It seems like just yesterday that I was doing battle in the fields northwest of St.George, Utah.  Time flies by when you have a busy life that includes a wonderful family, an awesome lifestyle and when you are in pursuit of excellence in a demanding sport.  Life is good.

Up next is the Shawnigan Lake 1/2 Iron this Sunday, May 27th.  This is a super fun race, and I find myself coming back year after year.  This year I am really, really looking forward to attacking the bike course.  Since it is 4 loops it is a great course to really keep yourself on pace.  Plus it is a pretty relentless bike route as well – it is just none stop rolling and that makes it more fun!

Shawnigan Lake and Victoria 1/2 Irons are races that I am using to measure my fitness en route to my focus for the 2012 season – the Revolution 3 Triathlon Series. I am very excited to be at the point where I am able to have a real focus for the year.  There are plenty of races in the Rev 3 Series and I plan on doing 5 of them, including my “A-Race” for the season, the Full Iron distance event in Sandusky, Ohio.

At this point, 16 days post Ironman St.George, I am starting to feel pretty much fully recovered and noticing my workouts are starting to feel the benefits of the race fitness gains.  It is a great feeling – to fly through a workout and feel really strong from start to finish.  Coach Noa has had to hold me back a bit in training to make sure we don’t do too much too soon after the race.  I trust her on this and just follow her guidelines.

I am sure taking advantage of the early morning daylight we have now, I saw only one person on a 90min run at Thetis / Galloping Goose Trail this past Sunday.  I did start at 5:40am though, but still, only 1 person!  I love early morning sessions.  I hope everyone else is getting out of bed and taking advantage of the early daylight hours, it only lasts for another month or so before the sun starts to move south again!

Check back soon for a post that I will be doing on the amazing company Maison Orphee that is sponsoring me with their industry leading products.

Once you taste high quality Oils you can never go back!

Cheers,

Adam

I am happy coach Noa and I went ahead with our plan of doing an Iron distance race early in the year.  This made for some big training blocks and lead to the creation of a really solid level of base fitness for the year – creating this bog base was one of the main reasons for doing this race.  Another reason for doing this race was because it is known to be a hard race with a tough bike course, and this year was no different as it proved to be a very challenging day out on the course.  If you follow the triathlon world then I am sure you have heard about the crazy winds during the bike leg, and the wild swim conditions those same winds were responsible for.  So I am not going to spend much time giving you my description of those weather conditions. Yes the wind was crazy strong (stronger than Kona or Cozumel), and the water conditions were comparable to swimming off a beach into ocean swells with an onshore wind coming at you (or you could just say the swim was fun), and the run was a very spectator friendly course that is not flat (but wouldn’t be classified as hilly either).

Couple days before the race, reservoir looks unthreatening. . .

Overall I achieved my goal of being in the top ten male pros, I came in 7th and am happy with that.  Each segment of the race required a great deal of mental toughness.  One of the hardest parts of the race had to have been when I was just finishing the first loop of the bike and I remembered I had to go out and do that all over again.  The headwinds were relentless and spending about 85% of your ride in the small chain ring can be a bit demoralizing.  But the theme of the day for me was to stay positive and that is what I did, I often reminded myself how lucky I am to have the opportunity to live the life I do as an athlete and be able to get to international races.

And I can’t train and race I like I do without the support of many many people, there are so many people (first and foremost my wife Mari, and next my Coach Noa Deutsch) that I owe a big thank you to, this is just list of the companies that support me: NutriStart, Synergy, Trek Bicycle Store Victoria, TYR, Triboutique.ca, Maison Orphee, Pro Energy Towel, The Root Cellar and ISM Saddles. Thank you to you all for your support.  Please click these companies links to your right to learn more about who they are, what they do, and why I endorse them.

The family that took me into their home for the week, the Wilsons, are amazing people.  They made my race week so relaxed and comfortable that I don’t know how I could ever thank them as they cared for me like I was part of their family.  Here we are at after the race 

Thank you Sandy, Kevin and Bridger.

My recovery is going well so far and I am looking forward to the next string of races.  The next 3 races are all 1/2 Irons and they are Shawnigan Lake, Victoria Saunders Elk Lake, Rev3 Portland. These races are going to be a lot of fun and are all part of my build up to my A-Race for the year – Rev 3 Iron Distance in Sandusky Ohio on Sept. 9.

Thank you triathlon Canada magazine for the mention – click here

Also, a big congrats to Gillian Clayton for a 4th place finish in her debut racing in the pro ranks!

I don’t know about the rest of you but I am very excited for the 2012 season!

Cheers,

Adam

Well it’s that time again – Race Season!  I am really starting to get excited now, Ironman St.George is less than a week away, and I can’t wait.  Starting the race season off with an Iron distance race is something new for me and I have enjoyed the more focused, higher volume, long course type training this winter and spring.  A lot of hard work has gone into my bike training and I am anxious to test my strength on the very challenging bike course that awaits in Utah.

This year, like everyone other year, I am fortunate to have a great support crew around me.  That support crew is growing in terms of sponsors too.  But first it is my wife, family and coach that I need to thank for getting me to another start line healthy, well trained, happy and excited to race – without their support I would not be racing on May 5th, and it is largely because of them that I feel more ready than ever to race an Ironman.

