Virginia and PanAm CE.

It has been a long while since you have last heard from Chen and I. Since our last post, much has happen. Chen went down to Virginia as we last posted. Things did not go as he had planned as he suffered another set back. Chen was forced to drop out of the decathlon when he sprained his left ankle and was unable to take off and plant from his leg. The set back was more physical then psychological. His focus shifted from qualifying for FISU to getting himself healthy enough to compete at nationals where he will aim for the podium and strive to book his ticket to Europe for Holland's international event and "Les Jeux de le Francophonie" in the south of France.

Chen got himself ready to compete in the open section of the PanAm event, where he would plan on competing with the decathletes for the running and throwing events. I was feeling healthy and ready to represent Canada on my 4th national team. I opened with a pb 100 with a time of 11.51. Here is the video our the timed finals. Chen is in heat one and I am in heat two.

 

 

The weather for our event was less than ideal. I would go on to score my second highest point total with 7183 and place 7th in the event. Chen didn't get himself any more injured and had some outstanding performances at the end of the day; highlighted by a 50.22 400m time, an impressive task with the gale force winds the facility endured. Chen also managed a season best shot put throw of 11.94. Here is a little bit of the fun we had warming up gloomy and early on sunday morning.

 

 

We both enjoyed our experience and are very excited for nationals which is fast approaching. We will be leaving for Moncton on a little road trip in 11 days and competing the 20th-21st. Since the decathlon this past weekend, Chen and I have received some publicity doing interviews for online sports pages and local papers. Here is an article featured in the Citizen post event. http://www.ottawacitizen.com/sports/Battered+weather+decathlon+takes+measure+athletes/8468157/story.html

 

 

Chen and I have found ourselves experiencing different emotions in regards to the Decathlon's we have competed in this short season already. The highs are addictive and the lows bring you into moments of perplexed wonder on how you could have performed in such a manner. Learning to keep our emotions in check while keeping our intensity at an all time high for 10 events will allow us to achieve levels of success that we train so hard to attain. The question remains, how to best stay excited for an event which you are not excited to compete in. For me that is high jump, the 400, and 1500. For Chen it is shot put and the jumps due to his injuries. After speaking with coaches, it would seem the best way to do this is welcome the opportunity to compete and the opportunity and chance to set a new standard for yourself. Confidence, relaxed, and embrace are a few of the words I heard a lot of this weekend. Now it is up to me to figure out how to best put these words into action and find a way to make them work for me. Cues are big mental notes, and Chen will need to find ones which work for him as well.

 

Chen and I will tackle Moncton as we head off for nationals in the next 10 days on a nice little road trip. We will be looking to get two Ottawa Lion athletes on the same podium.

 

Anyways, here is some long jump from the weekend.

Surprise!

Well it has been a few weeks since our last post (my bad) but lots has happened.  Firstly, it is with great pleasure that I get to finally say we have officially moved outdoors!  Ottawa decided to rid itself of its winter shenanigans, skip spring all together and jump right into 30 degree summer weather...OK!  See yeah later Dome, I'm done with you for now.

(working on our starts last Tuesday..great extension!)

Secondly, because of his stellar performance down in Tucson, Patty has become somewhat of a local celebrity garnering acknowledgement from all over including a local newspaper..article can be found at: 

http://www.emcorleans.ca/20130425/News/Top+10+worldwide+is+a+sweet+spot+for+local+decathelete 

Pat is now just killing workouts waiting until the Pan Am Cup in Ottawa on June 1st to unleash himself once again.  This meet (thanks to Lions organizers and other local contributors) is looking to become an amazing meet and if you're in the Ottawa area June 1/2 you should definitely come check it out!  Plenty of talented athletes will be running around Mooney's Bay (including these guys) so why not?
Check out this photo collage put together by Coach Ry Row to reminisce on last year and get excited for this year:

http://instagram.com/p/ZGl4lgDhxd/ 

Now because it has been so long since our last post, I get to surprise everyone with a decathlon!  I am currently in Charlottesville, Virginia ready to take on another dec.  After arriving yesterday the weather is quite warm, very humid, with some showers happening earlier.  All in all it is a very pleasant place with a gorgeous campus and facilities.  I was definitely excited to check out the track for our pre-comp workout and it didn't disappoint.  The track is beautiful and will be one of the few decs I get to do where all events are completed within the stadium!

  

So I'll see you on the flip side..I'd say follow along with the results but I think the University of Virginia is having some difficulties themselves putting together a functional site.  The meet runs Friday and Saturday starting at 3pm tomorrow and 2pm on Saturday.  Doesn't hurt to check anyways if you have some time to kill..not 100% sure but try:

http://www.virginiasports.com/sports/c-xctrack/sched/va-c-xctrack-sched.html

Apologies for the delayed post, I promise to be more diligent in the future and don't forget to send me your good vibes!  See yeah later!

Jim Click season opener.

Tucson has come and gone. I (Pat) arrived in Arizona healthy and confident, ready to open up in my favorite state once more. I had learned from my mistakes competing in the desert last year, I felt well prepared and excited to step up on the Wildcats sun cooked track. As day 1 approached I felt more and more ready. I could not wait to get things started. Day one seemed to fly by, all of a sudden we were in the blocks and the 100 was underway, as we got in the set I just thought to myself "ok, its about to start. Its finally here. Time to go!" From there I never looked back, tying my best 100 time of 11.55 I then set a new best in long jump of 7.01m and shot put at 15.32m. I had my second best high jump in a decathlon and my second best 400 time. I scored 3768 on day one, which eclipsed my previous best of 3586 set on the same track last year. Here is my winning long jump.

