joefrommarathon

For about the last 5 weeks I have been searching the web in hope of spending my next dollar (maybe many many dollars) on the training device which will best get me to my desired training goal.

No dilly dallying here. I am talking about qualifying for Ironman Kona. If you don’t know, I have already been there this year but now I want to step it up and get there with a qualifying slot and not a lottery slot.

I will be working over the next year to bring my run times down significantly so a winter treadmill is a must.

To have what it takes in the run I’ll need to be a bit faster on the bike but be able to conserve energy so a watt meter is also on the list.

Finally and most exciting to me is the need/desire to have the Lemond Revolution trainer pictured here. I had just a few minutes on this baby in KONA and it was awesome. Just the right recipe for the full meal deal. If you want one you’d better get in line.

Somehow today seems like a rest day. Probably something to do with the 6 hour drive yesterday. I did a treadmill workout though and it felt just great. Since then it has been bath, coffee, dinner, web surf, communicate with Mom and my daughter in Hamilton, then more web surf and soon sleep.

It feels good. It feels restful. Some tasks were not done but they were just that, tasks and the rest day was just that, Rest.

Just got in from a 6 hour trip on the trans-Canada. It should have been 3 hours. Average driving speed about 60km per hour with plenty of slippery snow and no sign of a plow for the first 180km. We made it home safe. OPP stopped us 8km from home while they attempted to get a Semi up a hill.

What does that really mean? It means a cross country tractor trailer with a full load of steel product was attempting to climb a hill with about a 6% grade, no chains, that was slick with fresh snow and got slowed to a stand still. He/she was sliding towards the natural run-off grade of the road which is towards the ditch. The driver hadn’t even made it a third of the way up the hill. The well meaning OPP had ordered in a truck load of sand and a plow (which should have been keeping the rest of the highway clear) to try and get it out but it was not happening.

Not to ramble on but my opinion is that these trucks have no business on this highway in the winter and not really in the summer. They don’t service our region with deliveries. They are making there way from the Toronto corridor to the Winnipeg and west corridor and they should be on highway 11 which is flatter and equally well paved.

Highway 17 is too dangerous for these trucks in winter and in summer……well…..it’s the best darn highway a cyclist could ever ask for. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!

Pretty sure this is my 2nd attempt at blogging here, the last being so long ago I can’t locate myself. I am a triathlete therefore I awake early…hours ago but I had nothing to do this morning. Surfing led to triathletes and their blogs. Today was Tenille Hoogland, a picture of health and a tough competitor.

Living in Marathon, Ontario I have to work hard to get out to races, camps, clinics and I am an internet junkie. There are about 6 committed triathletes living here, 2 in the next 2 communities, and probably about 50 in each of the next 2 furthest communities. That is in a radius of about 500km of my house. For most of my races I travel a minimum of 1000km each way, a good long way in the car.

The Trans-Canada highway is one of my regular bike training areas. Cross Canada cyclists say this is the toughest area to ride in all of Canada. Hill after hill and often windy but not too bad for traffic if you can do most of your riding in the early morning.

Running is no problem if you like trails but for roads we don’t have many and I don’t want to guess how many times I’ve been around the same ones.

One could do swim sessions in Lake Superior, and I have, but for most of the year it is cold enough for 2 7ml wetsuits and a divers hood. We swim open water in Penn Lake. Our club sets out a 375m triangle with floating buoy lines and foam noodles. Unfortunately the ice does not come off this small spring fed lake until the end of April and at the end of May we are in with full wetsuits and, you guessed it, divers hoods.

Check out Tenille Hoogland to read about a  champion and google Penn Lake Pursuit to find out about our local triathlon.