DOIN'S A TRANSPIRIN'

I'm not sure who will get the title on this one....maybe the 30-something crowd. According to Dorelle, anything over 22 is old, so the title is geared to the 'old folks'.

Back on track: I may have been taking a few days easy, but athletes from Ontario and across Canada certainly haven't. We'll start with the Ontario crowd:

I received 4 e-mails yesterday from athletes and coaches across the country, asking if I knew Matt Druken. Matt is a 13 year-old triathlete from Oro Station (between Barrie and Orillia) who swims with the Barrie Dolphins, runs with the South Simcoe Dufferin Track and Field Club, and attends our monthly Training Days at the PTC. Recently, Matt competed in the CN Tower Stair Climb. Not only did he raise money for the World Wildlife Fund, he won the entire race! You can read more about Matt's race here. Thanks to Daily Triathlon for picking up on the story, and congrats to Matt and his coaches on a great performance.

Sticking with the running theme, there were at least two other Ontario triathletes posting some great performances recently. 2007 Junior Duathlon Champion Nick McGraw (Kingston, ON) ran the 10k Vancouver Sun Run on April 20th, finishing 27th overall and 1st in the M16-18 category, with a time of 31:44. Nick's coach and uber-runner Steve Boyd ran 31:03 at the Sun Run, and backed it up with a 30:46 at the Times Colonist 10k in Victoria, BC, one week later. Closer to home, 14 year-old Kaitlyn Oliver posted a 17:39 at the Hartwell Runner's Challenge 5k last weekend. Congrats to Nick, Kaitlyn, and their coaches.

On the international triathlon scene, the C3 squad was represented by Dave Sharrat and Sean Bechtel at the St. Anthony's Triathlon in St. Petersburg, Florida. Dave Sharrat finished 21st against a talented pro field, and Sean Bechtel was in the mix off the bike before withdrawing from the race.

Finally, Canada was well represented at the ITU World Cup in Tongyeong last weekend. In the womens' race, Kirsten Sweetland started her season with a solid 5th place finish, with Lauren Groves in 13th. In the mens' race, Paul Tichelaar continued his great season with a 6th place finish, with Brent McMahon crossing the line in 16th, and Kyle Jones finishing 20th. Full results here.

Congrats to all athletes on their accomplishments.

Updates are always welcome from coaches, parents and athletes.

OAT TRAINING DAY & DRAFTING CLINIC: MAY 4th

We've added one more training day to the schedule, Sunday May 4th. We will also offer a drafting clinic too - athletes can do one or the other, but not both (they will run at the same time). I've posted the Training Day info, followed by the draft clinic info. Please note that we're starting an hour later than normal, and we're starting with cycling; the pool is booked in the morning, so we're swimming from 1-3pm.

May 4th TRAINING DAY DETAILS

FORMAT: Bike, Run, Core, Swim

START: Check in 8:45am, UofG Athletic Centre (note start time)

COACHES: TBA

REGISTER: E-mail Craig Taylor to confirm spot. Please type "TRAINING DAY" in the header.

FEE: $20, or free for targeted athletes who are Canada Games eligible

NOTES:

Parents are encouraged to work out too! E-mail Craig Taylor if you are interested. Parents will swim at the same time as the youth/junior athletes in their own lane with an assigned coach, and will bike and run separate from the youth/junior athletes.

Athletes who have attended previous Training Days or Swim Camps do not need to complete additional registration forms.

New athletes are welcome at the Training Day (age 12-19), and can obtain the registration material from me via e-mail.

Expect to ride outside! Remember to bring your helmet, and clothing appropriate for the weather.

If you have running shoes with elastic laces, please bring them - we will be working on transition skills.

Directions to the University of Guelph are available on the right hand side of the blog under "DIRECTIONS TO UofG".


May 4th DRAFT CLINIC DETAILS

Athletes who intend to compete in Junior draft legal races this summer must be certified for draft legal racing. If you have been certified in a previous year, you do not need to re-certify. Athletes as young as 14 years (as of Dec. 31, 2008) can attend the drafting clinic, but only athletes who are 16 years (as of Dec. 31, 2008) or older will receive their draft certification card. We will work on a variety of bike handling skills and tactics.

FORMAT: Bike, and possibly swim (time permitting)

START: Check in 8:45am, UofG Athletic Centre (note start time)

COACHES: TBA

REGISTER: E-mail Craig Taylor to confirm spot. Please type "DRAFT CLINIC" in the header.

FEE: $25, payable to Provincial Triathlon Centre


NOTES:

Athletes aged 14-15 are more than welcome to register to work on their bike skills.