After day one I was in 4th, just under 300 points behind first. But even then, I was simply thinking of staying on the pb train and taking the day one event at a time, staying hydrated and excited to compete. I knew if I could stay calm that I would be able to get the FISU (world university games) standard of 7250pts. Things kept going my way on day two as a ran myself to a new best of 15.00 in the hurdles, .31 better then my previous fastest time. Discus was next, my first throw was a pb over 49m. In round two I set a new club record from 36 years ago with a throw of 50.82m. I finished the day with 3825 and a final score of 7593, which was also a new club record and 10th all time score set by a Canadian. 

Here is a nice group shot of the coaches and athletes, missing from the shot are my parents who made the trip and helped me prepare for the decathlon, thank you! I would also like to thank Bill from UofA for the massage and treatment on both Mark and I throughout the meet. Everyone, and everything really came together to create a perfect storm for me.

Chen entered the event feeling healthy and excited to compete. He has been suffering some injury problems and spent most of the last weeks doing what can essentially be considered base training. Chen described his day one as a character builder for day two, having left his long jump to a third attempt jump and struggling with a short approach high jump. Although he did not have any personal best performances on day one he remained consistent enough to stay on pace for the FISU standard we traveled south to achieve. Day one was not what he had hoped to score but had to let it all hang out on day two and try to come back strong, which he did. Again, hurdles were not a pb but proved to be a very solid opening time and would set the tone for a 40m+ throw. Battling a stubborn cross wind in the vault, and jumping on new poles Chen failed to make his opening height of 3.70m. He then made the decision to pull himself from the remaining events and begin healing and recovering for his next decathlon in Virginia in the next few weeks. Here is a nice action shot of Chen's hurdles.

Although this dec was not what Chen was looking for going into the meet, he will be able to use this as a stepping stone for future competitions. The hardest part of our event is finishing the 10 events in one piece and being able to take something away from every competition. Chen learned a tremendous amount, and he feels like this was the lowest he has felt after a competition. However, this is not all bad news. His attitude and maturity are showing why he has the ability to achieve his goals this summer. The work ethic to pick himself up from defeat and bounce back, taking the ups and downs from Tucson and building off of this unique experience. No two competitions are ever the same, and we are all very excited to see Chen shake off the cobwebs of his injury and build towards Virginia.

Here is a brief montage put together by coach Ryan Rowat, and some competition warm ups the wednesday before the gun. Go hard, and keep it between the lines.



Tucson Bound.

     This will be our final entry before leaving for our season openening meet in Tucson, Arizona. This is a meet that I (Pat) did last year and faired quite well, opening with an overall Decathlon personal best. This year I return with training partners, coaches, and family. Watchout Tuscon, HERE WE COME!!! The weather is showing to be suny days without a cloud in the sky.

Mark and I feel very prepared. Recently we have been getting James'ed quite a bit. This is the verb for having your coach (James Holder) try to make you experience as much physical discomfort as humanly possible. Here is a picture Chen snapped after a nice 400m workout #Jamesed. This is one of the three workouts we experienced lactic threshold.

Speaking of Chen. He has made quite the miraculous recovery and is in top form for this opener. He has taken care of himself and is now prepared to attack the FISU (World University Games) standard with me. For those of you who do not know, the standard we are looking to score is 7250pts to get us to Russia this July. More than reasonable for both of us. 

I will be leaving Canada's cold spring this Saturday and waiting for my better half to arrive on Monday to hammer out some warm weather workouts in the sun before the competition.  All that being said, stay tuned to the Ottawa Lions twitter account for results (@OttawaLionsTFC ), they will be more live and up to date with stories on the Ottawa combined eventers then the actual results. See you on the other side folks.

Signed, your two favourite Decathletes. 

So long indoor season

February has come to an end, and so has the indoor season.  With the last indoor meet for Pat this past weekend, this years indoor competitions have concluded.  This indoor season was exceptional for Mr. Arbour as to date he has set new pb's in pole vault (which he pb'd again in this weekend with a 4.51m clearance), shot put, tied his high jump pb and had a big pb in the hurdles and overall pent personal best!  He even had a second best effort in the long jump.  Not a bad indoor start I must say.  Big shout out to our PV coach Jeff who after this indoor season had 26 pb's from his athletes.  Insane!

Nice little picture of Pat doing what he says was "dialling in his warm-up"

While it was quite a short lived season for myself due to injury (only competing once, and barely at that), I can finally say that I'm virtually back to 100% training!  After months of waiting, I can now enjoy most workouts pain free.  Now that indoors is over and I'm finally healthy and Patrick is riding a pb train, what could make things better?  Knowing that we have only one month until our decathlon opener in Tucson!

We are both incredibly excited for Tucson this year because not only will it hopefully be a great competition with great competitors, but it will most likely be warm and sunny.  None of this cold, white stuff anymore.  This is also our one chance to get the FISU (world university games) standard, that both of us are hunting for. This would give us the opportunity to go to Russia in July and compete in the biggest international meet either of us would have been too.  It is considered the 2nd largest multi-sport games after the Olympics!

So until Tucson we'll be putting in the hours at the track to make sure we give ourselves the best possible chance to get on that team.  Just to keep things visual, here's a little compilation of some of our recent training indoors.  Lookout for our amazing videography.  We even dubbed in some slow mo and music...wild!  A little shaky on the robot running style and not too sure about the transitioning but we'll get it eventually ha ha.

