CONFIDENCE

From a blog I've been enjoying lately:

"Consider that all physical training is in great part a mental exercise through which the ability to do a certain amount of work embues within you the belief that you can race a certain way. This is the only real way to build self-confidence." ~ Bobby McGee

RE-SET

Time flies and most of the triathlon community is closing the book on the 2009 season. The PTC squad is taking a break, with some exceptions; Steven Hewick is racing two Asian ITU races in October, and Alexander Hinton has his debut x-c race as a Guelph Gryphon today. I'll be taking some downtime too, before we start back up in October, so there may not be many blog posts for a few weeks. But first, some important notes/reminders:

ITU WORLDS
By now, even the casual tri-geek blog surfer will know all about the recent ITU World Championships (and Grand Final) in Gold Coast, AUS. Ontario had 3 athletes on the team: Andrew Yorke in the U23 race (C3), and juniors Connor Hammond & Ian Donald (PTC). All three guys raced hard, gained valuable experience, and did a great job representing Canada. Everyone should have lots of positives to take away from the races. Congrats to Paula Findlay on her 3rd place finish (U23), and to our top 10 finishers; Simon Whitfield 8th in the elite mens race, and Alison Hooper 6th & Kyla Coates 8th in junior women.


CBC COVERAGE
Be sure to check out the televised coverage of the 2009 Triathlon World Championships from Gold Coast Australia on CBC Sports:

Men's Event - Saturday September 19 from 5 -6 pm (TODAY)
Women's Event - Saturday September 26 from 5 - 6 pm


TRAINING DAYS
I'm very happy to have Leighanne Rowe taking over the admin of the training days for the 2009-2010 year. I'll still be at every training day, and able to do more coaching than last year.

If you want to COACH at the training days, you can find the info here. Deadline is September 24th for applications, so not a lot of time.

PTC Training Day Schedule:
· November 1 and 29, 2009
· January 3 and 31, 2010
· March 7, 2010
· April 11, 2010
· May 2, 2010


OAT AGM
A final reminder of OAT's Annual General Meeting, Friday September 25th. Full info here.


CONGRATS & THANKS
Finally, a blog post won't do this justice, and I've certainly missed more events, accomplishments and stories than I've caught, but a big congrats and thanks to all of the athletes, coaches, supporters, administrators, race directors, officials and volunteers who have worked so hard to make this an amazing year. The KOS athletes are rocking. The parents logged a million miles of driving through every kind of weather. Our juniors dominated PATCO, and the Canadian Junior Series was the most competitive it's ever been. Triathlon debuted at the Canada Summer Games to great success. Our National Team went toe-to-toe with the best in the world and posted some great results. So many successes, and just enough unfinished business to make everyone hungry for the 2010 season. Thanks to OAT, the Canadian Sport Centre (Ontario), Quest for Gold, the University of Guelph and TriCan for their continued support. 2010 is going to be fun.

CATCH-UP

Lots of updates since the last post, so we'll squeeze them all together here.

CAN GAMES

Connor Hammond claims silver in the Men's Triathlon at the Canada Games

When we left the Can Games after week 1, Team Ontario was trailing Team BC in Flag Points by a small margin. In week two, Team Ontario took the lead, to claim the Canada Games Flag. Congrats to all athletes.


WORLDS

After the Canada Games, Connor Hammond, Ian Donald and Andrew Yorke joined the rest of Canada's World Championships Team in Victoria for a pre-worlds camp. I went to Vic for a few days to lend a hand, catch-up with some friends, and see Victoria for the first time since returning to Ontario in 2007. The team looked great, and coaches Phil Betrand, Sharon Donnelly and Patrick Kelly have them on track.

Here's the ITU preview for the race:

ITU will have live coverage of all races. For those of us on Eastern Time, here's the broadcast schedule:

U23 WOMEN: Thursday Sept 10th, 20:00EST
U23 MEN: Thursday Sept 10th, 22:30EST
AGE GROUP: Friday Sept 11th, 16:45EST
ELITE MEN: Saturday Sept 11th, 1:15EST
JUNIOR WOMEN: Saturday Sept 12th, 21:45EST
JUNIOR MEN: Saturday Sept 12th, 23:15EST
ELITE WOMEN: Sunday Sept 13th, 00:45 EST

Full Schedule here.

Juniors after a brick workout at Hamsterly Beach

Ian and Connor throw down Blue Steel in front of Simon's poster at FrontRunners Victoria.

GUELPH LAKE 2

Closer to home, I was able to get out to watch the action at Guelph Lake 2 last weekend, under sunny skies. Adrian was 6th overall against a fast mens field, and Dorelle first overall with Ang finishing 5th overall amongst the women. Lots of familiar faces, and a few new ones in the results.

I was able to take a few pics (mostly blurry ones) during the race. You can find them here.

ADM attacking the run course.

GREAT IDEA!

TRISPORT partners with C3 to attempt a national record for kids participating in a one mile run on Sunday Sept 20th.

"With all the information about inactive kids in Canada, C3 and Trisport are working towards a solution" said Olympic coach Barrie Shepley.

On Sunday Sept 20th, C3 will host the Kinetico Running Festival where the first 1001 kids will get a totally free running experience. All kids will get a free t-shirt, free finishes medal, free race number and a chance to meet some of Canada's top Olympic and International runners and triathletes (Reid Coolsaet, Lisa Bentley, Sean Bechtel, and more). Kids will all race for free in the Riverdale Fitness Mill One Mile Run that starts at 2:10pm in Caledon (20 minutes north of Toronto).

Adults will have the opportunity to participate in the 5km or 10 mile runs. Many Trisport families are already registered including Dave Watts and Louise McGonigal. "You can imagine the energy to give away 1001 free race entries so any help we can get from Trisport participants is greatly appreciated" said Shepley.

"We hope that families will fill up their car and bring local neighborhood children, cousins and co-workers kids" said Shepley. Participants (kids or adults) must be pre-registered by going to C3's website www.c3online.ca

"Mitch and Janet have done such an amazing job providing an environment for Ontario families to stay active over the years, and we are excited that Trisport have agreed to support our attempt at setting a national record for 1000+ kids" said Shepley.

"We know many people are doing fall half and full marathon races, so our adult 5k and 10 miler are perfect short social runs prior to their bigger fall races" said Shepley. To help support an organization that is committed to helping kids, please review the Sept 20th Running Festival at www.c3online.ca

WORLDS

Medal-Winning Athletes Set to Compete for Canada at 2009 Triathlon World Championships
September 2, 2009
www.triathloncanada.com

VICTORIA—Canada will field a stellar line-up of medal-winning high-performance athletes at all levels for the Grand Final of the Triathlon World Championship Series on Australia’s Gold Coast, September 11-13, Triathlon Canada announced on Wednesday.

Two-time Olympic medallist, Simon Whitfield of Victoria, will headline the 2009 Team Teck national senior squad into the Grand Final. The 34-year-old Whitfield has enjoyed another strong season on the international triathlon circuit having won the ITU Elite Cup in Des Moines, Iowa – one of the most prestigious races on the triathlon calendar.

Full press release.