes. My score was 98 on the first one, then 99, then 100, then 102, and finally 106. Oops. It is supposed to get smaller, not bigger. Hhhmmm. Not very efficient! Greg was around the 77 and Darryl was around 82. I got work to do!

I benched on Thursday after work. I didn't have much time but managed to get in 5 working sets of 4 reps with 175 lbs. I did some shoulder press after then was out of time.

Tonight I deadlifted for the first time in about a month. I got up to 3 working sets of 3 reps with 315lbs and felt good. I followed with half deadlifts (rack pulls) after. Allan today did 4 reps with 425 lbs, so I bet you can't guess what I did? Ha ha ha, 4 reps with 435 lbs coach!!! Gotcha!!! I finished with some wide grip pulldowns and bent over rows!

I hope everyone has a great weekend, stay out of trouble and TRAIN strong!

Grizzly!

Big night bikin'

2008-11-12T02:02:00.003-07:00

Hey!

I was just down in our parking garage in the basement changing a headlight on my truck and cleaning it out. I went to go and put all the empty water bottles I collect in the backseat into the garbage can I have to take to recycling. The can was gone. Hhmmmm. Then I noticed, the 4 garbage bags full of empties were gone too. Double hmmmm. I found the can thrown into a corner completely empty. Get this, somebody stole my empties! I had probably about $20 down there waiting to be cashed in for Coronas in Mexico, now I don't. Doesn't that make you mad! Anyway, enough about that, I'm just happy they didn't break into my truck!

Since it was Remembrance Day today, I didn't have to go to work. It turned out to be quite a productive day, once I dragged myself out of bed, then off the couch. We got passport photos taken, got me a haircut and went to Crappy Tire to get some truck stuff and Christmas things.

The best part was the evening though. Iron Fist Greg has a group class of cycling every Tuesday and Thursday nights with all his clients and because I work every night I have never got to go. Since no work today, I headed to class with Leslie! All week Greg has been putting these evil little fears into my head about class and how much fun (??????) it is going to be. It turned out pretty well!

We started with a warm up, a nice easy spin until everybody got there and organized. That lasted about 25 minutes. The the real warm up began. He calls it a warm up but it was more like legs burning session because by this time on my own I am already off my bike! We did single leg stuff for about 6 sets (I think) with some light stuff in between. On the last 3 sets we did accelerations too, which is 15 seconds bringing your cadence (RPMs) up progressively so you reach about 90% as fast as you can go. Leslie's max was 152 RPM and I'd hate to rub it in (NOT!) but I got mine up to 154. Yeah, my legs were burning. By the end of this 'warm up' I think I had been on the bike for about 45 minutes and my ass hurt.

When we finished that we went into our 'working sets'. We did 2 minutes at 110 RPM, 2 minutes rest, then 2 minutes at 100 RPM, 2 minutes rest and completed that cycle 5 times. It was supposed to be an aerobic building day, but the way I was breathing, I don't quite think I was much in the aerobic zone, unless gasping for air and feeling the Subway I ate before coming back up counts! It actually got a bit easier as we went along. Whether it was just a good rhythm or lack of sensation in my legs from my sore ass / crotch. Either way I made it. I was drenched. Sweating like a pig I'll tell you, but it was fun. I would love to do this once or twice a week, I can only imagine how much it helps when it comes to summertime! Thanks Greg! Here are a couple pictures! Notice the sweat on the front of my hat on the first one!

Needless to say, since I knew I would be biking tonight I didn't lift weights at all on Monday. Instead I went to the pool and did a nice relaxed swim workout. I wanted to do a conditioning day, instead of the speed work Greg and I had been working on. I did my first 500 m non-stop set! It's really starting to come, but I find it so much harder to swim when I am by myself. Oh well, the super sprint triathlon next year won't be with friends, it will be on my own, better get used to it!

Have a great day everyone, I'm going to bed!

Grizz

Aches and Pains

2008-11-06T01:49:00.002-07:00

Hey everyone!

Sorry for the lack of blogging, but really I haven't done anything since the weekend!

So winter seems to be coming pretty quickly! Snow, cold, and overall tiredness are a good indicator! It turns out that over the last few days I have been pretty beat up. At the gym on Monday, with a client, I picked up a weight and my right shoulder started to throb. It was light, 15 lbs dumbell, but I just must have picked it up wrong. The pain went away on Tuesday morning, but then my right glute started to ache. This continued until today when I got to swimming. Weird. The funny thing is, I haven't done any thing since the weekend when I went for an hour jog on Saturday outside. I blame the weather. It's weird.

Tonight was swimming and Iron Fist Greg (freshly back from the 25 degree Florida) did his part in keeping my aches going. He was on a mission tonight! After a few warm up laps he decided since I can swim for more than 100m without dying now, that he would punish me for betting against his Philadelphia Eagles each week, (even though they keep winning!). We did 50m at 90% intensity, with about a 5 or 10 second break after, followed by 75 m easy. Then 50 hard and 50 easy. Then 25 hard, 25 easy. I was pooped. My abs were taking the grunt of it tonight, they were burning! After that we worked on some breathing stuff. Usually I take a breath on every second stroke, apparently not very efficient. So we tried every 3rd stroke. Alright, I managed. Then every 4th stroke, and finally every 5th stroke! That was hard. It turns out that the longer I wait to breath, the faster my arms turn over in the water! Who would have thought, huh? By that time it was 1500 m total, time for the hot tub!

The exciting news was, that Darryl, (www.runningman75.blogspot.com) another Ironman athlete from the gym, joined us tonight! It was Darryl's first swim since Ironman Canada in August, so he was dying too! I think he even managed to complain before I did! I think I complained more in total though! The only one missing from the party? You guessed it, Leslie! She was busy baking IFG Ironman cupcakes, sucking up so she doesn't have to swim for at least another month! She actually told me later that she kind of wished she had come!

Other than that, not too much new. We are heading up to Edmonton on the weekend to visit Leslie's family that we haven't seen in quite a while (oops) so that should be relaxing. Her Grandma loves to cook me Swedish meatballs so I'm sure I will come home with some leftovers! Man, I love those meatballs!

Talk to you soon! Stay warm!!

Grizzster

GO IRON FIST GO!

2008-10-31T23:18:00.002-06:00

Best of luck to Greg, who is competing in Ironman Florida Saturday morning! Finish strong dude, hammer that 9 hr 45 min goal!

If you are interested in watching how he does, go to www.ironmanlive.com. You can track him using his last name (Bradley) or his race number (498).

Chad

Yes, coaches, I'm still here!

2008-10-31T01:53:00.002-06:00

Hey everyone,

Since I don't see or talk to my coaches anymore, I figured I should let them know how I am doing!

Allan,

Things have been going alright. I benched tonight and everything seems to be on track. I pressed 195 lbs for a strong set of 2 reps, then a strong single with it to follow. My assistance work is going good, Shoulder presses I'm almost back up to 135 lbs, anterior raises 30lbs and dips I'm over 2 plates. My rotator cuff is getting stronger since I have been training it faithfully twice a week, and I don't feel pain or stiffness at all anymore!

As for squats, since missing 275 lbs for a double last week I haven't done it. My days are all messed up from running, so I need to do it on a day when my legs are not tired. Tomorrow night hopefully, I do have a 10 hour day with no breaks though. I'm going to get that 275 lbs then keep pushing up to 315 lbs, then pull it back down and clean up some technique stuff. I find my feet are getting wider and wider when I squat, which kind of feels weird. I think it might be the shoes, I just haven't felt 'comfortable' wearing them lately?

Deadlifts are not even existent. I haven't deadlifted for about a month, but I have been keeping up with my back assistance work. I find I just don't have the energy to do it. They make me so tired compared to squats and bench and I haven't got back on the deadlift wagon yet!

Greg,

Well, I hope you are enjoying Florida, although you might have been wishing you were up here for Wednesday night's swim! I chose to work on conditioning some more, since sprints are really that much fun! I destroyed that 250 m I did last week and did a comfortable 400 m! My total distance was 1500 m again, but I tried to do it in bigger sets of at least 100 - 200 m at a time. Yeah, I was tired after. I even managed to drag Leslie along, who offered congratulatory hi-fives after but it just wasn't the same (sorry Leslie!). I am happy she came though, I didn't feel like doing more than 100 m then she pushed me a little and I slammed out a 300m! Then a 400m! Thanks Leslie!

I have been running too. I am trying to catch up on one of my hilly interval workouts I missed last week because I was tired (or lazy). I am up to a level 14 on the treadmill with 1 minute jogs at 5.4 mph, and a 2 minute walk for a total of 21 minutes. It's kind of hard. I plan to get outside this weekend and do a nice easy long slow distance run, maybe a hour or a bit more.

Biking kind of sucks. Leslie tends to leave the indoor trainer in her car and at 1am in the morning I am in no mood to go out of my way to bike. I think for Christmas we are going to get a new trainer so at least we have one around all the time. Hopefully that helps with the biking frequency, or maybe I just need a new biking jersey!!!!!!!!!!! I bet Leslie doesn't think that's a good idea!

Alright, time to go, I still got work to do for tomorrow!

Grizz!

High Gravity Day

2008-10-27T00:58:00.002-06:00

So every good day, seems to have a bad day. Wednesday's swim was great, Friday's squats were not.

I finished work on Friday and was pretty tired, ready to go home. However, feeling guilty for missing squats this week I decided to stay and push through it. Everything went really well until I got up to my heavy set of 275 lbs for a set of 2 reps. The 245 I did before that for 3 reps was pretty light so I didn't expect too much trouble. Whoops. My first rep went well, then on my second, I didn't make it back up! I got caught at the bottom and with no spotters at the gym on a Friday night at 10pm, I had to bail on the bar and throw it backwards onto the rack. Not good.

I was fine, but I was pissed! Everything squat wise had been going so well, and 275 should have been a breeze but it wasn't. I went and did some leg curls after that but even those were heavy and not there either. Screw this, I said, headed to the treadmill for my hilly intervals for 20 minutes, and only made it threw 2 1/2 minutes of those before I went home.

Lesson learned. Listen to your body. Everybody has crappy workouts, and I understand that, but that doesn't mean I have to like it! I have done 2 running races in the last 2 weeks, and it's the end of the month which means paperwork and extra work, so that probably didn't help either. I will give my legs a few days rest, then I'm doing to do that workout again, and hammer it!

Thursday night was bench at the gym. This went good. I benched 185 lbs for a set of 3 reps, then 2 reps, then 1. It was pretty manageable weight. I got Leslie to spot for me, but didn't need it at all.

The weekend was pretty slack. I spent Saturday with my family while Leslie worked and got her hair done, then we all went out for supper and to Passchendaele the movie. It was a little too much love story, not enough guns, but historical interesting none the less. Sunday I went to work for 3 hours then found Leslie at home on the couch sick when I got back. We rented a movie and both of us slept through it until 9:30 pm.

Anybody who is interested as well, I am planning to take a whole giant group of people to participate in the Santa Shuffle Run on December 6th at Eau Claire Market. It is a 5km run, or 1km walk supporting the Salvation Army. I want to have about 30 people doing it, so strap on those toques and get training! Contact me if you are interested!

Grizz

High Buoyancy Day!

2008-10-23T00:16:00.002-06:00

It was just that kind of day today. Every once in a while when the Earth is perfectly at the right spot during it's orbit of the sun, the forces of Earth can act upon you in unprecedented ways. For example, ever so often at the gym on deadlift day usually, we experience high and low gravity days! Sometimes the weight just feels heavier because it is a low gravity day on Earth, and some days the weight seems really light because it is a high gravity day. As a powerlifter it is extremely important that you plan your workouts according to these days! Allan knows a lot about this, he works at the Aerospace Museum! Am I right, Allan? Tonight my friends was a high buoyancy day in the pool and I took advantage of it!