McGill Pentathlon

Last weekend Mark and I traveled to the beautiful city of Montreal to contest the largest pentathlon event of the year at the McGill team challenge. Universities from both sides of the country came together to create another great event and charged up atmosphere. Mark has been battling his lower abdominal injury but thought he would give the pent a try, hes a competitor! The pent started at 8:45am with the hurdles. The Ottawa combined events group came to the track ready. Mark went on to run a rather impressive time of 8.39, given the fact his last race would have been when we were in the Netherlands. In my 2nd race of the season I went on to run a new pb of 8.38, shaving .10 off my previous best and opener. Check out the race for yourselves. I am heat one, our other roomate is heat two, and Chen wraps up the sweep in heat three.

 

We followed hurdles up with some long jump. It was at long jump when Chen would start to feel the nuisance of his ab and after two jumps decided to wait until shot put to gather some more points. I on the other hand jumped my second best jump ever, 6.74m. Thanks to the lovely folks at McGill the entire meet was filmed and this jump is at 1:30min into this stream...

 



 

 

At this point I had quite the pent going, having won the first of two it was on to shot put. Chen took one throw and with that his indoor season as a GeeGee came to an end. It was an easy decision to make when looking at the bigger picture of making FISU this summer and focusing on the outdoor goals. I did not throw my best here but it was consistent enough to keep the lead and win my third event of the day with 14.41m. Our fourth event was high jump. This event has come to be quite the thorn in my...However, I finally feel like I am understanding my abilities as an athlete and with that my head space while competing. If I would be disappointed jumping sub 1.80m then the solution is to not make that an option. Simply enter the competition when the bar is higher and go over! That being said I went on to tie my best jump of 1.90 for the third time as an athlete. I will join the 2m club, one day. Chen speaks very highly of it (so punny!!!). I placed 2nd in the high jump and held my lead going into the 5th and final event, dumdumdummmmm the 1000m. Won't lie, that wasnt my shining moment. In typical Arbour fashion I managed to squander a 160point lead to Calgary's Craig Thomas who would nudge me off the gold medal by 17 points. Eventually I will be a force in the 1000/1500m, I almost kept a strait face there. I finished with a nice 108point pb though, 3710. Congrats Craig, see you in Arizona for the real thing in April. Here is a little montage from the weekend's events.

 

 

Now that the track talk is done. Let's take a minute to wish Chen a very happy birthday! He turned 25 yesterday and we celebrated with a super bowl gathering. Happy Birthday Mr.Chenery, we love you!!! Look how pretty he is, awwwwww.

Go home, GoPro

Welcome everyone to the new year.  2013 should be an exciting one, as we have high hopes for it.  As the new year roles in we have new goals we are looking to achieve.  This season is filled with great opportunities for us to compete, and can be seen in the freshly updated 'upcoming meets' and 'countdown' sections on the page.  

As for training right now Pat is moving right along in fine form keeping the strength and intensity up, and showcased quite a performance this past weekend here in Ottawa.  He contested the pole vault where he improved his PB to 4.46m, after throwing another PB in the shot put finally getting over the huge 15m barrier.  Finally Pat entered the high jump and concluded it with a 1.86m jump. For full results check out:

http://ottawalions.com/results/

Or for a small video recap of the entire meet check out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5bXvwVA7mwo#!

As for myself, I am slowly coming along with my injury (and I mean very slowly).  So this past weekend I was left to help out with running the pole vault competition and cheer on the rest of the group.  Not being able to train fully is quite difficult.   All I want to do is jump in workouts with the rest of the group and continue 'proper' training.  Hopefully in the next couple weeks I'll be able to slowly add more and more into my workouts.

As for the holidays, they were fantastic!  Pat enjoyed some quality family time at the Arbour household, and has been enjoying some quality ODR (outdoor rink) time, which I have yet to experience this year.  I cannot wait.  All the while I took in the fresh Victoria air.  After being away from home for so long it's always nice to go back.  Here's a little bit of a taste of what I was missing...

Courtesy to my sister Leanne for snapping this elegant photo of my buddy Tommy and myself, and me for taking the photo of my family's dog Kinley...lookin' good!

With xmas came lots of goodies.  Pat and a couple others in our group, solidified their plans and booked flights to Tucson, AZ to compete at the Jim Click Shootout April 4-5th for their season openers.  As for myself, I gained a little friend called GoPro, and together we are going to create awesome videos of training and whatever else we can think of to share with everyone!

Hope everyone is starting the new year healthy and happy (or somewhat at least), and can't wait for things to start rolling once again.  Dec duo out!

New year, new goals.

This entry will mark our final post of the 2012 season;

It has been quite the year Mark and I have had. We both experienced ups and downs. However, for the most part our season saw more ups than anything. We saw some national medals both indoors and outdoors, we were both graced with the opportunity of representing our country in our very own city, we traveled Europe...and we had a few personal best's along the way. As we sit back and reflect upon our past 2012 season we begin plotting our assault on the 2013 season. Chen's short term goals remain on getting healthy and back into full training mode. He has had some good news of late, and all things are pointing to a speedier recovery than originally estimated. See, it pays to have a 3rd, 4th, and 5th opinion sometimes! Here is a picture of Chens reward for all his hard work into getting expert opinions and monotonous rehabbing. Enjoy Vic!

