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!