Fearing IFG would be angry because I almost beat his pace at the race on the weekend :), I was a little nervous about the swim. It turns out as soon as I got in the pool, I felt great! I told Greg after 2 warm up lengths that I felt really buoyant today! He thought I was crazy then asked what I wanted to work on (which was very nice of you, by the way, Greg). Speed or distance? I chose distance.

We started with my usually 10 warm up lengths of drills then headed into the working sets of 50m. We did 5, 50 meter lengths with only a 15 second rest after each. That was easy. Then we did 5 sets of 100m with a 30-40 second rest depending on how slow I was. That was alright. Then we decided to give it a shot and aim for 150 meters, marking the first time I would have done it. I got to the end of 150m, where Greg was waiting, then without resting I said "I'm doing 200!) then took off! All I heard was Greg yelling "Ya! That's what I'm talking about....... girgle, girgle, girgle." It was easy! That was the first time I did 200m non-stop, which is the distance of the triathlon next year!

I wasn't done yet though, it was too easy. We decided to try again, so off I go. At the end of the 200m this time, it still wasn't enough, so I did another 2 lengths for a total of 250m non-stop! I think I got 4 or 5 high fives from IFG when I finished! What a night!

I did a total of 60 lengths in the pool, for 1500 meters, the swim distance of an Olympic distance triathlon, which is also the most I have ever done! The weird thing. It still wasn't hard. I always had people tell me that one day with swimming, you just GET IT. I didn't believe them, but tonight I think I got it! It finally all seems to be coming together, and I'm even concentrating on stroke technique during the swim, just not trying to finish. Don't bother entering the super sprint in Lethbridge next year anyone, because I'm going to WIN!

Now typing, I'm tired though. So I'm going!

Grizz

Legs vs Lungs

2008-10-21T02:15:00.004-06:00

We did it! Gorillas we are!

The weekend was great! The Gorilla Run at the Calgary Zoo was this past weekend, and it was the second time that I have done this race. Last year, I ran the entire 16 km alone, but this year I thought it would be fun to bring along some clients to do it with me! We ended up having 4 teams of 3 people each in the race. Legend Leggers (Peter, Greg, and myself), Lucy's Legacy (Sharlene, Luanne, and Smirks), Pavement Pounders (Andre, Randy, and Marlene), and Bananabonanza (Terri, Shawna, and Peggy), all showed up bright and early Sunday morning to complete it!

The race started at the zoo and ran through the zoo for the first 3 km then around the zoo parking lot to complete the first 5.3km leg. The second leg started underneath Memorial Drive overpass and finished at the 10th st and Memorial intersection across from Julio Barros restaurant. The third leg crossed the 14th st bridge and ended up back at the zoo except at the south parking lot. The weather was cool before the sun came out, but once everybody got running it turned out to be perfect, until you stopped of course.

For Sharlene, Randy, Smirks, Andre, and Marlene, it was their first race ever and they all seemed to really enjoy it. I have been fielding questions since the race about when the next one is going to be already! Most of them haven't even been to sore, which make me feel pretty good, since it tells me I am doing my job as their trainer preparing them for such an event! I am so excited for all them and can't wait until we get to do it again, now that race season is pretty much finished!

As for myself, the race went pretty well. I ran the third leg of 5.9 km with Peter and IFG running the first and second legs respectively. I have had tired legs ever since the half marathon in Spokane last weekend, not to mention 245 lbs squats and back to back hilly intervals late in the week last week, but I was excited to run with everybody anyway. IFG was battling a little injury so he didn't end up dragging me along with him for my leg of the race, but I held my own pretty good. My time was 26 minutes and 38 seconds for the 6 km, which was just over 4m 30 seconds per km. I was pretty happy about that, but my legs were not. I have been pretty sore since the race, hamstrings especially. Greg was only running 15 seconds per km faster than me so I'm pretty excited about that. Granted he was hurt, and taking it easy, I'm still happy!

It sure is interesting how the different distances of race affect different parts of my body though. In the half marathon, the part that limited me was not my lungs but my legs. My hamstrings, calfs and quads were dead during the race, but my breathing was well controlled, not laboured. In this race though, my legs were great, but it was my lungs that sure were limiting me. I was breathing hard for about 4 out of the 6 km but managed to hold a constant pace. Legs vs lungs! What a difference!

Needless to say, I didn't workout on Monday night. I took the night off to get some rest and work done at home on the computer. I am going to try and bench press tomorrow night after my 11hr day at work, then Wednesday is swimming with Greg for the last time in a while before he heads out to Ironman Florida on the weekend.

I hope everyone had a great weekend, filled with LOTS of exercise just as we did!

Grizz Flex

Lots of Lifting!

2008-10-17T23:13:00.002-06:00

Well, Leslie is out with her friends and I have some time so I thought I would tell you about the day. Weights. That's about it.

I got to work at 11 for a client, then didn't have a client at 12 so squatting seemed like the only logical thing to do. Here's the sets:

135 x 8
155 x 7
185 x 6
205 x 5
225 x 4
245 x 3
245 x 2
245 x 1

followed by Lying Leg Curls

4 sets x 6 reps x 155

I kind of worked the rest of the day on and off, then after work did these:

Standing Overhead BB Press 4 x 6 x 105
Anterior DB Raise 4 x 6 x 25
Lateral DB Raise 4 x 6 x 20
Weighted Dips 4 x 5 x BW+90
Close Grip DB Press 4 x 6 x 50
High Row 4 x 6 x 180
Lat Pulldowns 4 x 6 x 140
Bent Over BB Row 4 x 6 x 115
Rotator Cuff External Rotation 3 x 15 x 2.5
Rotator Cuff Internal Rotation 3 x 15 x 7.5

After weights I got my second hilly interval workout done for the week. This week it was:

2 minutes at 3.0 mph, 1 minute at 5.2 mph, for a total of 21 minutes, all at an incline of 12.0 on the treadmill.

What a day, hey? That is about 3 hours of weights.

I also had a good conversation with Allan. He told me that when I peak in my squatting in a few weeks at 315 - 335 lbs, that no matter how much I do, he will do more! I thought I had him on this one because he is fighting through some injuries, and I could be stronger than him, but apparently not. One day, Allan, this lean mean squatting machine, will catch you on a really bad day!!!!!!!! I'm guessing not anytime soon though! I also saw him doing lying leg curls with 155 lbs, the same weight I did earlier today. Again, I thought I had him, until he told me he was doing 8 reps, and I was only doing 6 reps! Shit. Almost. I bet next week I bump up to 160 lbs, and he will do 165 lbs. I just can't win!

Anyway, those are my thoughts for the day!

Grizzster

Runnin' with the apes!

2008-10-17T00:53:00.002-06:00

YO!

First off, if you would like to see some pictures from Spokane, check out Leslie's blog, she posted some up there!

So, after a short week another busy weekend is upon us! This weekend is the Gorilla Run at the Calgary Zoo! It is a 16.5 km run, however, you can split it into teams of 3 people running about 5.5 km each. There are 12 of us running from WOW! and we split into teams so nobody has to run the full race unless they choose too! I'm happy about that, because I'm still sore from the run on Sunday in Spokane! I'm on a team with Peter, my 70 year old client, and coach Greg. Peter is running leg 1, Greg 2, and I'm going to finish. I was pretty excited about it until Greg told me at swimming last night that when he finishes leg 2, instead of getting a ride back to the start line with Leslie, he is going to run with me! Whoo hooo????? He told me he is going to push me all the way through it???? Yaaaaa????? I'm just kidding, I hope he can keep up to this machine I call the Grizz!

The rest of the week has been well. I didn't workout Tuesday, mostly because I couldn't function properly from being sore, and I also had a long day at work. Wednesday night was swim lessons with IFG in which I did a total of 1250 m. Yep, almost getting up to a half ironman swim which is 1900 m, I think. Too bad I have to take so many breaks in between though. I can't imagine doing all that straight, let alone the full Ironman swim. We are working on conditioning in the water now, and I'm pretty comfortable doing 100m without stopping. The only problem is he throws in these sprint lengths into it and I don't really get a chance to recover (ie, sit on the side of the pool and catch my breath), since I still have to keep swimming. He actually told me I am starting to look like a swimmer now! What a compliment, huh? Ah, Greg, you're too kind!

Tonight I had to work late so I only had a hour to workout. I decided to bench press, getting up to my working sets of 175 lbs, which felt pretty good. I had a spotter close just in case but didn't even remotely need it. My strength is coming back, it's all about consistency and technique! I finished the workout with my hilly 21 minute intervals on the treadmill which were kind of tough. I could still feel tiredness in my quads, but I made it through and actually felt better after.

Tomorrow, I have a break in the afternoon, so I think I am going to try and get my squats done then. When I get off at 9 I will do my assistance work for my shoulders and triceps which I missed today, and do one more hilly interval workout since I have to get done 2 each week and I don't want to have to do it on Saturday before the Gorilla Run Sunday morning!

Other than that, it's another week! I hope everybody had a fantastic Thanksgiving and that there was lots of left over turkey to bring me since we were in Spokane!

Have a great weekend, I'll update Sunday after the race!!

Grizz attack!

Final Results from Spokane!

2008-10-13T23:31:00.002-06:00

Hey!

We're home! We got here at about 8 pm, a 8 hour drive, with some stops.

The official results:

Myself, the Grizz - 1h 48 min 32 sec, 11 of 32 age group, 125 of 675 overall

Leslie, the Ironclad Terror (her new nickname I just made up) - 5 miles (8 km)
- 45 min 27 seconds, 7 of 15 age group, 93 of 242 overall

I'll get some pictures up tomorrow!

Chad

Spokane Half Marathon RR

2008-10-12T12:34:00.004-06:00

Hi guys,

If you are reading this, that means I survived the Half Marathon. It went well, 1 hour 48 minutes 33 seconds, on my watch, I don't know what the official time was. A little faster than we all thought hey? Not too shabby if I do say so myself!

We woke up this morning at 7:45 am. We got some food last night from the Perkins bakery for breakfast today, a monster of a apple cinnamon muffin, I believe it was. We were out the door by 8:10 am and found a parking lot a block away from the start of the race. Since we were early, we sat in the truck with the heat on for a good 15 minutes before getting out and to the start line.

I started 15 minutes before Leslie, and it was kind of weird. Half Marathon started heading west, and the 5 milers started heading east. Usually, it's the same course just with a earlier turn around. Not here. We ran through downtown with lots of turns and corners. There were some people out, a fraternity I think, with AC/DC cranked up, then around the corner was a huge church with the bells ringing and the pastor on the front steps waving and cheering to everyone. It was pretty cool this morning and there was ice on the road too. One lady biffed her good on the ice, then another ran into a raised manhole right beside me and tumbled too. Do people not pay attention with where they are running? Crazy?

As we made our way west of the city, things started to spread out a bit, and the first walkers I saw were at 2.5km in. We followed some rolling hills west of the city, then did a loop beside some Military cemetery with a big 9/11 memorial on it. The volunteers were great and the course was well marked which was reassuring from the crap yesterday. This is where the short steep hills were too, not bad, all my treadmill work might actually be helping. I ran up no problems, passing the gaspers.

After the loop it was a long gradual decline through some trees about 50 feet above the Spokane River. It was beautiful. You wouldn't get scenery like this in a Calgary race. At the bottom of the decline we crossed a bridge and there it was, doomsday hill. It actually looked as crappy as everybody said it did. I don't know the grade, but I would kind of compare it to the hill in Prince's Island Park beside the stairs and the curling rink. It was about 1/2 mile long and I ran up the entire thing, a little more trouble than the short ones but still felt ok.

After the hill it was back in the city as we ran through some neighbourhoods along the crest of the river valley. The route switched to gravel for the first time, which sucked, but there was only 3 miles left at this point. There were some little hills, but mostly flat for the trip back into the Riverfront Park in the city center.