The 2013 indoor season is already upon us. I (Pat) just recently competed in my first meet of the season. I don’t expect much from indoors, as it is never a focus. My indoors serves more as a test of fitness and a reminder of what competition feels like. That being said, I had a solid competition at the Louis-Riel super Saturday series. I set a new dome record in the shot put with a throw of 14.67m (Seen below, video analysis!)

I also set a new personal best on my way to winning the hurdles with a time of 8.48 which eclipsed my oldest outstanding personal best of 8.51. Here is a blurry and a cut off video of the race this past weekend >

http://www.runnerspace.com/eprofile.php?event_id=5274&do=videos&video_id=78177.

I have been working a lot on trying to fix my running technique as of late. Always more work ahead, but it is nice to see some results for the countless hours being put into the project. I also competed in some Pole Vault. I opened at 4.16m and this proved to be my only height, I will continue to jump from a short approach runway for the next month or so.

Indoors is heating up! But, we are already planning our spring time openers in Arizona. This time of year has provided Chen and I with a lot to think of in terms of goals and Decathlon opportunities. Just to be clear, there are 4 major competitions which we hope to each make. This list of international events include FISU (Russia), Francophone (South of France), Pan-Am Cup (being held in Ottawa again), and the AV Clytoneus meet (Holland).

Before we sign off, Chen and I would like to acknowledge the retirement of one of our greatest competitors in the sport of Decathlon. This week Jamie Adjetey-Nelson announced his retirement from the Decathlon (nice article about Jamie here>) http://blogs.windsorstar.com/2012/12/18/windsor-decathlete-adjetey-nelson-retires/. Jamie has one national titles, set one of the best scores in the history of Canada, and won Commonwealth just to name a few of his accomplishments. You never competed against Jamie as an athlete, you were always with him. It was an honour to have had the privaledge to compete with a man who was chearing you on the entire way. Chen and I both have memories of Jamie, one of which is his pre-1500m song he once oh so lovely serenaded us with at nationals. You cant ever help finding yourself wanting him to be the best he could at every run, jump and throw he attempted. Best of luck to a legend in the sport in his next chapter of life. If you live half as good as you competed your going to be just fine :)

We end our last blog of the 2012 season by wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year. Safe travels home for all, and to all a good night.

Yours truly, the Decathlon-Duo.

 

Santa! is quite small these days...

So these past few weeks have been fairly eventful.  To start we finished off Movember, well Pat did..because thanks to a good pal of mine, I've promised to keep it going until our reunion in another 2 weeks...so the teen stash stays! Pat decided to 'style' his mo, creating a very John Waters-esque look if you ask me.  Google him, it's worth it.  Here's the evidence of how our final days turned out (including a few of Pats Canadian Strength co-workers..great look guys!).

Then since it's getting closer to that majestic holiday we call Christmas we decided to go Christmas shopping, which turned into self shopping (and a holiday dinner at the Bay, see below).  But more more importantly we made the decision that this was a great time to go visit Santa for a family household picture!  Somehow I remember Santa being a bit larger when we were younger.  I think Santa needs more milk and cookies (well maybe not cookies).  Not a bad little house I'd say.

Last Saturday was also the Ottawa Lions awards banquet, where Pat and I both picked up awards from the past 2 seasons.  Pat grabbed the Field Athlete of the Year and I won the Combined Events Athlete of the Year.  We were awarded some lovely certificates and those delightful mugs you see in the bottom left corner of the picture above.  For the picture we were just supposed to pretend taking a sip because our tea was extremely hot, but my hand accidentally slipped hence the triangle face I'm making.  Oh well thanks for the mugs either way Lions!

Looking good receiving our awards!  

Last practice Pat and I decided to video some of the pole vault hanging drills we had.  Take a look, if you have any others you think are a good please let us know!

I have been a bit hampered by lower ab pain so my training has been minimized significantly; but Pat however, went into beast mode the other night and had a PB clean, lifting 315lbs.  Not too shabby eh?...here's another quick video showing the magic moment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ugSLmY1XqWE

So while Pat lifts heavy weights, I'll be sticking to my rehab exercises like they were going to win me the lottery.  It gets tedious but it's something that needs to get done.  So what I started doing, and I highly recommend, is writing in a notebook.  In it I write down everything I do (exercise, drills, etc.), if it hurts or not, and how much it hurts.  Then the next day I go back and write whether I was still sore or not.  This has been SO helpful, as now coaches and therapists are able to see what you think rather than try to probe you for info.  And honestly when you have a memory as bad as mine, you can very easily forget the degrees of pain you feel day to day.  Give it a shot if you're battling injuries, or even if you're not it's a great way to keep track of your body.

I'll end this by leaving you with my wonderful drawing showing two of the exercises I've been doing.  Pretty good think..So long!

 (and yes the second one makes you look like a dog at a fire hydrant)

Movember

This blog finds us 2 weeks into Movember, a time where our lip sleeves turn us into real men! Or atleast we like to think. Aside from our fuzzy moustaches trying to push through into the sunlight, training is continuing to grow in volume as well. We have dubbed our Movember as man month. A number of us have taken on the Paleo diet for the month. Essentially this is an emphasis on wild and game meats, lean cuts of beef, eggs, nuts, seeds, vegetables and certain fruits. We have cut out any and all alcohol also. Man month also features a minimum of 5 workouts per-week. Here is a picture of how I kicked off my man month, 225lb plank for 60 seconds.