There are four additional draft clinics available: May 3rd, 10th or 17th in Hamilton, and May 11th in Ottawa. More details available here.

Expect to ride outside! Remember to bring your helmet, and clothing appropriate for the weather.

Directions to the University of Guelph are available on the right hand side of the blog under "DIRECTIONS TO UofG".

HEALTH - CONSISTENCY - PERFORMANCE

Most of the concepts and ideas I use in coaching are adapted (or just plain stolen) from other coaches, sports experts, athletes, and non-sport sources. Even the things that I've 'discovered' myself are not novel - someone else has figured it out before me, I just didn't read their book/article/website or attend their seminar before I worked it out myself. Most coaches will tell you the same thing, and there's no shame in it - we should be in the business of making people faster, not inventing new gizmos, or protocols, or trademarking common training terms - a pet peeve of mine.

Training can be, and should be, fairly simple - or 'clean' - that's the new word around here lately. If our approach to training is based on clean and simple principles, it's easier to adhere to those principles and stay focused on the task at hand.

One very simple philosophy we follow here was hashed out with NTC coaches Neil Harvey and Patrick Kelly during a swim practice a while back. It's so simple, it's self evident, but that doesn't stop the majority of athletes from ignoring it. Make sure you have a pencil and paper handy, you don't want to miss this one. Here it is:

Health ---> Consistency ---> Performance

(Cue the "How many coaches does it take to screw in a light bulb?" jokes.)

As I wrote earlier, it's self-evident, and it's a very clean and simple concept: Health must precede Consistency, which must precede Performance. Put another way, you can't have achieve Performance without Consistency, and you can't achieve Consistency without being Healthy.

The trick for coaches and athletes is not to simply understand the concept, but to employ it. When I talk to athletes, the conversation centers around health if they are injured or sick, with little emphasis on consistency or performance. If an athlete is healthy, the discussion moves to consistency. Consistent training should be measured in months, not days or weeks. Only when an athlete is training consistently, and maintaining good health (ie. properly managed recovery habits) can we begin to discuss performance.

How many athletes out there are focussed on a specific race performance or a 'breakthrough workout' when they aren't healthy, or haven't been consistent? More than most in my experience, and they're setting themselves up for disappointment. Keep it simple - stay healthy, train consistently, and the performances will follow.

Please note that I've trademarked this concept. Just send your annual licensing fee of $79.99 c/o Provincial Triathlon Centre if you want to use it.

I'm off to find some new coaching ideas to steal.

RACES and UPDATES

RACES

Grab a coffee and take a seat. If you're going to follow all of these links, it's going to take a while.

The PATCO results still aren't updated - maybe they won't be fixed afterall. In the previous post I forgot to note that Alicia Kaye finished 5th at PATCO, after launching a two-woman breakaway on the bike with eventual winner Jillian Petersen (USA). Nice job Alicia - so much for the bike not mattering in draft-legal events.

Closer to home, there was lots of swimming here in Ontario over the weekend with Team Champs. As a group, the Ontario youth and junior triathletes have made great strides this season with their swimming. A quick, and likely incomplete, list of triathletes who set PBs this weekend (at least, I'm pretty sure they were PBs):

Mark Bechtel
Andrew Elliott
Austen Forbes
Taylor Forbes
David Hopton
Jeremy Leite
David Mackie
Erin MacFadyen
Derek Quick
John E Rasmussen
Sarah Rasmussen

Congrats to all athletes, and to their coaches. If I've missed anyone (I'm sure I have) just let me know.

Karsten Madsen takes 3rd overall and 1st in his age group at the Paris-Ancaster cyclocross race, despite a crash and some wrong turns.

There's more racing coming up this weekend:

The third ITU World Cup of 2008 takes place in the Tonyeong South Korea, and Canada is fielding a strong team with Lauren Groves, Kirsten Sweetland, Paul Tichelaar, Brent McMahon and Kyle Jones. I'm not predicting live video coverage this time, but you can follow the race here.

There is also a big race non-drafting race in the US this weekend. The St. Anthony's Triathlon in St. Petersburg, Florida, has a strong pro field, including Guelph's very own Dave Sharratt from the C3 team.


UPDATES

Tyler Bredschneider has had a bit of a setback due to complications related to his recent heart surgery. He's going to be fine, but his recovery might take longer than originally thought. Visit his blog, and send him a "get well soon" message to speed his recovery. Remember that a positive environment may speed recovery, and stressful environments definitely slow recovery.