How did I do? Not too bad. I tried as hard as I could to control my pace from the start. For the first 5km I tried to hold a 5.5 minute / km pace but kept speeding up. Once I hit 5 km, I let myself go faster and tried to stay right at 5 minute kms'. I lasted pretty much 10km at this then my plan was to go 4.5 minute kms' for the last 5km. I was dead. I tried to hold it as close as I could to 5 minutes but was more like 5m10s km's. Oh well. I did do the first 10kms in 50.5 minutes which is a new PB for me too, at a comfortable pace, not pushing. That makes me feel good. Leslie actually did a 10km run this year and beat my previous PB so it's good to have that record back, although it doesn't officially count because..... blah, blah, blah, you can ask her about it. It counts.

Would I do this run again. Hhhhmmmmmmmm, probably not. I like shirts and medals. The shirts were purple and there were no medals. The scenery was nice, but it was also pretty disorganized, and I'm kind of particular about details. There was a kind of unexciting finish line, which didn't really make me run hard to finish.

Would I have finished a marathon today? Hell, NO! I would have died! I definetly got some work to do!

Gotta shop!

Sub 2 Grizz

Busy day in the Valley

2008-10-12T00:02:00.003-06:00

What's going on Canada?

Is that dollar back to par yet, cause it's killing me! We actually have got so angry with trying to figure out prices that we just pretend now that it IS equal! This should be fun at the border on the way home! I can't complain too much though, gas was $2.99 per gallon on the way down, that is equal to 78.6 cents per gallon! That is half as expensive as Calgary was a couple weeks ago!

So, up and at 'em today! We were out of the hotel room for the continental breakfast by 9:40 and back to the room by 10am. After I got out of bed, again, and ready, we were at Gonzaga University by 11. We hit the Zag Shop and got some great stuff, then walked around campus for about 30 minutes or so. Compared to the Oregon schools, it's more like Oregon State. It's old. It reminded me of a dorm school from the early 1900's, kind of like the one in Dead Poet's Society.

After that we headed to Spokane Arena and picked up tickets for the Spokane Chiefs and Everett Silvertips game, in which we just got back from. It was neat. Seeing the same league in Canada is completely different. They have great arena, but not many fans, not even enough to remotely fill the lower bowl of the 'dome. I asked Leslie before the game who she was cheering for, and her response was 'Everett has better outlet malls!'. What a chick.

We picked up our race packages today as well. It was kind of a giant mess. There were lines of people in a crowded Safeway, and pretty much nobody knew what was going on. There was no race packages, only numbers with a box of cereal bars you could take 3 of????? Hhhhmmmmm? So far, not impressed. I asked about where to park downtown and a very unkind old lady told me on the street. Thanks. Helpful. There were no shirts, apparently we get them at the finish line too. It is sure different down here, I'll give them that!

We shopped all day at Northtown Mall to get that out of the way, so we don't have to head North again tomorrow after the run. Instead we are going to go East and hit the outlet mall in Post Falls, Idaho, along with Cabelas, Sport Authority, and Spokane Valley Mall.

Oh, and Dad, we did stop at Tomato Street Restaurant in Cour d'Alene on Friday night. You weren't lying, it was awesome! We are actually going to make it back there again tomorrow evening or on Monday on the way back home!

I will try to get some pictures up tomorrow, after the race, before we head out shopping. I also forgot to mention that Luanne got really sick on Thursday night before we left in the morning, so she didn't make the trip down with us, just Leslie and I are here!

I got to get to bed, big morning coming!

Grizzle

We are here!

2008-10-10T22:29:00.002-06:00

Hey, just thought I would let everyone know we are in our hotel in Spokane. We left just after 12pm and made it here by 9pm (including the time change!)

We made more than a few stops (Nanton, Fernie, Cranbrook, Boarder, Fred Meyer, Cour d'Alene), but we are here.

Race packages tomorrow and shopping. I'm going to see if we can get to see a Spokane Chiefs game too!

Will update tomorrow night!

Chad

Spokane Half Marathon Race Plan

2008-10-09T22:19:00.002-06:00

Hey,

I don't know if I would really call it a plan, but more of an idea of how to enjoy a half marathon. Most of you probably don't know this, but I have never actually ran a half marathon by myself. I'm always running with somebody, Leslie, clients, or a friend. I'm kind of excited. I figured why go to a race in Calgary and run along the bow river to turn around and run back along the Bow River which is what EVERY race is around here, when I can make it more exciting! Spokane seemed like the perfect choice. We headed through Spokane in the summer on the way back from Oregon and I liked it, but didn't get enough time there! The time of the race worked out well, and they had a shorter distance so recovering Leslie could participate as well.

The race route seems ok. Most of it is supposed to be through parks on pathways and there are only a few hills. Some short steep hills near the middle then a monster called Doomsday hill at about three quarters of the run. There are some long gradual down sections as well.

The best run for a half marathon is I think 2 hours and 10 minutes, give or take, but again this was the Peach City Half Marathon in Pentiction that I ran with Leslie in May 2006. I literally said 'hey, I should run a half marathon', then without training at all, I jogged along with her. I had no idea how to pace, breath, or even drink out of those little dixie cups while running without dumping it all over myself. The worst part about this race was that I couldn't walk for about a week after, it sucked. My calfs were so sore I had trouble hitting the gas pedal on the drive home.

So, what goals do I have on this race:
1. Under 2 hour finish, preferably under 1:55 would be great.
2. Run up all the hills, no walking.
3. Be able to move my limbs after the race, hopefully enough to get back to the hotel to shower

I have been doing more running, CONSISTENTLY for the last couple of months than I have ever done before. I kind of have a little structure in what I am doing, so I am fairly confident in a sub 2 hour race. The only things I worry about are the weather (they have been having some strong winds lately), nutrition (especially the night before), and what to wear. I know it sound kind of dumb, but I don't run enough outside to be able to gauge what clothing to wear in what temperatures. I know I love running with warm hands, so gloves are a must, but as for shorts or pants, or t-shirt vs technical shirt, I don't know. I guess the only way to find out is to try and see.

I imagine this will be the first half marathon of many to come in the next year if I plan on that marathon, so there is lots of time to play around!

Have a great Thanksgiving and wish me luck, although preparation I believe is more important than luck! Anyway, wish me a great race along with Leslie and Luanne who are doing the 5 mile run!

Oh yeah, I put the new poll up tonight! I like the idea that I stole from IFG's blog, thanks buddy! Take a guess, see if you know me well, a lot of you spend a lot of time with me!

Grizzly

My shoulders hurt.

2008-10-09T02:19:00.003-06:00

G'day blog fanatics!

So here is the thing. Tonight at swimming I swam a total of 40, 25m lengths in 50 minutes or so. If you add that up, it equals 1000m, yes sir, that is exactly 1km of swimming. My shoulders and arms are so tired and sore that I am having trouble keeping my hand on the mouse for this computer. Just dead, dead, dead. Thanks Greg, by the way!

So ready for the good stuff......

What I swam tonight, is only 25 % of an actual Ironman swim! 1/4! 0.25! A quarter! I took rests, a lot of easy lengths (and hard ones too, though), some chit chat, and I am DEAD! Does that put into perspective an Ironman swim or what!!! I did 1000, you need to do 3800 to finish just the swim! I'm babbling on about this, and I apologize, but holy crap, that is CRAZY! WOW! You Ironman athletes still continue to baffle me.

So, yeah. Swimming went well. We didn't do much drills tonight but IFG thought it would be fun to make me feel like crap. After 15 lengths of drills or so, we (by 'we' I mean HIM!), did 50 meter easy lengths with only 20 seconds rest after each one. We did 4 in a row, and I was sure I was going to die. Not easy. Then he smiles and tells me to do it again. Ha ha ha, really Greg, what are we actually doing next? Yep, we did it again. After that, it was easy for the first 25m then speeding up gradually for the second 25 m, with a 30 second rest. Multiply by 4. Finally, to finish, it was all out sprints for 25 m with a rest only as long as it took to swim the length (about 25 seconds). I was done. I could have fallen asleep in the hot tub, although I did have a great time bugging Greg that I was going to bet against his Philadelphia Eagles this weekend, win, and use that money to pay him! Ha ha ha! He responded with ' get ready for 2000 m next week'. Shit.

I brought our old camera to the pool tonight. It is supposed to be water proof so I thought a few action photos would be cool. It turns out that water proof actually means water resistant but I got a couple for you anyway!

Note the drag in my legs! I think I am trying to take a breath under water here too. Why? I don't know.

This is Iron Fist Greg. Not so mean looking when he is drowning underwater, hey? That picture is hilarious though! I love the crosseyes in the goggles and the air bubbles!!

Monday I squatted. I finally eased myself back up to 2 plate squats, 225 lbs for a set of 5, then 4, 3, 2, 1. It went well. I actually videotaped one of them but it takes too long for an impatient person to upload the video, so too bad guys. I am almost back up to where I left off for leg curls and I even got to teach Leslie Good Mornings too.

Tuesday I benched, 165 lbs for 5 reps. Everything still went well, and I'm excited to hit that marker of 185, a plate and a half, in a couple weeks. Shoulder Press, I'm back up to 100 lbs, dips at 2 plates around my waist, and close grip press I did sets with 55 lbs dumbells for 6 reps, no spot.

The other cardio this week as been well too. I did intervals last night on the hilly treadmill, bumping up the run times from 30s to 1 m. It was still pretty easy, which is good because if it is too hard, I get kind of bored with it. I seem to be improving right on track so, we'll see how it goes until Christmas. I also biked tonight after I got home from swimming, only 30 minutes pretty easy, just to loosen up the legs a bit. I do have that race this weekend so I didn't want to push too much this week!

I'll update tomorrow night before we leave for Spokane with my race plan (well, goals anyway)! Talk to you then!

Grizz Flex

Happy Birthday Dad!!!

2008-10-07T01:23:00.002-06:00

WHOOOOO HOOOOOOOO! Have a great day!

Love Chad

Congratulations Jason and Nancy!

2008-10-06T01:41:00.004-06:00

Hi boggers,

I finally got a weekend that included nothing to do. No big plans, trips, or events! It was great, and I fully took advantage of the resting part of it!

Friday after work, I opted to not workout. I was ready to get out of the gym following a couple 13 hour days in that place. I made it home, Leslie was out, so I watched the end of the Rider / Stamps game on tv while having a few of those European beers left over from last weekend. Well, don't you know, they got me again. It wasn't long before I was OUT on the couch. Believe me, I felt it again all day Saturday. Only 3 beers! Man, times have changed since university!

Needless to say, Saturday was pretty relaxed. We woke up and headed to my parents house with my brother and his girlfriend, Tara, for an early Thanksgiving supper. We are in Spokane this weekend coming up, so we were going to have to miss it. It was wonderful, and I stuffed myself. I had my half a plate of mashed potatoes, and half a plate of white turkey, with some cream corn on the side and I could barely walk. I know this, because it is tradition that everybody goes for a walk after family meals. I sure didn't want to move but got convinced to go! It was great, I'm glad I did! The night ended with some cards and dad got to enjoy his bottle of wine, everybody was happy!

On Sunday, I plopped on the couch and watched football, before dragging my butt outside for a run. It would be my last outdoor run before the half marathon next weekend, so I wanted a shorter, but faster pace to keep my legs reminded that they will be used soon! I did a loop from the house and ended up with 11km in pretty much exactly an hour. It was a consistent pace throughout but I kept my heart rate low enough to feel good the entire time. My biggest problem in running is pacing. I don't like getting passed by people and I love passing people. The problem is, I don't usually have anything at all in the tank by half way through races. If I'm going to do this marathon next year, I have to learn to keep my pace under control, which I feel I have been doing. I'm happy. I'm noticing improvements already, but I always still feel like a bag of crap for about the first 36 minutes. Any suggestions friends?