We continue to try and fit two workouts per day in when we can and when it is called for. Chen has been experiencing that nuissance of a lower abdominal pain again. He is taking the proper precautionary steps to avoid furter aggrivation, which unfortunately sometimes involves missing a workout or two along the way. My shin splints have all but gone away with a few weeks of monotonous exercises and biking. I am now able to spike up and complete a workout without pain.

Chen and I have been doing lots of hurdle work, focusing on cadence and being light on our feet. Especially with hurdles it is important to have a faster turnover rate in-between those 42" barriers. We continue to make small changes to older bad habits on our way to a competitive indoor season, where Mark hopes to improve on his record setting 2011 season. Personally, I have taken it upon myself to stretching for 20-30 minutes every day. I feel like it is a crucial part to my homecare which has taken a back seat in the past. No more, I will lift my knees when I run this year!

Indoors is fast approaching, with the first meet held December 1st at Saint-Lawrence College, NY. Indoors is slightly more competive for Chen as he will represent the varsity team as a Gee-Gee at the OUA and CIS level. I on the other hand use indoors as competitive opportunities to remind myself what it feels like to compete and stay sharp. There will be no peaking for meets in this indoor season from my perspective.

Our training will continue to be strength acquisition for a few more weeks. This cycle fine tunes our joints and tendons to be able to stay in one piece when the loading becomes more intensely focused on accumulation. A fancy way of saying we will be lifting big things this winter :)

Last but not least. I would like to thank Sean Young, owner of Canadian Strength for sponsoring me this past month. Sean has provided me with the essential vitamins and supplements which were missing from my every day routine. I am a proud strength coach at Canadian Strength, come check us out and see how we can help you. Visit us at http://www.canadianstrength.ca/ or check us out on facebook http://www.facebook.com/Canadian.Strength?fref=ts

Just in case you wanted a glimpse of our staches here you go, just remember they are more lush in person. Much. More. Lush!

No School = Train More!

It's been a few weeks since our last post, figured it was time for another! Sorry for all those adoring fans waiting anxiously by your computers...HA!

We've made the big move indoors now, and it's fantastic.  This feeling will most likely change come February, but for now indoors is heaven.  Mostly because it's dry and warm!  This will be a huge benefit as apparently (according to my mum) Hurricane Sandy is supposed to come-a-knockin' in the next few days.  Bringing some serious wind and rain.  Dry sounds real good now..  

This past week was reading week (only for uOttawa and one other school though) so sorry to all other uni goers, but it was awesome.  All we did was train, eat, sleep and train again.  I love that life.  But tomorrow we get back to school again; although, practices will keep rolling on as usual just with less sleeping in the middle of the day.  Not too happy about that, but what can you do..Will weights and all that good stuff getting serious here's a funny picture I found floating around the internet.  Zachy and Lou this is for you! haha

The combined events group has been and continues to work hard this fall and with the increased volume of this season building on last years workload, Pat and a few others have been suffering some lovely runner pains known as shin splints.  A combination of transitioning onto a harder surface and more mileage can sometimes have that affect on an athlete.  The minor aches can sometimes turn into major pains when not treating them proactively. There are also a few more hands in the cookie jar helping out with the group, making it ever more important that communication between athletes and coaches be a regular occurence.  On that note we are all very excited for this season both indoors, and outdoors.  Just in case you're suffering as well here's a few random stretches that may help.  

Lastly, Pat and I received a nice surprise the other morning getting mentioned in a video hyping the past 2012 Woerden Athletics Invitational that we went to in August.  Here's the video compliments of Henk Bakker and all the Woerden Athletics organizers:  https://vimeo.com/52226580

..Thanks for the mention Rachael!  

Well this was just a brief post, getting our feet moving again.  Stay tuned!

Welcome to fall training.

Fall has arrived, this means a few things for Mark and I;
1) Hills
2) Soreness
3) Weight circuits
4) Repeat 400's 600's and 800's
5)...more hills
6) Ice baths
7) Compression socks

So far we have been back at training for one week and are in our 2nd week back now. We have been rather sore and feeling mildly out of shape. I would like to follow this past comment with a direct quote from coach himself; "As I have mentioned, we are tweaking things fairly significantly in regards to volume. You will pretty much feel that right away."However, Coach James ensures us that we will be back to our normal fitness levels in no time and be further building upon the ups and downs from the 2012 season. Every season should be building upon the last, this is how we will make the gains required from us both.  Here's a video showing perfect example of how our group looks like right now. Minus the whole work part and substitute it for "have been training for 3 weeks, and first week back."  You get the picture, it's been a rough one.

Training aside, Mark and I both have big plans this summer with the hopes and training ethic to qualify for the World University games in Russia, as well as Francaphone games in the south of France. Furthermore, we have plans on opening at Jim Click in Tuson, AZ. Assuming there is another PanAm Cup team we are also hoping to compete there. That being said, these things continue to be funded from our own pockets (aside from Francaphone) and we have both deisgned a collaberative race resume in hopes of picking up sponsors for the 2012-2013 season.  Here's hoping!

As the fall colours begin to show and mother nature changes so does our training group. We have already welcomed a few new athletes to our group and we will be welcoming another to the heptathlon group shortly, she is from Mexico and was in Ottawa for the PanAm Cup this past summer.  Her name is Karla :)

As we sign off, I would like to leave you with this picture featured in the Fall edition for Intersport's catalogue.  Whose that good looking' dude on the right? (Colour commentary via Mark)

Dec's and Flights and Cliffs oh my!

