Du vélo à Majorque

Dans moins d'une semaine, je serai sous le soleil de Majorque. Au menu, vélo et détente. Je voyagerai avec le groupe Voyages Gendron. J'espère être en mesure de partager mon expérience sur ce blogue chaque jour, à mon retour à l'hôtel après une bonne journée de vélo.

 Itinéraire

Équipement

• Vélo loué là-bas
• Mes pédales Garmin Vector 2 (capteur de puissance)
• Souliers Sidi Ergo 2 Carbon
• Garmin Edge 1000 avec parcours préchargés
• GoPro Hero Session pour partager quelques vidéos à vélo
• Fujifilm X100S pour des photos de tourisme
• Quelques cartes SD pour tout stocker
• Apple Macbook Pro pour l'édition des photos, vidéos et mise en blogue
• Chargeur et adapteur AC européen

From Montreal to Quebec City by Bike

Tomorrow...

Ignorance is bliss...

More info on Le Chemin du Roy if you want to discover Quebec by bike.

Today's Bike Commute

Breakfast of Champion

My Weapon

My Playing field

My Creativity

Windy Bike Ride And Random Thoughts

Cycling Maven

I always want to ride my bike after watching my daily dose of Cycling Maven. So I went for it on a windy Summer morning. Verdun -> Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve -> Petite voie du fleuve -> Champlain bridge estacade -> Nuns Island -> Verdun.

Zeus Bike Training Planning

Since I took this day off from work, I have more time now to prepare tomorrow's ZEUS Triathlon bike training. I will mix things up with intensity (couple of short burst of acceleration) and core strength work (push-ups, planks, ...). Interested in my training plans? Contact me.

Nuglif Running Group

Nuglif is the company I am working for. A while ago, I inspired a few coworkers in getting out for lunch time runs. Then I trained for a half-Ironman and had to give up these noon rituals in exchange for more demanding running workouts. Now race season being over for me, I shall resume these happy runs and taking instagram snapshots of our little run group!

Windy Bike Ride And Random Thoughts

Cycling Maven

I always want to ride my bike after watching my daily dose of Cycling Maven. So I went for it on a windy Summer morning. Verdun -> Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve -> Petite voie du fleuve -> Champlain bridge estacade -> Nuns Island -> Verdun.

Zeus Bike Training Planning

Since I took this day off from work, I have more time now to prepare tomorrow's ZEUS Triathlon bike training. I will mix things up with intensity (couple of short burst of acceleration) and core strength work (push-ups, planks, ...). Interested in my training plans? Contact me.

Nuglif Running Group

Nuglif is the company I am working for. A while ago, I inspired a few coworkers in getting out for lunch time runs. Then I trained for a half-Ironman and had to give up these noon rituals in exchange for more demanding running workouts. Now race season being over for me, I shall resume these happy runs and taking instagram snapshots of our little run group!

Pré-triathlon de Valleyfield

Une pause du boulot pour mieux rebondir (vendredi)

Entraînement improvisé au circuit Gilles-Villeneuve sur vélo TT. Aucune donnée GPS car j'ai oublié de l'activer :-(

La belle journée avant la pluie (samedi)

Dîner au pub Ye Olde Orchard à Châteauguay à regarder les dernières compétitions olympiques.

Premières pancartes pro-cyclistes que je vois cette année. Tranquillement pas vite, les cyclistes font leur place sur les routes.

Une journée de calme à Mercier avant ma dernière formation d'officiel pour Triathlon Québec au triathlon de Valleyfield. On annonce de la pluie pour l'instant, alors la journée s'annonce longue!

Verdun - Laprairie, by bike

I am amazed at how easy it is to go southshore from Verdun. Since the Champlain bridge estacade is reopened it's the first time the idea of riding southshore comes to my mind.

The course is flat, no worries about that. Take your time and enjoy the view.

My First 70.3 Ironman - Mont-Tremblant

June 26th 2016 was marked in my calendar for a year. It was the day I would line-up for my first Ironman 70.3. It just felt huge at the time.

I volunteered for Ironman 70.3 Mont-Tremblant in 2015 so I can grab a priority spot to participate the year after. My tri club was assigned to a run course aid station, at KM 16. We were at the perfect place to witness athletes in pain, wanting to stop, dizzy, alienated by the heat. Finally, I decided to still pre-register for next year on the basis that I still had a few weeks to change my mind and choke. The thing is, I had time to erase images of fading athletes from my mind and I rarely choke once I have something on my mind.