I did swim tonight as well. I met my client Josh and his girlfriend Laura at the pool and got about 600 m done. I'm not going to lie Greg, I didn't do a lot of drills but just worked on swimming. I did a few 50 meter laps, a 75 m, then finished with a 100 m lap in the big boy pool. It definitely is getting easier, but not easy.

The other big news from the weekend is about my cousin Jason. Jason lives in Regina, but in the winter he plays pro hockey in Amarillo, Texas for the Gorillas. I know what you are thinking, why the Gorillas in the middle of Texas? You got me? Anyway, him and his girlfriend Nancy made the trip down yesterday, got there fine, but on the way he asked Nancy to marry him!! Whooooo hoooooooo! Congratulations! This will be the first wedding on my mom's side of the family next summer when his hockey season ends and I'm super excited! It's always been a little joke among the parents about who will get married first! Myself, my brother and my 5 cousins have all been in pretty serious relationships for a long time, but no one would take it any further! I had my bet on an another cousin, but I'm glad it's happening! Congratulations Jason and Nancy!

Later!

Grizz

100 meters BABY!

2008-10-03T01:47:00.002-06:00

Yep, that's right! 100 meters non-kindof-stop. I did take 5 seconds at the end of 50 m but I consider it non-stop!

I'll tell you what, this Iron Greg guy is kind of crazy, but he sure knows what he is doing! Things went well on Wednesday. We swam 32 lengths for a total of 800 meters which is the most I have ever done as well. Greg brought his camera and took some video of me swimming which really helped. It was so easy to see exactly where I was going wrong. We did some more drills, those friggin' fist things included, but also got into some kicking drills. He made me kick facing forward then on each side, then on my back. I think the first side one I did I stopped about 8 times in one length because of all the water going into my nasal cavity! Not cool. I really think he was just trying to drown me, but whatever, things are working. I'm hardcore, I won't quit! Bring it on Iron Fist!

I benched on Tuesday night and lifted a really clean 155 lbs for 6 reps, which is more than my body weight for the first time in a couple months. My shoulder didn't feel bad at all, and my strength finally seems to be coming back. It felt good to be in the groove again!

Wednesday after swimming, I headed down to the parking garage with the Red Baron and biked in front of my portable dvd player again for a good, hard 40 minutes with some highest gear intervals again. I was for sure covered in sweat again by the time I finished!

Tonight I was ready to take a day off since I was tired, then Leslie showed up at the gym and convinced me to stay and spend time with her. I really don't understand how we spend time together when we are on opposite sides of the gym, but hey, she is a chick, things are weird in their skulls. We did do my hilly intervals after together, in which she was whining a little, but we made it through. She admitted after that it was a good hard workout! Take that Ironmans, how about a little Grizzly splash, huh???? WOW! Bad smack talk. That's the best I can do, I suck.

In other news, the big races are approaching. The half marathon in Spokane next weekend, then the Gorilla Run in Calgary the weekend after. It looks like there will only be three of us running in Spokane, but in Calgary there is going to be about 15 people! Way to go team..... bring home the hardware!!!!!! My 70 year old client Peter and I are on a team for the Gorilla Run and we convinced IFG to do the third leg for us. I'm pretty excited. I would WAYYYY rather be on Greg's team, then have to race against him!

The weekend looks alright too. We are having an early Thanksgiving supper at my parents house on Saturday, then I got running, football, and swimming to keep me busy on Sunday! All should be enjoyable!!

Hope training is going great everybody!!

Mr. G. Bear

Planes, Beer, and Exercise

2008-09-29T23:46:00.005-06:00

Hey-oooooo!

Well, the title pretty much sums up my weekend. It was an odd one.

Saturday started with a trip to the Aerospace Museum, where Allan works. I had been promising him that I would make it there for quite some time now, and as it turns out, it was time! It was pretty neat. I'm not really into planes, but the that's not what the whole museum is about. It was great being there with Allan, because every single thing in there has a story. Most of the stuff we saw was from around the WWII era and really brought into perspective how significant, the most insignificant things can be.

The other good news about having Allan there, is that he has the keys to all the airplanes! At the end of the mini tour he asked us which planes we wanted to sit in!! Leslie chose the Sabre. It was a Canadian (pretty sure) fighter jet, from just after WWII. It was the first fighter jet the was produced in Canada that went super sonic, faster than the speed of sound. It kind of reminded me of a basking whale with the big intake in the front. The cab was tiny, and not very comfortable. Allan closed the canopy on me when I was in there and it wasn't very quiet either. I couldn't imagine being in the middle of enemy gunfire, going mach 1.3, and trying to hear the radio. It must have been so loud in there during flight. What was kind of funny, was that the first question I asked when I got in was 'where is the gun trigger?' and Leslie's first question was 'how do you get out if you're in trouble?' It's kind of funny, guys vs girls, huh?

My choice to go inside was the legendary Lancaster bomber. I think Allan said it was the heaviest plane ever made? The inside was cramped and full of sections separated by half walls. There were machine guns in the front and the rear. The pilot's seat was really hard to get in and out of and once again, not something that I would want to be in going through gunfire! I found the switch to release the bombs as Leslie scoped out the targets from the front of the plane! How fun! If you ever get a chance, or if you have nothing to do on a weekend, you should check it out. There was still lots to see that we didn't have a chance to get to, so I'm going to head back sometime! Allan, correct me if I'm wrong about any of the info I wrote!

After we finished at the museum, Allan went home to pick up his wife Karen and his not so little baby anymore, Allison, and they headed over to our place for supper. Leslie and I live in a 1 bedroom apartment and we don't have a kitchen table so supper was fun! We had steak, salad and sweet potato fries at the coffee table. The best part about the night though, was the beer. Allan loves to sample beer, so before they came over I headed to the Kensington Wine Market and picked up some for him. We had a couple of different kinds from Belgium (one that gave a sour cherry flavor and one with a banana flavor), one from Quebec and another peachy one for Leslie. Well, before I knew it, it was 11pm and I was ready to have a little nap on the couch. What I forgot to mention, is that these beers were 10% alcohol volume. Oops. Between Allan and I we only had 5 but boy was I in for a surprise on Sunday morning..

I woke up earlier on Sunday to meet my client, Partap for a run again, only to find myself feeling like poop. We ran for 1 hour 40 minutes and I felt like crap for probably the first 35 minutes or so. It sucked. Lesson learned... again. (Remember my little beer and running experiment before the Rattler Run in Medicine Hat in April!). After we turner around, I felt good. We kept a consistent aerobic pace on the way back, both talking, then with about 3 km left we sped up and as Iron Greg would say, we finished strong. It was good. I spent the rest of the day watching football and cleaning while Leslie was at work.

Last night I headed to Talisman Center for swimming practice. I was by myself this time and things didn't really go as well as I hoped. I had trouble doing everything. I ended up doing 600 m of stuff and fought through it, but it just wasn't that enjoyable. I realize that everybody has crappy workouts, but I don't like them. Good news though, I did do those fist swimming things and it went a lot better! Oh well, I got it done. I'm ready to see Iron Fist Greg now!

Tonight I squatted. I am now up to sets of 205lbs for 5, then 4, 3, 2, and 1 reps. My legs were tired from yesterday, but things are coming along good in the gym, I'm happy to report. I followed with my hilly interval workout on the treadmill for 20 minutes and I was ready to head home.

Tomorrow I plan on benching, up to 155 lbs I believe and some shoulder and triceps work. I did find that if I do some rotator cuff exercises before I start benching, it feels better. I tested that on a light day though, we'll see how it feels tomorrow. Until then...

Chad

75 Meters!

2008-09-26T01:18:00.002-06:00

Hey!

Well, I had full intentions to update after swimming lessons with Iron (fist) Greg!!!JJ!! I came home after, rode the bike for 40 minutes then CRASHED on the couch until 8 am this morning. Whoops. Needless to say, no blogging.

Night number two of swimming with Greg went great. For some reason, he thought the benching on Tuesday night wasn't enough for my shoulders, so we hammered them in the pool. I was counting the lengths that we did until I got to 18, then it all just seemed to be a blurr. I don't know if it was the sub-arctic water in the Talisman Center, or the fact that all the available oxygen was rushing to my depleted shoulders and arms, but either way, I lost count.

We did a whole bunch of technique drills again. I think the hardest one tonight was the fist swimming. We had to swim a couple lengths with our hands in a fist position instead of open palmed. Boy, was that ever hard. Apparently, it is an exercise to help with 'feeling' the water on your forearms as you pull, but I could do was think about NOT drowning. I had a few good gulps of water on those sets. We also had to do another exercise for the..... outsweep.... I think it was called. Right before your elbow pulls out of the water. Think of doing a triceps pressdown, then multiply that by about 200 and imagine how your arms feel! I could barely hold myself up after those ones!

The swim finished with a set of 75 meters in which Abdul (my swim partner) and I had both never done. Wouldn't you know, we both got it. Abdul said he even thought about another 25 meters but I was done. We did one last sprint as fast as we could to finish and hit the hot tub!

Monday and Tuesday went well too. I did squats on Monday getting up to 185 lbs for a set of 6, then 5, 4, 3...... and so on. I did the same idea on my benching but only did 140 for the reps. I found that the first rep of each set, really seemed to aggravate my shoulder, but the reps after the first one were fine. My delt, pec, and triceps strength is not far off where I left off last time, but that little nagging in my shoulder is starting to anger me. I ALMOST think it's time I checked in the ego and got it looked at. Even a massage might help, hey? The weird thing is though, when I am done swimming, it feels really good. Nothing at all. I have been trying to stretch everything out a lot more and I'm making sure I do some rotator cuff work at the gym, so we'll see how the next couple of weeks progresses.

As for tonight, I took the night off. My shoulders and legs felt really heavy when I woke up and just seemed tired all day. I figured a night off would help, so Leslie and I hit Olive Garden with my parents after work for a bite to eat. I will get my deadlifting done tomorrow, and try to make it in to the gym earlier on Saturday for the light benching and light squats.

Have a great Friday everyone!

Grizzle Geiger

Number 100!!!!

2008-09-22T01:47:00.002-06:00

Hi Everybody!

This is post number 100!! WOW! That's a lot of writing! It's good. It's kind of like a journal, a journal that the whole world gets to read! Lucky world!

Anyway, things have been rolling along great. I once again had a very productive week of training, both powerlifting and others.

Wednesday was night number one of swim lessons with Coach Greg. It went pretty well. I actually suprised myself at my first length of 25m that I did. I hadn't swam since that triathlon I did in May, but I don't even know if you can call that swimming! We did some easy sets off the start so he could see what we looked like in the water, and it didn't take long for him. Where do I start.....hmmmmm.....? Kicking. Apparently, I am not so much of a good kicker. My legs are really wide apart, bending at the knees too much, and my feet are coming outside of my imaginary 'cylinder' too much. Then we tried to drown me with some 'sculling' and another weird one for rotator cuff and stroke technique (I think), then some hand and arm stuff. Pretty much the point of this paragraph is that I got a lot to work on. He told me I wasn't allowed to sit in the hot tub until I did 50m non-stop. The first attempt I botched it about 5m from the end but got it on the second try.

To be honest, I'm actually pretty encouraged by Wednesday night. It remimded me like when Allan first tore apart my squats when I was getting into some powerlifting. Small changes, make a HUGE difference! Some of the technique things Greg was telling me, have helped so much that I already feel more confident and comfortable in the water.... which apparently helps to conserve precious energy, which causes me not to have to resort to floating on my back kicking in next years triathlon. Good news!

I followed Wednesday's swim with an easier 45 minute bike ride on the trainer in parking garage since Leslie was already sleeping. I was sweating buckets, but in a weird way, it's kind of relaxing. Just put in the earphones and forget about everything else. I did wear the Legend Coaching jersey Greg, and a handful of people saw me!!!! How about that for free advertising! Needless to say, I fell asleep pretty early after that.