Well after a months hiatus and our last decathlon completed we are back from Europe.  Thrown back into "real" life and the start of school for myself and work for Pat.  We are also currently enjoying the last couple weeks of our off-season and time off.  

We arrived in the Netherlands 4 days before the start of competition and spent those days with final training preparations and being complete tourists in the town.  Renting bikes and venturing around the town (Woerden), leaving no statue without a picture.  Here's an example of our fun with our great crew including: Jen, Rachael and Craig. 

We had to re-create the figure skating picture as our coach (James) told us it was a tradition.  Here is his teams attempt.

The actual decathlon was awesome.  Littered with talent and class acts, it's hard not to enjoy yourself.  Day one was a bit more wet than we would have liked and I think it showed in our performances, as all three of us had less than solid starts.  After day one, sitting back of our day one point pb's we knew we needed to step it up and compete.  This showed as our hurdles were near pb's for both Pat and I.  Although there was still a little disappointment as we had terrible starts, getting beaten handily to the first hurdle.  Pat went on to win the discus throw, throwing 45.xxm.  The next event proved to be the highlight for both Pat and I, the pole vault.  In this event I went on to pb and clear 4m for the first time in competition, and a new pb of 4.43m for Pat.  The dec finished off with solid 1500m as well, with both Pat and I getting pb's again.  Pat narrowly missing out (and I mean narrowly) on cracking that sub 5 minute barrier running 5:00.06.  Ouch!  I had a 2.5 second pb running 4:42.xx.  It was a great way to end our last decathlon with Pat finishing 8th with 7057 points, and myself in 9th with 6982 points.  Congrats to Craig on completing his first international meet as well finishing 13th!  All that was left was to round up  the boys for pictures and the closing ceremony, as well as trying to collect some very memorable gear.  Just like in international soccer matches it is common for athletes to exchange uniforms after competing.  

    Here is a shot of the boys (top), and Team Canada sporting a couple newly found singlets along side Sam our British competitor and photographer Bjorn.  (You can't see it on any of us but all three of the Canadians got our Czech singlets signed by previous WR holder in the Decathlon Tomáš Dvořák who was there coaching).  Special thanks to coaches Ingrid and Les for all their help and support over the week we were together.  You exceeded any expectations we already had, and we cannot thank you enough!

After the meet the local club (AV Clytoneus) put on a feast and get together right at the track to share some laughs and say goodbye to the other athletes.  Great hosts, you can always count on them to show you a good time!

Then we were off to Amsterdam with Craig for a couple days before our flights to Ireland to visit my sister. We were even lucky enough to meet up with a few of my old training partners in Amsterdam (Maggie, Claire and Casey), who were in Belgium competing in their final meets.  Great times!  Then we said our goodbyes once again and headed off to the airport with Craig where he was flying back to Calgary and we were off to Ireland..or so we thought!  Turns out leaving plane tickets to the last minute is not a good idea financially or timing wise; although it did give us time to stumble across one of Hollands greatest cities (in our opinion), Zandvoort.  This place was insanely beautiful, it had some of the best beach restaurants around and was only a short train ride from Schipol airport.  After our short-lived stay in Zandvoort, Pat and I trained back to Schipol where we caught our early morning flight to Cork, Ireland.  

Once we arrived in Cork we stayed with my sister who lives in a small town about an hour outside of Cork.  We were only at her house for nights before we went off on a 5 day tour of Ireland and Northern Ireland.  Venturing up to Dublin, Belfast, Portrush, and finally Galway before heading back to the farm.  Along the way we stopped at every scenic or touristy spot as well as checking out some local hotspots.  In Dublin we obviously had to check out the Guinness Storehouse and factory, then just spent the next couple days cruising the Irish pub scene and enjoying the whack of Gaelic Football fans in town for the big match.  After Dublin we went for a quick visit to Belfast then continued on up to Portrush in Northern Ireland.  Stopping along the way at the Carrick-a-Rede, a 100ft high rope bridge over the ocean.  This was absolutely stunning and a little nerve racking as the Irish don't believe in fences or rails preventing you from climbing to the edge of the cliffs.  Not a good idea when Patrick is with you (Sorry Audrey!).  

The next place we visited was the Giant's Causeway.  This is an area of weird looking rocks that were said to be made by a giant connecting steps from Ireland to Scotland.  We just thought they looked like a cool place to run around and do handstands (you tell us which is better, I'm top right and Pat is bottom left).  On our way leaving from Giant's Causeway we stumbled upon this awesome castle (which are everywhere in Ireland), sitting dangerously on the edge of a cliff.  Needless to say, once we saw it we ran out to check it out.  Too bad it was closed; although that didn't stop us from taking a quick look around.    

After Portrush we continued down to Galway, stopping at the Bushmills Irish Whiskey Distillery on the way.  This was a very cool experience and I would have loved to take pics.  Too bad because of the alcohol content in the air we weren't allowed.  Insane!  After a nice early start to our day we road tripped to Galway, which is a cool little port city.  While there we took a ferry ride over to the Aran Islands.  Well just one of the islands, Inis Mor.  Here they had an old barbaric fort situated once again on the edge of a cliff about 100m high.  After Galway we were heading back to my sisters house, but on the way we were going to show Pat the Cliffs of Moher.  These are a small 200m+ set of cliffs with some spectacular views (usually).  Too bad when we got there it looked like this.  Next time I guess.