I officially registered some time mid-August. Then, all I had to do was to train. Being an avid reader and fan of the sport of triathlon, I read a lot about training for long course triathlons. I build my training plan by myself. It was more of a skeleton since I am too new to the sport to commit to a rigid training. I didn't know how my body would react to the increased training load at the time.

To be honest, I trained a lot less than I planned for. But I felt I did a great job every training session. I did not get hurt; my subconscious knew when it was too much for my body and I stepped back whenever I felt the rubber band was tight.

I was confident I was ready when I glanced at my Chronic Training Load curve in Training Peaks.

Swim

The swim went well. I entered in the water 25 minutes before my start to warmup and get used to the water temperature. Gun! As I planned, I entered water almost last of my wave. I swam the interior of the buoys (except corners one) to swim almost alone. This was legal and depends of the race venue. That is why it is important to assist to pre-race meeting where this type of info is given.

I swam straight, my sighting being efficient. I did not push the swim, just trying to find and respect my rhythm as I had never swam 1.9K continuously in open water yet. No story here, it just went smoothly. Not fast at all (1:55 min/100m), I will keep working in the pool to increase my speed.

Bike

This is where I am a bit disappointed. It was a really hot and humid day at Mont-Tremblant and I was afraid to explode during the run. I was repeating myself I need to save my legs. Unfortunately I saved too much, getting a Intensity Factor of just 0.61 when I would have aimed for 0.75-80 on a day with decent temperature.

Anyway, I wanted to build on a great experience instead of trying to break a record. Bike went as smoothly as the swim. Volunteers made us slow down after a big crash on Chemin Duplessis leaving about 10 riders on the ground. On my way back to T2, I crossed 3 ambulances.

Run

This is where it paid off being savvy on the swim and the bike. Leaving T2 I was feeling fresh and ready to run a half-marathon. I respected my plan which was to walk every run aid station. I did just that, putting ice cubes in my cap, singlet and shorts. I ate at the beginning of the run: oranges and banana. Then, it was strictly fluids: alternating with Gatorade and water.

I felt the heat of the day around half point. At 18K is where the day really started to hit me as I walked a bit over the hills.

Conclusion

5h 28m. Without a crazy training, anyone can complete a 70.3 triathlon and feel happy at the end of the day. I understand it is a different story for competitive athlete reaching for a time.

I followed my plan and above all I did not let myself get excited too much and push myself over the limit.

How to Plan a Training?

I don't have a coach but I would like to progress. Marketing will put pressure on you to find - and pay - for a coach. Having a coach is not the only way to go for success. If you are curious, bright, resourceful and a bit stubborn (in a good way!), you can be successful by being a self-coached athlete.

Here are some key questions you should ask yourself when you are planning a training session...

What Period Of The Year Is It ?

Check your annual training plan or ATP in order to check what current week should be devoted to. If you are not familiar with periodization, read about it. There is plenty of documentation about it.

Annual Training Plan example from Training Peaks

How Do You Feel?

Whenever an athlete feels tired or hurt, I will offer some avenue to alter the training and still get something out of it. It may be a longer warmup or reduce the number of intervals in the main set.

Sticking to the plan might not be necessarily the way to go. Be flexible. Listen to your body and try to decode what it needs. That being said, do not get mixed up by laziness of your mind. Getting up and go running on a rainy morning even though you do not feel like it (anyway, who feels like it?!) might just be the best thing to do for your body and being proud of yourself for your tenacity.

What Are Your Limiters?

"Race on your strength, train on your limiters"

Take a minute to sit down and write down race situations you hate. You might be scared of swim start squeezed within dozens of people around you. You might fear a puncture on the bike. You hate fueling your body on the run. You do not swim straight and sighting is not your forte.

Be honest.

Then, reserve a few minutes in every training session to address your limiters for this sport.

Training Templates

To avoid blank page syndrome, find a training plan template on the net and fill it with what you intend to do.

Every training session should include a major objective (optionally secondary objectives), a warm up, a main set and a cool down.

To help build your training sessions, I strongly suggest reading about training phases of strength training:

1. Anatomical Adaptation (AA)
2. Hypertrophy (HYP)
3. Maximum Strength (MxS)
4. Muscular Endurance (ME)

Training Journal

A great habit is to jot down a few notes after every training session on what went right or wrong. What were your thought during the training. How hard (or easy) your training was.