Thursday was back to weights. I made it through work looking forward to deadlifting after. I started with 135, then 225 both for a set of 6 reps. Then 275 for 5, 295 for 4, and finally my working sets of 3 plates, 315 for 3 sets of 3. I did wear a belt, Allan, not so much because I needed it, but mostly because I just missed it and it looked lonely sitting in my gym bag for so long! I followed benching with 3 back exercises all for 4 sets, some rear delts and biceps both for only 4 sets. I finished off the night with my treadmill hilly interval program for 20 minutes as well.

Friday was light bench and light squat day. I did both lifts for 5 sets of 5 reps, concentrating again on cleaning up any technique issues that poped up earlier in the week. Leslie was working out with me so it was a nice easy night out. Hamstring curls, shoulder press, anterior raises, upright rows, weighted dips, close grip press and pressdowns are what I finished with. They were all pretty light, I think 4 sets of 8 reps.

Saturday had no exercise at all! I haven't said that in a while. Instead, I went to work for a hour then met up with two clients, Gerry and Peter for lunch. They just got back for a week long kayaking trip around the Queen Charlotte Islands in BC, so we got caught up on all the pictures. Leslie and I finished the day with some goggle shopping and a movie!

Today was an another neat day. I woke up bright and early to meet Partap, another client, for a run. Partap is on the fence about the Spokane Half Marthon so we just wanted to see today if he could run any longer than the hour he usually does. We ended up cruising around for 1 hour 22 minutes and he, and I actually, felt great. It was nice to have a controlled pace and really just enjoy things.

After running, I met up with Luanne to celebrate her birthday at Canada Olympic Park. The plan, zip-lining. I am actually kind of a sissy when it comes to rides, but it turns out that I wasn't the only one. There wasn't many in our group of 8 who came that wern't nervous. They started us on a little practice run, then right off to the top of the ski jump tower for the second run! WOW! is it ever high up there! They made poor Luanne go first and she did wonderful! It wasn't too bad actually. Comparing to flying down a hill on a bike with skinny little tires going 75 km / hour made zip-lining feel comfortably safe. There was one more smaller run before we made it back to the starting point. They say that you reach speeds of 110km/hour, but it didn't seem quite that fast, but then again how can you compare the two? Never the less, FUN!

Tonight I headed to Talisman Center to do my practice swim that Coach Greg wanted me to get in. I ended up doing 700 m total and practiced everything I was supposed to (well, tried anyway). I finished the workout in the big boy pool, doing 4 lengths of 50 m, with a break in between each one of course. Leslie, Luanne, and another client Josh showed up too, so it was a great time!

Here are some pictures of the zip lining, and I'll talk to you soon!!

We are going to SPOKANE!

2008-09-17T02:48:00.002-06:00

Hi!

So, I didn't want to say anything in case it didn't happen, but it's now official. For Thanksgiving weekend this year Leslie and I are heading to Spokane Washington! I am going to run in the Spokane Half Marathon and Leslie is going to do the 5 miler! The best news though, some clients are coming as well!!!

Yeah, it's great! I got this crazy idea on Monday night that I wanted to run in this race. I quickly got the time off, signed up, and got a hotel! I'm excited! We are going to head down on Friday October 10 and come back on Monday October 13! Luanne is in for sure with us and I have a couple other clients on the fence, which I will gently push over! It turns out I am good at that! This will turn out to be a GREAT group trip and something WOW! Workout World will have never even been close to doing! I'm so happy to be graced with such a wonderful and motivated clientele! I'll tell you what, that marathon I am going to do on a different continent is going to happen!

If anybody would like to come to run the race with us, or just for a short vacation you are MORE than welcome! Just let me know and I will give you the information about where we are staying and car pooling and whatever else!!!

Other than that, things are good. I have had another great few days with the motivation thing. Sunday, Leslie and I went for a hour and a half bike ride, and when she went in the house, I threw on my running shoes and went for a 20 minute run as well. Monday at the gym, I squatted. Slowly starting to build myself back up and working on the volume that I am doing, I did 135 x 8 for one set, then bumped it up to 155 for a set of seven, then six, five, all the way down to one rep. Next week, 185. I followed squats with my 20 minutes of hilly intervals on the treadmill as well. Tonight I benched. 135 for 8, 7, 6, 5, 4... same as last week, and gradually shortening the rest as I go down in reps. I definitely felt better than last week and I'm really getting a hold of some the technique issues that have been confusing lately.

Tomorrow is day number one of swimming lessons! I am meeting swim coach Greg at the pool after work and to be honest, I have NO idea what to expect! I have never done any drills, exercises or technique work in the pool other than just to jump in and try to get to the other end! I'm not so excited and a little bit nervous, but knowing Greg, I'm in good hands! I'll for sure update after tomorrow night!

Have a great day everybody!

Grizzmeister

MR. MOTIVATION!

2008-09-13T01:12:00.002-06:00

Hi fellas!

It's me, Mr. Motivation here. I don't know why, but I am super motivated. This week was the first week that I got 4 weight workouts in since the end of May! I had been dabbling on and off, pretty much doing everything that I tell clients NOT to do. Eating worse, no cardio, and random, unstructured workouts. Well friends, those days seem to be gone!

I don't know if it was this Ironman thing, or holidays, or just work slowing down a bit, but I have been all over the exercise. Tonight I capped off a pretty successful week. On Sunday last week I did the ride outside with hill repeats, Monday was squats and a short run outside, Tuesday was benching and intervals on the treadmill, Wednesday off, Thursday was deadlifts and back with another interval train on the treadmill, and tonight was light squats and bench again. That's 4 weight workouts and 4 cardio workouts, which is pretty weird for me!

I feel great! I'm enjoying exercise now more than I have in quite a while. Old injuries seem to be kind of healed, and I'm looking forward to it again. The only thing I'm missing now is some strength!

The next week coming up is looking good too. We are heading out to my parents all weekend to get some organizing done of our stuff in 'storage', but are taking the bikes too. I will for sure get a ride in, if not a run to go with it as well. I plan on 4 workouts again next week, 2 more intervals, but the big news is that I also start swimming lessons! Myself and another guy from the gym are taking some private lessons from Greg to really get a hang on this water thing. The two of us can both flap our arm in the water but we both lack that technique and for me anyway, endurance. Hopefully new Coach Greg can help with this!

Hope all your training is well!

Grizzster

Lance is back!!!

2008-09-10T00:35:00.004-06:00

Hey!

The first day of bench pressing in a month went well tonight. I got off work a few minutes early and headed right for the power rack for the workout. I started with a few light warm ups then made it into my working sets, which were just 1 plate a side, 135 lbs tonight. I started with my first set of 8 reps, then went to 7 reps, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and finally 1 rep to finish. As the reps got smaller I concentrated on shortening the rest intervals between. It was actually pretty tough. The whole goal tonight was just to get back underneath the bar and work on achieving some volume in training again. The weight was not bad, but adding up all those sets it was makes it tough, especially with the time off.

After benching I did some light standing shoulder BB press, 4 sets of 8, anterior dumbbell raises, upright rows, close grip db press for my triceps, and body weight dips, all for 4 sets of 8 reps. To finish, I did a couple of quick sets of triceps cable extensions for 15 reps and I was pooped.

My legs are pretty sore from the squatting last night, so I decided to hop on the treadmill for 20 minutes after. I did some light intervals on a 10.0 incline to start transitioning into readying myself for those hills in the Moonlight Run and my super sprint Splash, Pedal, and Gasp triathlon next spring. I sat down after the intervals and planned out an interval program to bring myself up to conquering those hills when they come. I plan on doing 2 short interval workouts a week for the next 6 months, hopefully building up that strength. I want to also get in a couple of easy endurance workouts on the bike each week and hopefully one swim as well. All this I'm planning on top of the powerlifting program I hope to be starting come October????. Yes, don't worry my triathlon friends, I did periodize it too!

I love having that soreness in my legs! I actually missed it over the last few weeks. I'm so excited for powerlifting to start and get back into full gear and get some really heavy weight again. I'll have to take all this as I go though too. I planned the intervals to be pretty comfortable since I will be doing them following my heavy workouts! I'm not going to lie to everyone, I'm pretty motivated to get it all going! I want to see how it will all play out, how it will effect each other!!!

In other news, as most of you know I am a giant dork. I love to collect things, especially sports stuff. Bobbleheads, t-shirts, you name it! If it has a sports logo on, I want it! The one thing that I collect that isn't sports related though is licence plate key chains. It all started years ago, when my parents brought me back a keychain from Washington. I started seeing more and it turned out to be one of those presents that they had to look for when they were on holidays. Recently on their trip they got me 3 new ones, New York, Ontairo, and Indiana. If any of you are going on holidays, you HAVE to keep your eyes open for me! I want to get all 50 states and all 13 provinces / territories one day! I have 14 states now and 6 Canadian ones now! I hang them all from the rear view mirror in my truck. I think it's cool! Here's what they look like!

I know, giant nerd.

Did everybody hear about Lance Armstrong? I read in the paper today, he is making a comeback! He just did his first long distance race, a mountain bike race in Colorado, and finished second. It took him around 7 hours. He is planning 5 races next season, including an eighth stab at the Tour de France with team Astana. He is also racing for no salary or bonuses!! WOW! I'm pumped to follow this! LANCE ARMSTRONG!!!!

Grizzly G.

Back to the grind!

2008-09-09T00:27:00.002-06:00

Hi bloggees.

Well, life is slowly getting back to normal. Things are calming down. When I got back from holidays there seemed to be an explosion with my clients. Some can't make it in, some have to switch, some are out of town, some are even recovering from surgery they had when I was gone! It's a mess. It has actually made the last week and this week so far pretty tough.

Other than that, I'm getting back on track. I didn't lift weights last week, but I did manage to get some work done anyway. On Wednesday I went home after work, grabbed Leslie, and we went for a run. We ended up doing about 4.2 km and then she went in. I didn't feel like it yet, so I went for another loop and finished with a 8.4 km run at 11:00pm. I love running at night. Things are just so much more relaxed. There is no traffic, and it's quiet except for the random homeless, drug addicts calling us names. I decided this night that I am going to run a marathon next year. I have only done half marathons before but I want to get a whole one down. I researched it and I found 2 in Montana that sound pretty neat in late August, early September next year. Oddly enough, it's called the Grizzly Run and the Two Bear Run. Weird. I didn't even pick them because of the name, they just popped up when I searched. If anyone else is interested let me know!!!

Saturday was Lelsie's Legend Coaching team party thing. It was good. It was pretty much a room full of triathletes, talking about triathlon. It was pretty neat to hear some stories, and to once again get the gears from the Legend gang about how I should do Ironman. Later boys, I want to win a super sprint first! After the party, little Ms. Social (Leslie) went out with her friends again. I was bored, since was night number two in a row this happened now. I made the most of it and went out for a nice run again. I did 5 km in about 27 minutes which was a comfortable pace. I still didn't have anything to do so I hopped on the bike in front of the trainer and biked for 50 minutes as well. Then my legs were tired. Weird hey? I'm at home doing CARDIO on a Saturday night and Leslie is out partying???? WOW things have changed lately!!!

Sunday was Crossfield day to see my parents who also got back from holidays. We brought the bikes and headed out for a little ride but before long noticed that we were going to freeze! There was a slight wind but it was friggin' cold especially when it went down your shirt as you ride! We spun around town for 20 minutes then I headed out to the big coulee again to do hill repeats. Leslie went home and I went down! I ended up doing 8 climbs, each lasting about 2-4 minutes or so. They aren't that long but they were sure steep. My legs were burning by the end! I think the bike ride totalled a hour that day.

After work tonight, I only had a hour to train. Usually in this situation I feel that it isn't enough time to get stuff done and go home, but tonight with my new found motivation, I pushed through. I figured I would squat, but I couldn't go very heavy because I hadn't done it in a few weeks, but also since I didn't have the luxury of lots of time to rest. I did 8 sets of 10 reps with 135 lbs. I wanted to get 10x10 but I ran out of time. It felt easy, but my legs got pretty tight at the end. I finished with 4 sets of lying leg curls with reps of 8.