NutriStart is a local supplement company that I am working closely with and want to thank them as well for helping keep me afloat and able to balance family life, training and work.  Thanks Jon.

All the companies that I am working with, including 3 new ones: The Tri Boutique (Canada’s best online triathlon store, for sure),Maison Orphee (amazing oils, mustards  and vinegars), and Pro Energy Towel (a great product that has many many uses for an triathlete), have continued to help me out this year with their products and services and I really appreciate all of the help I get from all of you: Synergy Health Centre, Trek Bicycle Store Victoria, TYR triathlon and swim gear, The Root Cellar (best place in Victoria to buy fresh and local veggies), and ISM Saddles (keeping me comfy on those long rides. . . . . and not doing damage to vital organs. . . I’m serious!).

So, with the help of all of the above mentioned, and a lot of hard work I am really looking forward to heading south to race Ironman St.George on May 5th.  The field, as with any race, is going to be strong and I hope to establish a little bit of a name for myself at this race by combining a solid effort in every discipline.  But my main goal for this race has been to develop a lot of bike strength through the training necessary for a bike course like this, now I want to go out on race day and test that bike strength and see how I can run afterwards.  I’m itching to crack a top 10 and see a sub 3hour marathon beside my name soon.

I hope everyone else that is training for a race or race season has had a great winter of training and enjoying starting to get ready to tackle their event(s).  Best wishes and best of luck to everyone out there!

Cheers,

Adam

On the day before my 30th birthday I logged a solid training day.  Coach Noa and I chatted last week and decided it was time to add another bike ride to the weekly plan.  It was decided that we would add a high intensity session.  I was curious what it would be.

Yesterday, March 29th, saw a demanding workout in each discipline.  On days like this I feel it is of paramount importance to fuel the body properly to maximize your performance as well as boost your recovery.  So I thought I might go through the entire day and talk about my training and food intake.  Let’s do this in point form.

3:00am – Wake up to my 11 month old crying for some food.  So we both have a snack. I have sweet potato, home made almond butter w/ coconut sugar.

3:30am – Back to sleep

5:15:am- Up again and getting ready to go. Ate 1 rice cake with coconut oil.

5:45-7:15am – 5000m Swim. 2 NutriStart AdrenalStart pills just before swim (empty stomach).

7:25am – 3 Caramel rice cakes with a little home made almond butter / coconut oil paste on top.  4 (big) dried Kadota Figs. 1 big mouthful of my smoothie (ingredients for that to come).

8:15-9:10am – Interval Run, done on treadmill since it was pouring outside! Lots of hard work and was dialing in 5:15/mi pace for the intervals.

9:10am-9:20am – Core and Hip Stability session in gym.

9:30am – Breakfast. Smoothie including: NutriStart Provide Smoothie (double serving today), almond milk, cocoa powder, maca powder, blueberries, mango, banana, flax oil. Not too much of each ingredient though as I was also having 2 medium sized sweet potatoes on the side (Hawaiian Purple Sweet Potatoes to be exact). 3 NutriStart NutriKrill pills.

10:00am – Train Client at Synergy Wellness Centre.

11:30am – Snack.  Apple, chunk of 90% chocolate and some walnuts.

12:45pm – High Intensity Bike Workout.  Body had trained hard in the days leading up but responded well to this new workout and higher level of intensity.

2:15:pm – Adulfo Mango.

2:30pm – Lunch. Salmon Steaks w/ sweet potato (orange and yellow ones this time!), papaya chunks, and broccoli mixed with miso/flax oil paste

3:00pm – Train client at Commonwealth Place.

4:20pm – Daddy and Max time.

5:00pm – Snack. Manna Bread with 2 dates, and a thick glass of whey protein on side (15g worth of protein).  Then Max and I shared and granny smith. 2 Salmon Oil Pills.

6:00pm – 2 AdrenalStart Pills.

7:00pm – Dinner with the whole family. I had massive pile of local greens (broccoli, kale).  Chunks of stewing lamb with bone in cooked slowly in Coconut Oil, Ghee, salt, cayenne powder, curry powder and extra turmeric powder. NOTE: I went heavy on the protein at this time of the day. And it was a big pile of greens.  3 Salmon Oil Pills.

9:30pm – A little bit hungry so mixed up half a serving of Provide Smoothie in some almond milk and a generous teaspoon of flax oil.

9:45pm – Bedtime.

Of course that is a lot of food, but it is noteworthy to mention that I never stuffed myself at anytime.  I like to eat until I am about 80% full then if I feel hungry a bit later I have a snack.  I find my body just craves healthy food between workouts and I sure feel good after eating a healthy wholesome meal when my body is in need of it.  I hope this little log of training and food can be helpful to some of you!

One more thing, I also consumed about 12,000 IU of Vitamin D throughout the day in 2,000-3,000IU increments, of course I use NutriStart QuickD, and this vitamin is ever so important to supplement.  Especially this time of year in our climate, but all year round I use it in varying amounts.

Thanks for reading,

Cheers,

Adam