  Back in Clogheen (my sisters' town) we hung out and got ready for heading home.  All that was left was one last touristy expedition.  We were on our way to Kiss the Blarney Stone.  If you don't know just google it.  This is one of the coolest castles, with all the things you'd ever think were associated with a medieval castle: caves, secret passages, dungeons, witches and mystical forests.  Once again we were like little kids running around having the best time.  

After kissing the Blarney Stone we were back to Clogheen for the last time.  We said our goodbyes once again to my sister and hopped on our flight home.  Making a couple of connections we managed to hit 4 countries on our journey home (pretty cool but took forever!).  Now it's back to reality and back to routine.  The trip was a blast, I'm sad to see it's over.  Again we cannot thank everyone enough for all they did, we would probably be left somewhere in Europe cold and afraid if it were not for your help.  I can't wait for the season to start again and start all new adventures over again.  Until next year!

    

 

AV Clytoneus

Today (the 20th) Mark and I leave for the Netherlands.  We will be on our flight at 6:45pm and arriving in Holland around 2pm on the 21st.  Training has been going very well, we are both injury free and the tapering has us both in form for personal bests regardless of how late we are into the season.  The startlist is out and there will be 33 men lining up to start the decathlon come next saturday. This is very exciting news for us, as it is the largest competition we have ever been in with athletes coming from all over Europe to compete.

Here is a link to view the startlist "http://woerden.dichtbij.nl/sport/startveld-bijna-bekend-woerden-athletics-2526-augustus-2012

Chen and I have new running shoes, so we have that going for us...and it's nice!  Being two relatively heavier guys and putting the amount of time we do on the track, we tend to demolish our flatts quicker than the average 150 pound track athlete.  While were on the note of packing lets show you how decathletes pack and what we go through having to compete in 10 events, from the shoes to the clothing we go through. #packinglikeadecathlete

Other than that not much has changed as we head overseas for 20 days, the competition will be followed by a nice visit to Ireland.  Chen's big sister lives there, so we will check out the sites and see how we can leave a little bit of Canadian flair on the country side!

As we head off for our last Decathlon of the year, we would like to thank the Coaches who helped us along the way to some great performances (James, Ryan, Lou, Jeff) and all our therapists your help has kept us able to compete this long!  Lets finish this season off on a strong note, got nothing to lose.

Olympic Fever

It seems the Olympics have come and gone.  There have been so many ups and downs for not just the athletes, but what seemed to be an entire nation. From the womens soccer to the mens 4x100. World records fell, and Olympic records were eclipsed.  The average age for the Canadian athletics team was 24.5 years, a young team that still managed to "inspire a generation".  Hats off to all athletes and friends.  Derek Drouin won our only medal with his 2.29m high jump, placing him 3rd.  But what would this be if we didn't single out fellow decathlete Damian Warner on his 2nd best all time Canadian performance with 6 individual personal bests and a massive 300+ point overall best.  Mark and I feel as motivated as ever to continue training and get to the next level for Rio 2016.

As the Olympics captivated and consumed all of our free time we managed to squeeze in our own training. As we prepare to leave to Holland in 8 days our workouts have taken on a higher intensity with lower volume overall. We are in our final week of workouts, lots of technical and short sprints with a one or two humdred meter that should get a bit of a lactic burn in there....yay!

Tonight the Olympics came to a close, very bitter sweet. As the torch is passed on so is the dream. The games may be done but the spirit is very much alive and well. Congradulations again to all the athletes in all sports for Canada. Congrats also to the new world records set by the Jamaican mens 4x100, American womens 4x100, Rudisha of Kenya in the 800m, and finally Elena Lashmanova of Russia in the womens 20km race walk. Mark and I sat here and watched you all compete whether that be live on tv, or streaming on our computers.  At times we had 3 sources going.

This is some serious dedication.  Not to mention every time we saw someone we knew we had to shout out their name, as if the other didnt already know who it was. It's just part of the Olympic spirit if you ask me.

Go Canada. You have represented us well.

Yours truly, Ottawa's Decathletes.

Move in Complete

After that long week of painting and renovating, Pat and I are finally all moved in to our new place.  Even begun to make it feel a little bit more "homey"with a few trips to Ikea.  Pat wasn't thrilled with that as he hates going to the Ikea store in Ottawa (Largest one in North America I hear).  Although he had a good laugh when as we were walking in he saw the kids play area and noticed they are all numbered and kept saying "I'll take a number 12 please".

Here's a cool photo from the Men's 100m final at the finish line (Medal winners: Bolt 9.63s, Blake 9.75s, Gatlin 9.79s)

The only down side is that during the transition to the new house we have been left without cable and internet.  This makes watching the olympics very difficult, although we still managed to see Usain repeat his gold medal in the 100m in a new Olympic Record.  We've also been trying to keep track of all our Canadian Athletes and friends competing at the games.  Shout out to, Inaki Gomez on a new Canadian Record and 13th place finish in the Men's 20Km race walk, and Ryan Cochrane on his Silver medal in the Men's 1500m Freestyle.  Congrats to all others competing at the games, you are all champs!