When I got home, I told Leslie I was going running. She wanted to come so the two of us headed out at 11:30pm. We ran for 32 minutes then made it home since Leslie's knees were starting to get sore as she is still recovering from her Ironman two weeks ago. My legs were dead too.

Tomorrow I think I am going to bench press a little bit and get some shoulders and triceps done. It's been a while since I done that!

Finally, I kept forgetting to post it. As for the poll question, the answer is the first one. That chick is stone cold. She didn't cry at all! Boy, was I ever wrong! She said that she got a little emotional about 1/2 way through the bike, but didn't tear up, then again got emotional during the marathon, but also didn't tear up. When she crossed the finish line she was smiling and said that the pain in her legs was way more apparent then emotion! Weird, I thought she would bawl!

Grizz

Last of the holiday photos!

2008-09-06T01:26:00.008-06:00

Yaquina Head Lighthouse (we got to climb it!)

The view beside the lighthouse!

Oregon Coast Aquarium (Newport Oregon)

Whale watching in Depoe Bay (I'm pointing at a gray whale)

Leslie at the whale watching station in Depoe Bay

Sea Lion Caves

A self picture (the ocean is actually behind us but all you can see is fog)

The inside of Sea Lion Cave, about 7 stories down

The sea lions, outside Sea Lion Caves

Eugene Oregon, home of the Ducks

Autzen Stadium

The Ducks were playing the Washington Huskies the night after. That is the Husky equiptment truck outside the stadium

Inside the indoor training facility that they transform over 2 days into a beer garden before all Duck home games

Outside the athletic complex, home of Kinesiology!

A view from the field

Nicccccccce!

The beer gardens and indoor practice facility.

Resser Stadium in Corvallis Oregeon, a 45 minute drive away. Home of the rival Oregon State Beavers!

Outside the stadium in Corvallis

Highway 101, all the way along the Oregon Coast

One of the many kite stores in Lincoln City, the kite capital of USA

Our camping cabin in Spokane, $15 more than a tent site. Ya, we'll take it!

A vending machine outside of a Shell gas station in Spokane. Weird, I know.

Were home....aaaarrrrrrgggghhhh!

2008-09-02T00:21:00.003-06:00

Hi everyone,

We made it home. We drove from Spokane today and ended up getting in at about 10:30pm. Sorry for the lack of updates but in Lincoln City it was friggin' freezing and raining the whole time, so if I was still awake, I was bundled up in a sleeping bag! Last night in Spokane I tried to update too, but we had a really crappy connection and I had trouble even getting connected.

Let's start with Friday. Friday was the second day on the ocean. We woke up in the morning to not rain, but thick fog. It was so cold. Everything in the tent felt damp and stayed that way until we left Sunday. We started Friday by heading down the coast south to go to Sea Lion Caves. It is a giant cave that Sea Lions gather in to get it on. It turns out though, that sea lions also enjoy not being in the cave which is what happened here. It was still cool to go into the cave and we did see some sea lions outside on a rock, but nothing overly exciting. It was still so foggy out that we couldn't even get a good picture of us with the ocean in the background!

We finished there by noon and decided to head east, over the mountains to Eugene Oregon, home of the University of Oregon Ducks! As soon as we got over the mountains, the weather turned from foggy and cold to sunny and hot! This was really the only half a day of nice weather we got on the entire trip. We parked on campus, wondered around and eventually made it to Autzen Stadium. The ducks were playing the U of Washington Huskies the night after so they were getting the field ready, and left one gate open. Hhhhmmmmmm. I ended up chatting to the grounds manager and when he was leaving he said he didn't see us and wouldn't know if we made it down and checked out the field quickly. What would a dumb tourist do? I tried but a security lady stopped me. I pleaded with her for a minute until her phone rang, then she finally just nodded her head and I dropped the bags and took off running. WOW! Well worth it. Just awesome. Leslie didn't go, so I snapped a couple quick pictures and we left. We grabbed a bite to eat and headed out.

On the way home we took a different route. We went north and hit a little town called Corvallis, Oregon. Why did we go there. This little town is home to Oregon State University, the Beavers! I had to go! We found campus there, wandered into a women's volleyball game without paying, then took some pictures of their stadium and left. It was really different because this whole town centered around OSU. The reason for the entire existence of the town was for this school, and right in the middle of it was this giant stadium. Crazy. I don't think you could see that anywhere in Canada, well maybe a couple places, but not this big! We made it back to the campsite and froze into sleep.

On Saturday, I promised Leslie some ocean time. We drove south again and stopped along the way a few times. We went playing in the ocean, whale watching (in which we saw a grey whale) and had a snack. We made it to Newport Oregon, a little fishing / tourist town about 30 minutes away from Lincoln City where we were staying. Newport was home to the Oregon Coast Aquarium, so we hit up that and also the Yaquina Head lighthouse. Both were pretty cool. The aquarium had tons of stuff, even a giant glass cylinder you can walk through suspended in a shark tank! The lighthouse we hit in the evening and we actually got to climb up the entire thing. We got to see the bulb (which is no larger than a LED bulb in a flashlight) and the lens that surrounds it. She said the beam can be seen from 32 miles out to see, all because of physics!!!! We did some tidepooling, watched some seals play, then headed to Wal-Mart and Fred Myer to get a few things.

Sunday we woke up relatively early and started the 8 hour drive to Spokane. It was long. We went through Portland, followed the Columbia River east and then headed northeast through Washington. Once we got to Spokane both of us were tired and cold from the ocean so we upgraded our tent site to a camping cabin for the last night, and I threw the tent in the garbage dumpster!! It was time for a new one next year anyway! What a warm night!

Today we woke up at about 8:30 am and headed to mall, right near our site. Leslie wanted to get a couple things she didn't earlier in the trip and I wanted to find some Gonzaga souvenirs. We were on the road again by noon or so. The drive again felt long. It was only about 7 hours but managed to stretch it out to about 9. I was tired. We only waited about 30 minutes at the boarder but the rain, and just knowing we were heading home tired out both of us.

So, all done. I have to work tomorrow. I am kind of excited to see who actually came in while I was gone! The trip was fun. I think Leslie and I are ready for a calm, lay on the beach holiday next year. We are planning to go to Boise Idaho in June for a half Ironman Tri, then hopefully if all works out, Cozumel Mexico for Ironman in November. We'll see.

Before I go, I liked that Lisa put up 'numbers' after her trip to San Francisco, so here are some too:

4385 - kilometers on my truck since we left
3.75 - average price of gas per Gallon on the trip, about 97 cents a litre
27 - then number of deer we saw
26 - the number of different state licence plates we saw (that was for you dad!)
3.4 - the number of hours averaged over the 13 days we drove EACH day (if I was at 100km/hour the whole time)
21 - the temperature change between the coast and Eugene we went thorough in 2 hours (12 -33 degrees celcius)
4 - the number of different states / provinces we went through in 1 day (Wash., Idaho, B.C, Ab)
19 - the number of shirts/sweaters I bought!! WOW! That is a lot!!!!! Lots are gifts though!
1 - The number of gray whales, raccoons, sea lion and seal herds, and bald eagles we saw of each!

Chad

Pictures from Wed / Thurs (new blog below)

2008-08-28T21:27:00.001-06:00

On the Pacific...

2008-08-28T21:01:00.002-06:00

It's 8pm on the Pacific. We made it out to Lincoln City today. It was a short drive but seemed to take forever... but first.... yesterday!

Wednesday was day number two of Portland shopping. The plan was do do 4 things. Dicks Sporting Goods, Nike Factory, Portland Running Co., and Steve and Barrys. We got them all.

We woke up in the morning to more rain, great. The good news is it didn't last very long at all. It was cloudy and overcast all day but still warm. We started by stopping at Bridge of the Gods in Cascade Locks where we were staying. I can't remember why it was called that, but who cares really. It was neat. We drove through Portland until we got west of downtown and found our way to Dick's which was in a mall. Leslie and I split and I walked from Dicks to Just Sports to JC Penny and around in that order 2 more times until I decided on what to get. Leslie did her thing.

After that we went to Portland Running Co. The guys in there thought we were pretty weird taking pictures of the sign so they came out and took pictures for us!!! After I told them about Leslie and Ironman we ended up there for about 45 minutes! Got some things and kept going!

Nike World Headquarters was next. The problem is, you can't get into Nike Campus as it is called. Leslie and I planned it out to play dumb tourists and it worked. We drove up to the security gate, had a nice little chat with the guard who told us that he is not allowed to chase down vehicles that drive around. We promised not to get out of the vehicle and he let us in, we snapped a few pics then headed out. The truth is, you can't see anything. Everything is all nestled back behind the front parking lot and all the trees. We did meet a nice Nike Security Guard though!

We then drove back to and through downtown Portland and headed across the Columbia River to Vancouver Washington to go to Steve and Barrys, a clothing store. We each had some fun in there then to Friday's for supper!

On the way home to the tent we stopped at Mutanoma Falls. It was awesome. The waterfall was huge!!!!! Leslie decided she wanted to walk up the giant hill and across the bridge so we did, and I'll give her credit, she is moving pretty well. She did complain on the way back down though.

Today we woke up earlier and headed back west but actually right through Portland and south to Salem Oregon. Salem is the capital city so I wanted to see the state capital building. We drove through, but didn't managed to see it, I didn't want to wander off the interstates, we've had a few problems with that already!!

We made it here to Lincoln City on the coast at about 2:30 pm and got camp set up quickly. The first thing we HAD to do was.. you guessed it Dad.... the outlet stores. It wasn't long before I was complaining because I have hit my bored of shopping mode, and we headed to the beach. We spent about a hour playing around in the water, looking in tidepools, and looking for shells. FUN! It was actually about 27 degrees but windy enough that I had a bunny hug (hoodie if your not from Saskatchewan) on the whole time. We ate supper, headed back to the outlets, and here I am now sitting in a campsite across from ours, in a lawn chair typing because they have electricity!!!

Tomorrow's plan is to head further south down the coast. I want to hit Sea Lion Caves then swing east and go to Eugene, the home of the Oregon Ducks at University of Oregon. Saturday I thing we are going to spend the whole day in Newport Oregon on the coast, before we start heading back to Spokane on Sunday.

Hopefully I'll get a chance to update tomorrow night, but who knows!!!

Until then...

Chad and Leslie on the Pacific!

Portland Pictures (new Blog below!)

2008-08-27T00:43:00.003-06:00

Duck Store, downtown Portland

Downtown Portland from the train

Beaver Store, I'm trying to be a beaver.

Air Chad 1. Rose Garden Arena

Air Chad 2. Outside Niketown

Subway. Note how GIANT the cups are. Those are REGULARS! Also, you can get yogurt with your combo! I'll let everyone know, I didn't have a buffalo chicken!

Niketown, USA!

Lost on a train.

Lost downtown

Leslie with Portland city center behind her!

Final Ironman thoughts.... and first holiday thoughts!

2008-08-26T23:51:00.002-06:00

Hi friends!

It's 10:50 in Oregon. We are doing laundry. It turns out when it rains for 5 days in a row, you tend to go through a lot of clothes quickly!

Alright, here we go, the last time I have to talk about Ironman for at least 2 months.....