OAT hosted a "Long Course 101" camp at the University of Guelph last weekend. Coaches Kevin Mackinnon and Greg Pace put on a great camp for the 6 athletes in attendance. I was on hand to evaluate both coaches for their NCCP Competition Coach Certification (they passed with flying colours), and learned a lot from these experienced and successful coaches. Aside from the great coach:athlete ratio, the highlight of the weekend might have been the visit by Ironman Legend Lisa Bentley who spent an hour with the group talking about her training and racing. (I bet there's a few people out there kicking themselves for missing that opportunity)

Finally, the most important news of all, Scotty Dagnall has updated his blog. I know you were all waiting for that one. Maybe Dorelle can lend him a dictionary.

Here endeth the post; my fingers are tired. Train smart, and enjoy the great weather.

WE INTERRUPT REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING...

Most of the content here relates to training, coaching, or race results. This is sort of related, because it came up in conversation this morning at the swim. But even if it's not triathlon related, it's our blog, so we can post what we like.....and we like Craig Cardiff. I know there's at least two or three other Cardiff fans who read this blog, and I'm sure there will be more after they visit his site. Craig is a singer/songwriter who lives in Ottawa (originally from Waterloo, I think), and tours all over North America. He's a great guy to boot; really down to earth and personable. He puts on a great live show, and if he happens to be playing in your area, I highly recommend it. Even better, he will play in your house if you can get a bunch of people together (he used to call them 'living room shows', but now he calls them 'house concerts') - it's a fantastic experience. He's probably played for half of the National Team athletes and coaches over the last few years, so we'll consider him an honourary triathlete in addition to being a top notch performer. Visit his site, buy his music, book him for a show - you'll be happy you did.

PATCO PICS

6 Medals for Canada at PATCO

Lauren Groves, BC: Silver, Elite Women
Kerry Spearing, BC: Silver, U23 Women
Jeff Symonds, BC: Gold, U23 Men
Jordan Bryden, AB: Bronze, U23 Men
Sarah-Anne Brault, MB: Gold, Junior Women
Marianne Hogan, QC: Bronze, Junior Women

Congrats to all athletes and coaches. We'll see some Ontario athletes on that list in the next few years.

Start

Junior Women Bike: Marrianne Hogan (CAN) leading

U23 Women Podium: 2nd Place Kerry Spearing (CAN)

L-R: Jr Women Podium: Marianne Hogan (CAN), Sarah-Anne Brault (CAN), Ruth Gris (MEX)

U23 Men Podium: 1st Place Jeff Symonds (CAN), 3rd Place, Jordan Bryden (CAN)

EARLY PATCO RESULTS

The Junior Races at the Pan American Triathlon Championships (PATCO) are finished. I'll probably have to edit/revise this post as I get more info, but here are the basics:

- swim start delayed 45mins due to rough surf
- swim seed based on alphabetical order (last name)
- bike crash out of T1 in the Jr Mens race took down approx half of the pack of 20, creating a front pack of ~10

JUNIOR WOMENS' TOP 10

1. Sarah-Anne Brault CAN
2. Ruth Gris* MEX
3. Kyla Coates CAN
4. Christine Ridenour CAN
5. Marina Saucedo MEX
6. Alexandra Coates CAN
7. Rachael Edwards CAN
8. Lauren Goldstein-K USA
9. Stacy Hague USA
10. Anahi Amado GUA

(EDIT: Marianne Hogan CAN did race, and may have finished 3rd in the Junior Womens' race - waiting for confirmation - moving Kyla Coates et al. down one spot. That would mean 6 Canadian athletes in the top 8.)

*if you attended the 2007 OAT Junior Camp in Collingwood, you trained with Ruth

JUNIOR MENS' TOP 10

1. Rodrigo Gonzalez MEX
2. Willy Pickhardt USA
3. Carlos Fischer VEN
4. Andres Cabascango ECU
5. Abraham Castellanos MEX
6. Francois Hogan CAN
7. Isai Garcia VEN
8. Villalta Darwin VEN
9. Cuahutemoc Martinez MEX
10. Jason Wilson* BAR

Strong racing by the MEX and VEN teams

* Jason Wilson trained last summer with the C3 club

More Canadian results:

12. Connor Hammond CAN
13. Matt Vierula CAN
14. Marc-Antoine Christin CAN
22. Ryan Ditchfield CAN
24. Yanik Leduc CAN
25. Cole Stewart CAN
30. Jean-Sebastien D. CAN
31. Jeff Phillips CAN

Full results here.

Canada earns 3 spots for the Junior Mens' and Womens' Teams at Worlds (for every athlete who finishes in the top 15, we earn a spot, to a maximum of 3).

Choosing the Worlds Teams will be interesting. Congrats to all athletes on their performances at PATCO.