Keeping a journal is zen and a good way to sustain your love for the sport. The night before an A race, go through your journal and notice all the work you have done. Nobody can steal it from you.

Be proud!!

ZEUS Triathlon - 2016 Training Camp

Friday June 3rd - Pre-camp Day

To avoid Friday traffic jam, we arrived at Le Chantecler under a perfect sun. As we stored our bike in our rom, the lake (Lac Rond) was calling for us. We brought our wetsuits on the beach and we swam across the lake for a pre-camp 750 m swim.

Tri club members started to arrive around dinner time as they got stock in Montreal's notorious traffic. Off we left to the pub! Gueule de loup downtown Ste-Adèle. Two pints and a poutine aux saucisses later, we chilled in the lobby of our hotel waiting for other club members to arrive on the eve of our second training camp.

Saturday June 4th - First Day

Mental Preparation for a triathlon
Open Water Swim Training
Transition Workshop
Recon Bike Course
Recon Run Course
Back to Hotel for Dinner
Hit the Sheets Early

Sunday June 5th - Triathlon Day

Breakfast at 6:30

Leave Hotel

Prepare Material at Transition Area

9:00 Race Briefing

9:37 Triathlon Start

1PM Back to Hotel for BBQ in the pouring rain

Injury Prevention First, Performance Second

Time flies by and my first 70.3 is just around the corner. Scared? Not the right word. Apprehensive would better describe my feeling. I train as much as I can with a big focus on listening to my body. Whenever I feel it needs some extra rest, rest time I give it. I don’t care about not putting 15 hours of training every week. I aim for long term benefit. I want to be healthy for life, not burn myself to peak for an event then feeling empty, burnt and broken for a month.

That being written, I see my body able to support more and more training charge in volume and intensity every year. I am not worried about my strategy. My instinct proved my right several times so far.

What’s your strategy? How do you know it’s time to give training some slack?

A Matter of Balance

Participating in 70.3 Tremblant, it makes this week of training 'Week #2 of Base #3' periodization of my Annual Training Program. Based on last year training volume, I should train for 9:30 hours this week. At first, it does not look like a big week. With the shitty weather in Montreal, cancelling my run, and something like a cold beginning, it becomes difficult to complete the planned volume. Also, I am the type of person listening to my body; if I feel it does not want to train, I take a recovery day or completely off.
It's all a matter of balance. There is no right or wrong answer. I prefer to be undertrained as I can always improve afterward. If I lean toward the other side, overtraining, I lose focus + my fitnesss and - especially - all will to train and compete. I am not THAT competitive. I want to do well but I don't compare myself to others, I compare my current performance to my previous ones.

Triathlon Adult Community Coach workshop

I recently attended a formal training to become Triathlon Adult Community coach. I already started coaching road bike training sessions for my tri club, ZEUS Triathlon last year.

Workshop Definition

Triathlon Canada advertises this course as :

This workshop is for both beginner and experienced coaches who are currently coaching, or intend to coach athletes 18 and older. Through this two-day workshop, coaches will learn how to plan safe and effective practices, make ethical decisions, and learn basic technical skills.

Theory

We took some time to discuss  Why? Why people practice sports in the first place. I never asked myself this question as I (almost) always practiced sports : I started ice skating at 4 years old, played soccer from 5 to 10, moved to baseball from 11 to 13, commute by bikes, ... Except for going to the gym sporadically, I stopped being active upon moving to the adulthood and settling down in my first real job. A few years later, at 27, feeling overweight and unhappy, I went to a road cycling training camp in Cuba, it opened my eyes as how much effort one could put on training. Then I trained my ass off to run my first half-marathon. From there, things kept rolling and I never asked myself Why was I training, I just moved forward since training improved my life on every level.

That discussion made me realize knowing why the athlete we coach does it makes all the difference in the world on the approach we will use and even the words we will use with her/him. That part was eye opening for me.

Security

With no surprise, emphasis is made on security. Ethics is also a large part of coaching duty. That is what we discussed for the most of the first morning.

Technique

Then we discussed the best techniques for the 3 sports + transitions. That was the meat of the weekend since it is most of our work; making sure the athletes we coach start with good form and techniques before getting intensity/volume. Getting technique right significantly reduce injury risks. Also, as a coach, choosing what to correct first and what flaws to let go is another key.