It was a good experience. Would I ever want to do one... maybe. Not next year, not the year after, or the year after that, but I would like to. Why? I want to hear people cheering as I roll down main street. I want to get that jacket that says 'finisher'. I want to be so incredibly sore that I can't walk. Why don't I do one, then? I don't want to put in the hours that Leslie has. I don't want to eat perfectly, sleep perfectly, and sacrifice my life to do it. I still don't like swimming, and I don't particularly enjoy running that much either. When I saw Leslie with 2 km to the finish and she barely mumbled 'this just really hurts' almost ready to cry, it makes me not want to do it. I do love biking, but even biking for more that 3-4 hours I don't really enjoy that. It's a commitment that most people can't even do for something like a chance to live longer if you have high blood pressure or cardiovascular disease. It truly is amazing what Leslie did. Yeah, race day was hard. But the 8 months of what she went through before race day, is what I am really proud of her for. 5 years ago when we were watching Ironman, oblivious to it, and she told me she was going to do it, I didn't believe her. 3 years ago, I still didn't believe her. That is commitment, and that is what makes an Ironman. So great job on the race Leslie, but what a most fantastic job on achieving such a lofty goal that you NEVER would have been able to do only 5 short years ago. Amazing.

From a spectator point of view, I wasn't too impressed. Ironman Canada is said to be one of the least friendly spectator Ironmans on the circuit. You see your athlete once, then they are gone for 8 hours. You see them again and they are gone for 5 hours. Most courses are loop courses so you get to see them 3 or 4 times on each event, but not here. It was tons and tons and tons of waiting. The day seemed to just drag on and on and on. This is what makes Ironman Canada so popular for athletes though. You don't have to count laps, you don't have to worry about spectators jumping out in front of you all the time, and you get to stay entertained because everything is always different. Good, I guess. The other thing is that it seems like every time we watch IMC it keeps getting harder and harder to get around. Places that you used to be able to go, you can't. I couldn't even get a good picture of the transition area because there were fences that just led to dead ends with people jammed in like sheep in a pen. Stupid. Again, I understand that it is all for the safety and ease of the athletes, which it should be, but man it sucks for spectators. I will be excited for next year to see how Ironman Cozumal or Ironman Arizona compare to Penticton.

I am so proud off all you guys. Leslie, Greg, Darryl, Claire, Iona, Trevor and all the other Legend Athletes. You guys looked so sharp in those jerseys, and I look forward to reading your race reports as well. I should note that every person Greg trained got a new Personal Best on the course. That says a lot about your coaching Greg, thanks.

Time for an Oregon update....... switch subjects.

Today was day number one in Portland. We woke up, farted around and drove the 45 miles to Portland. The game plan was to head right down town to shop. Well, things don't always happen according to plan. Before we even got to the city, we saw a sign for Lloyd Center, a mall. I bet you can't guess what way I was swerving the truck too. Alright, you can. We had Subway in the mall then I ditched Leslie. She is so slow to shop with normally, now add in the fact that she can barely walk.

I immediately went to a sports store, in which I did not buy a single thing. Instead I wasted the 45 minutes I had chit chatting with the guy that worked there. It was a good thing though. He told me that it would be easier to just take a train downtown, which would be free from outside the mall, instead of driving. Good advice. I met Leslie and gave her the stern talking to that she is never allowed to show up late at a meeting place in a foreign city again because it terrifies me that something happened, even if you are standing in line, then we headed back to the truck.

We decided to take the train downtown, so we walked to the platform and a train showed up right away. The smart tourists we are, we jumped right on, not even knowing where we were going. It turns out we guessed right and made it downtown!

We went to Niketown first, then Abercrombie and Fitch, the Oregon State Beaver fan shop, and the Oregon Duck store too. It took quite a while because each one was about 8 blocks away from each other, but I think the walking did Granny Leslie good, even with all the complaining.

We then found our way back to the train, out of downtown and wondered around outside the Rose Garden Arena (home of the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers), then found our way back to the truck. We went to a Nike Factory Outlet, and my favorite Fred Meyer!!!! A quick supper at a little diner outside the city and here we are in the campground!

Purchases for the day: a new watch, shoes, a new camping lantern, a Duck jacket, duck track pants, 2 t-shirts, a long sleeve Beaver shirt, A and F cologne, a duck hat, and some gifts. Expensive though. I'm already over half way to my limit and it is only day 1!!!!!! Oh well, I saved hard for those $5 bills!!!!

The campsite is good. There are tons of trees, the spot is huge, and the Columbia River is right behind about 1/2 km away. The only problem is that there are railroad tracks nearby and the China Express (as Dick, the campground guy refers to it as because everything is either going or coming to China) is really loud. It's really dark too. I know that sounds dumb, but there are no lights out here. When we turn the lantern off, it is pitch black. Quite a change from living in downtown Calgary!

Tomorrow's plan is I want to go and see The Nike World Headquarters. Apparently you can't get in for a tour but I'll play dumb tourist and we'll see. We are also going to hopefully go to the Roloff Farms (Little People, Big World on TLC). Neither of us are too excited about that so it might get scrapped. There are some amazing waterfalls nearby and some dams and a sturgeon fish hatchery so we might hit that as well. We'll see.

The last little bit of news. Gas is $3.79 a gallon. Let me do the math for you, that's 99.7 cents / litre!!!!!!! It took me $47 to fill my truck, which usually is $80 in Calgary. Also no tax! I bought a t-shirt for $20 and the lady said 'that comes to $20'. I replied with 'What about after tax?'. She gave me a very odd stare, then figured out I'm a dumb tourist and we had a good laugh. That was in Macy's after I made her rip the arms off a mannequin because I wanted it's shirt. Weird Canadians 'eh'?

Talk to you soon....

Grizz

No time to blog, just pictures, must shop!

2008-08-26T12:35:00.002-06:00

Iron feet

At the end of all Leslie's triathlon's, I buy her a present. For Ironman, she gets this Finisher jacket! They ran out of extra small though, so it's on order!

Lake Okanagan at night, during the constant rain we got!

Her cousin, Levi, in Leslie's IMC finisher hat

Our Cascade Lock campground

Pictures of the drive out!

I'll update tonight when we do laundry!

Chad

Finally ready for HOLIDAYS

2008-08-26T00:11:00.002-06:00

Hi Bloggers!

We made it. We are sitting on the side of the Columbia River in Cascade Locks, Oregon! We got here at about 9 pm and got the tent set up, and now are just getting ready for bed. It's been a long day, we were up at 7:30 am to get all the Ironman stuff finished up (pictures, certificates, finishing merchandise, bike with Greg, and last visit with Leslie's family). We got out of Penticton at about 1pm and the drive was about 8 hours with a few extra stops for old creaky granny Leslie that came along too. I'll update about the end of the race tomorrow, earlier hopefully, while my eyes want to actually stay OPEN. We are heading into Portland tomorrow to do some shopping, but I'll try to get a good blog with some pictures written before that!

We're here. We're safe. We're tired. Talk to you soon!

Grizz who is ready to hibernate!

PS- Uncle John and Auntie Gerry in Chicago, a SHOUT OUT! Dad tells me you are following our crazy adventures! Good to know you're there!

Race Day, Update #2

2008-08-24T17:47:00.002-06:00

Hi Leslie Lovers!

You'll be happy to hear that Leslie is destroying this course!!! She is amazing!!! She finished her bike in 7 hours 14 minutes and once again when she rode by she gave us a smile and wave! As I write this her total time is 9 hours and 47 minutes which means she has about 4 1/2 hours left to run the remaining ~35km's. YEAH, BABY! We are SOOOOO proud of her!!! Keep going Leslie!

She said she feels pretty good, when she stopped to chat with us. Ya, I know, she stopped to chat. Don't worry I yelled for her to keep going! 'You're in a race....why are you stopping????'. She started running right after that. She did happen to lose her sunglasses in transition somewhere, so I told her that if she finishes the marathon without walking, I'll buy her a new pair! Then again, if she was smart, she would lie. She is smart, she will lie. I will buy her a new pair of sunglasses. That was a whole paragraph about a pair of sunglasses. I'm tired.

Thank you guys for all the support. My phone won't stop ringing with people looking for updates! You guys are awesome as well, but not as awesome as our soon to be favorite Ironman, Leslie.

Keep pushing Leslie, you're almooooooooost there!

Penticton Grizz

Pictures! Swim Update Blog Below

2008-08-24T10:30:00.004-06:00

Race Day!!! Update #1

2008-08-24T10:14:00.002-06:00

Hi followers!

Well our Leslie is going GREAT! She came out of the water at 1 hour and 17 minutes. She was expecting for 1 hour 20 - 30 minutes so WHOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOO!!!!!! She flew by us on her way out on the bike, but did manage to get a smile and wave in before! She caught us all off guard that she even came so fast! Again, check Ironmanlive.com and go to the athlete tracker with number 1791 or her last name Rudd and you can follow it there.

Other than that, I'm sitting in leslie's sister's hotel room. We are meeting with the entire family at noon for lunch and Leslie should be off the bike by 2:30 -3:00 BC time. She did pretty good before the race. I gave her that card everybody signed last night and she let out a little bit of that nervousness/excitement she has been hiding in. We got all her transition bags ready, and she was in bed by 9:15 pm last night, sleeping by 10:15 or so. We were up at 4:20 am this morning and that's when she finally got nervous. Excited still, but also nervous. She had a shower, ate and we were at the race site by 5:15 am. WHOA. That's early. The race started at 7 am sharp and it was neat to see. I video taped the entire thing but it has been taking forever to download pictures which is why there are not any up. I'll keep trying.

Yesterday was another day of running around. She woke up early and met her legend coaching co-athletes for a swim at 7am then a quick walk through of transition. She did a bike ride after for 30 minutes easy and a quick 10 minute transition run, all while I was sleeping.

We met her family after that, checked in her bike, and went to Salty's again for supper. Yes, once again, I had RASTA PASTA, my favorite!!! We then loaded the sidewalks with chalk writing for Leslie and off to the campsite. It was a busy day!

We won't expect to see Leslie for about 6 more hours, but for sure I will update as soon as we do!! Enjoy your day, as we will in Penticton, at IRONMAN CANADA 2008!

Chad (and Leslie who is biking as I write this, she has been racing for 2 hours 27 minutes and 44 seconds!)

Day 2 Round Up

2008-08-22T12:33:00.003-06:00

Hello, Calgary and the rest of the world!

I'm sitting here with Leslie in my new favorite little coffee shop in Summerland, waiting for pictures to upload for you guys. It's taking quite a while.... not cool.

Day two of holidays is done. It went by so quickly. Leslie managed to get registered, now officially an Ironman competetor! Everything went pretty smoothly she sais, just a bunch of signing her life away and weigh ins. It sounds like a boxing match, doesn't it? We wandered around athlete's village some more, taking advanatage of FREE STUFF! I love it! We even managed to meet and greet Lisa Bentley, triathlon Canada's Wayne Gretzky. Lelsie has been inspired by Lisa for 4 years now, we even watched her win IMC last year, and now we got to meet her. Poor Lelsie didn't even want to go see her, I had to drag her up! There were a couple other pro's there too, with which I chatted up a storm with and they all laughed that I am a Super Sprint Triathlete! It was fun! Lisa even told me to do a Ironman 70.3 next year! Crazy triathletes. I've been calling them that for years now!

After athlete's village we wandered down to Salty's for the Legend Coaching group supper! There were 25 of us and it was fun! It's weird, everybody who has never done an Ironman before was all nervous for Sunday, while our Leslie, was a nutcase! She doesn't even have a butterfly in her never full stomach! The benefits of believing in your program, I guess, hey Allan? I also met another guy who is totally on board for my bull riding adventure in February! I'll tell you about that when I get home Mom.......

Today we are waiting for Leslie's family to get into town and Leslie just downed a coffee thing of some sort. Lots of carbs for her today, as it is the athlete dinner and pre-race meeting starting at 7 pm. The weather continues to suck, cool, damp, and it gets dark reaaaalllllly early, like 8pm. Weird. Most people leave Calgary for dry hot weather, we left hot Calgary for cold Okanagan.

Oh, one more thing. I think the plan for Ironman Arizona in November 2009 is off. Apparently there is a Ironman in Kazatmal (sp???) Mexico (an island just outside Cancun) for the first time, and legend Greg is planning a trip! It looks like we are heading to Mexico instead! Leslie has got the green light from me, so plans are already rolling together!