As for our training, we're really gearing up for Woerden putting in a few more miles than in the past couple weeks attempting to work on our sprints and 1500m pace (which I've come to learn I have terrible pacing, Pat can attest to that).  On Saturday we had Pat's boss from Canadian Strength Sean Young hop in our workout (300m, 600m, 300m 90s rest, then 8 mins 500m), which was great as he helped keep us on a consistent pace and even pushed us huge in the last few runs..Thanks for the push!  We end this cycle with a twilight meet competition on Wednesday, our last chance to compete before we leave.  It looks like we're both tackling hurdles, pole vault and a potential 300m.  TBD.

Thanks!

#London2012

This past week marked the start of the 2012 Olympic Games accross the pond. I think we can all agree on Mr.Bean being the saving grace for the opening ceremonies.  The second highlight had to be the youth lighting the flame.  Lastly, it was great seeing some familiar faces in the parade of the the athletes; Melissa Bishop and Curtis Moss were looking mighty fine! The rest of the team was in Germany doing final tune ups and races, missing out on the ceremonies. But in bigger news, Chen and I have begun two a days with coach Lou!

We now have morning speed sessions and are throwing a bit more weights around.  Chen is feeling good, he had a nice one-on-one training block with our Vault coach Jeff Edwards on Saturday. My ankle is still a tad swollen given the fact I have not had much time to rest it.

The flights have officially been booked and we leave for the Netherlands on the 20th,  where we will be ready to compete on the 25th of August!

Segway to the next point of discussion, the new house.  As you may or may not already know, Chen and I are moving into a new house in the next week and have been doing way too much painting for how bad we are at it. There are new floors being put in, a basement finished and an entire house to be painted. All of our spare time has been spent working on this project.  We have become rather seasoned painters at this point.  In fact, we are such effective painters we decided to have a tutorial for all the up and coming painters. Sit back, grab a pen and pad and take notes folks. These are not stunt actors, we are professionals.  Enjoy!

Havin' Fun

This was a low volume week gearing up for the next cycle leading us into our Woerden competition.  It involved some light speed and jumps workout, ending with Pat competing in a Twilight meet where he continues to prove his consistency in the vault jumping 4.20m once again.  Making it look easier every time.  While warming up for the vault, Pat managed to thrash his ankle on a hurdle leaving it swollen and bruised, causing him to miss out on one workout but continued with training a few days later.

As Pat and I wait out the remaining weeks before we leave for Europe we have decided to "play" around with a few drills we saw in a video.  Some went well, while others...well just watch the videos!

This is an alternating hurdle drill which we ended up really enjoying. 

Speed hurdle hops are not as easy as they sound! Pat had an attempt too but his included a high pitch squeal..not sure which one is better

Also Pat and I spent a long day yesterday at our new place painting and ripping up the remainder of the floor boards Pat started on, getting it set for a sexy new face lift.  Can't wait for it all to be done so we can move on in..by the way if you're ever considering pink paint or wallpaper, don't!  Make it easier for those after you.

later!

AO Championships.

This week brought Chen and mines recovery week to an end with the athletic Ontatio championships. Well, lets just get into the results then eh! I (Pat) competed in 7 events. First up on saturday was shot put where I threw myself to 7th place, followed by discus where I placed 4th, and then hurdled a new pb of 15.30 qualifying for the finals in 6th and apparently false starting out of the final. I am claiming this to have happen..."I DID NOT MOVE!!!"

I took it like a champ and went and pouted by myself like a big boy? I then ran my first ever relay against the Canadian A team and B team, that was humbling to run as an anchor and only pass the 3rd leg runner Jarrod 15m before the line...sweet deal.

Day 2 of the champs had Chen competing in his first 200m in a long time, he held his own against a few Olympians and beat Coach James 200m pb, congrats on the 22.54. While he ran I threw some Javelin, two season bests over 61m and won the event. We both then went to pole vault. Chen vaulted 3.80, I predict 4m in Woerden in August. I went 4.20 which ties my second best vault ever. So that was suppose to be our last event, but being decathletes comes with its perks! Like getting put on a sprint medley relay for club points. Chen and I ran the 200m legs of the race and guess what, we actually won the race!!!! Go combined events!

Now its training as usual for another few weeks until we leave.

PS. Its been real hot in Ottawa for all you West Coasters #bigshoutout!

Victoria Visit

After a well deserved and much welcomed visit home, both Pat and I are finally back in Ottawa.  It was  a short visit but we had to return and get back into the routine of training and preparing ourselves for the next meet.  We compete this weekend in Ottawa in our provincial championships.

Bringing Pat back to the west coast to meet my family and friends was awesome.  He had never been that far west before and I think he enjoyed it.  Our first outing was to show him the Pacific Ocean,  where we dug to find Geoducks or "Gooey Ducks" on the sand bar.  They are actually quite challenging to catch..crafty clams!  

 They feel kind of gross eh Pat?

Then over the week we enjoyed a few scenic tours as Victoria graced us with rather untypical summer weather, being anywhere from 20-25°C and Sunny.  We also hiked up Mt. Doug, which is full of fun activities and I'm pretty sure I took what has become Pat's favourite picture of himself..

That's my dog Cambie trying to sneak into the background..

On the last day we enjoyed a walk around downtown and checked out Chinatown and the narrowest street in Canada!  Then we had a great final dinner with the family and relaxed with a few of Mamma Chen's (or more like Laura's) famous Sangria.  Make that Sh*t!

Fantan Alley in Chinatown (Thanks for taking the pic Ali!)

Other than that it was great seeing friends and being back with the family, even though I'm sure Mamma Chen and my sisters are glad to have us gone!  I wish we could have stayed longer I really miss the coastal living... until next time Vic!