Planning

Workout / Weekly / Periodisation / Annual plans were discussed. A coach needs to be keen on developing training plans for a multitude of athletes of different level of fitness and time availability for training.

Practical Workshops

Running Drills

Saturday before lunch, we gathered in a unused part of the Bike/Triathlon show floor. We learned and practiced lots of running drills.

Swim Evaluation

Sunday morning before 9AM, we gathered around an endless pool on the show floor. Three coaches, including me, swam in the pool and got evaluated by 17 other coaches! I took a lot of notes from my own evaluation which I will bring back in my own tri training!

Technical Bike Drills

Sunday afternoon, we brought our bikes next to the show floor and with our water bottles, created a few technical courses. That’s where I realized women were more scared then men with the superman fly mount!

Conclusion

Time and money well spent for coaches who want to grow in the sports of triathlon. Here is the link for Canadian tri coach interested in taking Adult Community stream level 1 course.

Tour of Sufferlandria 2016

My legs are glad the Tour of Sufferlandria 2016 is done! It was an intense 9 days. I've been doing this challenge for the last 3 years and every time I feel like I've climbed Mt Everest! Happily it's a pain you forget and eventually you are looking forward the next TOS.

It started hard with 2 hours in the saddle in ISLAGIATT. I'm not used to 1:30 plus effort on the home trainer.

Then came 2 Revolvers back to back. OMG! I had to lower the ERG mode on the 2nd one down to 90%.

My legs were numb for the next few stages. TGTTOS felt like a relief in comparison to the other ones.

Last 2 stages hit my mental strength as both include 2 videos. My scheduled was tight I was not able to do them back to back as asked so I had to do one in the morning and one in the evening.

For my effort, I rewarded myself with ordering the framed poster of the Tour offered by RedBubble:-)

I used TrainerRoad + The Sufferfest combination to properly suffer.

Swim Objective & Action Item to Reach It

Now in my 2nd year as a triathlete, I know my weaknesses. As with lots of you it is my swimming. Since the beginning of the year, my focus has been on improving my swim. Not too much about speed but more in swimming with ease, enjoy swimming and build swim fitness. These are my OBJECTIVES

1. Enjoy swimming
2. Swim with ease
3. Build swim fitness
4. Improve my speed

In order to achieve them, I set as my main ACTION ITEM getting ***consistent*** workouts. This translates for me by getting in the pool 3 times a week, including once with my tri club. While in the pool, all of my thoughts revolve around reducing drag by trying to achieve the best body position and develop a feel for the water. Every lap, at the wall, I quickly assess my form and try to fix just one thing in the upcoming lap. For instance, I end a lap and before pushing the wall I give myself a 75% note on my last lap since I felt my feet could have pointed more and then I dedicate my next lap in trying to improve it.

Workout after workout, my REWARD is feeling improvement; better sensations, better SWOLF scores and in the end, more speed. Achieving (slowly but surely) confirmed that my choice of swimming more often works and it makes it easier to got back to the pool for my next workout.

Train of Thoughts

1. What is one of your objectives?
2. What is the very next action which will get you a tiny bit closer toward achieving this objective?
3. Just do it.

My Last Workout

300m crawl w/snorkel

300 crawl

100 kick

300 crawl

200 pull

200 free

100m kick on back

400 crawl

200 CD crawl w/snorkel

/2100m

Swim Consistently in 2016

I want to swim more consistently. And after viewing coach Gerry Rodrigues giving a clinique on "How to become a better triathlete swimmer", it reinforced my beliefs in CONSISTENCY. I have not been perfect in 2015 but I surpassed my expectations. Starting 2015, I could not believe I would swim 1500m continuously without wetsuit. Which I did in Magog doing my first Olympic distance triathlon. Starting 2016, I am planning on swimming consistently day in day out, week in week out.

This year, I will become an open-water swimmer. I will be working out at the pool. Some sessions will be ugly but that is part of the process: it is not a straight line to improvement. I will have bad workouts. I can accept that. I will admit when they happen. BUT I will also be back at the pool trying again to become a better swimmer. I will not swim to accumulate mileage, I will swim to be better than the previous session.

If, like me, you struggle with your swimming (compared to biking and running), do yourself a favor ;

1. Get a pen and some paper
2. Sit comfortably without any distraction
3. Launch this video series
4. In the comments below, tell me what you got from it. Did it inspire you? What do you agree or disagree on? I am curious to read your comments...