Have a great day everybody, and we'll probably update tomorrow, while we sit here and eat our breakfast!

Chad and Leslie, from Summerland......... OUT!

Alive and well, with a few mishaps!

2008-08-21T13:09:00.001-06:00

Greetings from Summerland!

Well, we made it here last night. We got into town at about 4:30pm after aweful traffic on that crap they call the Trans Canada Highway. Between construction, motorhomes, and just slow drivers it took longer than it should have. Anyway, we're here.

When we got to town we headed right to the Ironman merchandise tent at 'Athlete's Village' as they call it. We only had about 20 minutes before they closed but we walked out with a couple hunderd bucks between the two of us. It turns out those $5 bills I collect sure pay off! We wondered around the rest of the village, went to our campsite to book in before the sun went down and then out to supper at the Barley Mill pub (one of our 4 favorites in Penticton)!

Not too much exciting to report. The city has got the usual hustle and bustle of Ironman. Lots of bikes, swimmers, and runners. I think I am counting and I have been asked if I am doing Ironman about 4 times now (more than Leslie, I think!)I got to start bulking up! The only problems so far:
1. It rained the entire drive down. In Sicamous I could barely see the highway. At the campround setting up the tent as well. Not cool. I guess it's good in a sense since it will cool things down before race day on Sunday.
2. My suitcase broke. I had one zipper with a lock attatched to it, to open my suitcase but even that now broke. I have no way of zipping it up or down so a trip to Wal Mart is in hand for today!
3. The campsite we got was big but there was a house right behind it with people staring through their window at us the whole time. Very creepy. I managed to get that switched too. Now we have a smaller site but we have a creek running right beside us!

4. Leslie's beet juice spilled all over our cooler. Now we have a pink stained cooler. Awesome.

The plan for today. Leslie is out biking right now as I am in a coffee shop. She went for a swim this morning in the lake already and that is all the exercise for today. We are going to get showered, head to Penticton and get her registered right away, then we have a big supper with her coach and all of his athletes at 5. We are going to Salty's our FAVORITE resturant for that! Tomorrow her family gets in tonwn and other than that, she needs to get some relaxing in. She is doing pretty good, a little nervous at times but chipper and excited too! Her knee has been bugging her a little bit since her massage last week and when she ran last night she said it was worse than as of late. It could be because it was raining and cold and I doubt she did a proper warm up, but we'll see. No turning back now!

I hope all is well in Calgary, and I'll update sooner than later hopefully!

Chad and Leslie!

We leave in 5 hours!

2008-08-20T02:08:00.000-06:00

HI!

5 hours until we leave and I can't sleep! I'm too excited. We are making the whole 9 hour drive tomorrow and hope to be there at about 3 in the afternoon or so. Leslie wants to head to the Ironman merchandise tent as soon as we get there! I'm not surprised. Chicks arn't that hard to read sometimes!

I'll update hopefully in the next couple days for sure. Again if you want to track Leslie on Sunday, stay tuned or go to www.ironmanlive.com and find the link to Ironman Canada and track an athlete. Her number is 1791 and last name is Rudd!

Talk to you soon!

Grizz

Grumpy to irritating!

2008-08-18T01:09:00.003-06:00

Hi bloggees!

Holidays are just around the corner. I say holidays for me, but poor Leslie will be doing more work than she does when she is at home! Only 3 sleeps until we leave, and 7 sleeps until Ironman Canada!

Needless to say, life has been pretty busy around here. The good news is Leslie is not grumpy much anymore, now she is just irritating! Her taper must be working perfectly because she is full of all this energy. She bounces around, sings, and just talks my ear off. The only problem is she won't leave me alone! She has this huge desire to poke me, hit me, chase me around with wet pool hair and harass the crap out of me! I'm going crazy! I guess it is a good thing, but coach Greg, pleasssssssssssse give her some more training to do!!!! I was even joking with her that she should sign up for another Ironman in January to just to keep her out of my hair!

Other than that, she is holding up pretty well. We ran around town today and got all of her stuff that she needed (food, tubes, CO2 cartridges, and almost a Cervelo shirt) for the race. We got a lot of the packing done tonight too; all the camping stuff, my suitcase, and her transition bag (almost). I got my truck all cleaned up this weekend, checked all the fluids, got all the stuff I needed for the trip (sidewalk chalk, on sale at Wal Mart for 50 cents!), and managed to relax a bit too.

For the week after Ironman, all the plans are finalized too. We are going to head to a little town called Cascade Locks, just outside of Portland, Oregon on Monday after the race for 3 nights. The plan is to keep Leslie moving around so she doesn't stiffen up too bad, so there is lots of shopping, sightseeing, and maybe some windsurfing lessons too! On Thursday (28th) we are going to head through Portland and stay at Lincoln City, Oregon on the coast. We are there for 3 nights as well, and yes, there is lots of shopping there too. It's actually the kite flying capital of the United States. Lots of beaches, lighthouses, tide pools, whale watching, and maybe some quadding on the Oregon dunes and a trip to Sea Lion Caves. On the way home, we are stopping for one night in Spokane, Washington before arriving in Calgary on Sept 1st. Here is a map picture of it.

I know that there is a lot of you back here in Calgary that have been asking me how they will know how Leslie is doing. I can't call everyone, but I decided to bring my laptop along and I found a little cafe in Penticton that has free wireless Internet. I will update my blog as often as I can on Ironman day with all her results as they come in. The race starts at 7 am (8 am Calgary) and she is hoping to be done by 9 pm Penticton time. Yep, you added right, that's 14 hours! I will update as much as I can with pictures too! The other thing you can do is go to www.ironman.com and there will be a place in there that you can track an athlete. The timing chip that Leslie wears in the race will automatically send her information from each checkpoint to that database. All you have to do is type in Leslie's race number (1791) or her last name (RUDD) and her information should pop up throughout the day!

We are also going to have wireless Internet at our campgrounds in Oregon that we stay in so I hopefully will update from there too. Maybe in the morning after our swim in the pool while I wait for Leslie to get showered!

I'll update one last time before we leave, probably on Tuesday! Until then, enjoy your full work week..... ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Grizz OUT!

Squat Test...

2008-08-13T00:21:00.002-06:00

Hey-O!

So Monday came, even though I didn't really want it to! Why does that happen? We had a late night on Sunday since we went to the late show of Batman. Pretty good. I've seen better, but pretty good!

Monday morning I woke up and the first thing I thought of was squats. Weird? Yes, I know. I think I am still reeling from that kick in the pants I had last weekend. I didn't want to do any squats though, I wanted to feel heavy weight. I promised myself at 9pm, food or no food, tired or not tired, I was going to squat!

The day at work went fast again. It seems that training people 9 hours in a row can actually go quickly as long as you have good conversation. I think most of the conversation centered around what would happen if I fell off my bike going 78.6 km per hour. The bells chimed at 9 pm and power rack lit up. Not really, but I was excited.

I started with some wall squats and overhead squats to get warmed up, since it has been a couple weeks since I squatted at all and a couple months since I squatted remotely heavy. Here were my sets:

2 sets x 10 reps x 135
1 x 8 x 185
1 x 6 x 205
1 x 4 x 225
1 x 3 x 255
1 x 2 x 275 - with belt
1 x 1 x 295 - with belt / loose knee wraps
1 x 1 x 315 (3 plates) - with belt / moderate knee wraps

My goal was to get up to 3 plates, so I was happy. It wasn't as smooth as I would have liked, but it was enough to remind me how much I hate high rep (6-8) stuff! It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, but I don't think I would have made it much further that day, maybe 20 lbs more???

I followed squats with some lying leg curls ( 5 sets of 6 reps) and some ball squats, super-setted. I then did some leg extension super-setted with calf raises, and I was pooped.

When I got home I did something crazy again. For the second time in as many weeks I felt like a late night run. I did the 'loop' in which I brought the GPS with me this time and it was 3.5 km in just over 15 minutes. Leslie told me to try to keep my heart rate below 140 bpm, but within the first 3 minutes I was already at 150's. I tried, I promise, but it liked to be between 154-158. Yep, definetly need to do a weee bit more cardio!

On Tuesday, I rode my bike (mountain) to work. My legs were burning from the stuff the night before but it only took me 33 minutes to get there. At the start of the summer it would take me about 41 minutes to get to work, so this biking on weekend stuff is sure working! On the way home I shattered my record and made it in 28 minutes! Then I was reallllllly pooped.

Other than that, not too much to write about. I have been glued to the Olympics and find myself even staying up later at night now, bad Chad. I can't help it. Even sports I have never seen before, like synchronized diving, is really keeping my attention! Unbelievable, how hard these athletes commit themselves. How about Michael Phelps? Whoa! His 200 m butterfly took him a minute fifty something, it takes me 6 1/2 on a good day to do that front crawl!

I better go, I need sleep before I find some other sport on tv!

Grizz..... out!

Fat = Grumps?????

2008-08-10T01:52:00.002-06:00

Hi!

Well, the weekend is here! Not many more left until we head out of town for Ironman and Oregon! Whooo hoooo!

The only problem that we are having is that somebody else who lives with me (LESLIE) has been grumpy for 4 days in a row now! I don't know if it is because she is bored and feels like she is not doing anything in her taper, or if it that she is starting to slowly increase her fat consumption, getting ready to fat load soon. Either way. WHOA! Stay clear!! She is not even nice when she is sleeping, she starts giving me the gears as I come to bed at 3 in the morning!

Needless to say, today we followed her plan and went biking. We headed out to Crossfield and headed out towards Madden which is my favorite ride ever! Leslie and I started together then meet up in Madden 20km later. It went well. Both of us noticed that we were going pretty fast. On the way back we had a tail wind and man did we fly. There were times when we would be going 55km/hour chatting to each other, which is not normal! We made it to madden and back in well under 1 hour and 10 minutes which shattered any records we had (mine was 1 h 15 minutes)!

We didn't really feel like going home yet, since Iron Greg's plan was for 2.5 to 3 hours so we continued on through town and started east. After about 5 km there is a giant coulee that you have to ride down and up. When I was in high school I used to date a girl who lived on the other side of it and I used to ride my bike out to her house some days. I remember that I could never get all the way up on the way back home, so today I wanted another try at. I flew down the hill with our tailwind still and managed to get up to 78.6 km/hour. The other side wasn't bad to go up, but that wasn't the hard climb. We kept going for about 3 more km until we decided to turn around. As soon as we turned around the wind almost blew us off our bikes. Leslie couldn't even get enough momentum to clip in, that's how much it was blowing!

We headed back and going back down into the coulee the wind was still so strong that I could only get up to 26km/hour! Now the big climb! Yeah, I made it. Pretty easy actually. It didn't seem nearly as hard as it was 9 years ago! Once at the top I pulled over and waited for Leslie. When she got there I told her I was going to do it again! She thought I was kidding. I told her I wanted to see my speedometer get above 80km/hour. If you read her blog, you know that she is a crazy person who is nutty, so she followed. I'm sorry to say, that the wind had died by that point and I only got 75.3 km/hour on the way down. Crap.

Once we got back to Crossfield we did a cool down ride around the whole town and ended at my parents house with a 2 hour and 10 minute ride with 4 hill repeats (kind of). It felt good. I really have a hard time getting up to ride, but once I start I always love it!

On another note, I was thinking about it, and on Thursday I wore 5 different pairs of shoes! I didn't even think I owned 5 pairs of shoes! I wore dress shoes to the funeral, old ratty runners to work, new runners at work, training shoes during the workout, older running shoes for the jog at home, and finally flip flops to take a movie back! Weird! I think I have one pair of hiking boots and that is all the shoes I own. Crazy, hey?

Tomorrow (Sunday), I think we are going to go camera shopping. We need to get a new one before holidays since ours is pretty old and out-dated. I also want to get my hair cut and Leslie wants to head to Bow Cycle for ........????? I can't remember.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Grizzle Bear