Saturday September 17th Ride

Hi everyone, thank you to those who have confirmed attendance for this weekend's ride. We are a GO! See everyone down there on Saturday.

JVD

70.3 World Championships Las Vegas 2011

Congratulations to ETS coached athletes Jeremy Broughton and Jim Fry for completing the 70.3 World Championships event on September 11 2011 in the new race location of Las Vegas.

Jim finished 3rd place in his division despite having had a set back the past month and a half due to a serious foot injury. Jim will next be competing in Kona at the Ironman World Championships on October 8th. Good luck Jim!

Jeremy finished 89th in his division and posted a respectable 5:02:25! I am thrilled for Jeremy's accomplishments this season as he has met each of his racing objectives despite juggling a travel intensive work schedule and family responsibilities. He has been a great athlete to work with and motivates me to keep training and not lose sight of the big picture. Congrats Jer and thanks for being a great person to work with!

“The Deadly Sins of Triathlon – 2011 Season Celebration”

In celebration of the 2011 Triathlon season coming to a close, Cathy and Hillary are hosting a get together prior to the fall training season.  We would like you to come join us and celebrate whatever successes and triumphs came your way on the bike, run and in the pool as well as indulge in those things you may have given up for the tri season.

 

We are hosting a two-part get together on Saturday, September 17th.  The first is a potluck of those items you-dare-not-touch during tri season and then we are going to gather at the Rose and Crown to celebrate with a drink or two and some live music.  Spouses and significant others are more than welcome.

 

Potluck: 6:00-8:00PM

Five West, Phase 2, 910-5th Ave SW

 

Drinks to Follow: 8:30PM

Rose & Crown, 17th Ave & 4th St SW

 

Please RSVP to Hillary (hhigigns@brookfield.com) or Cathy (cathy_stanford@hotmail.com) prior to Monday the 12th so we know who to expect.  We hope to see you next Saturday for all or part of the evening!

 

Hillary & Cathy

 

 



 



 



 

September 17 2011 No Drop Group Ride

I have planned a group training ride for Saturday September 17th 2011 in the beautiful rolling region of south Calgary. We will ride the famous “Road to Nepal”, local HWYs and back-roads in pursuit of short rollers and hills! Road bikes are encouraged but triathlon bikes will be welcome.

This is a no drop-ride however let’s not plan to be out there all day! This means it is a no hammer day and we will regroup many times and finish together.

Total distance is roughly 71km. Planned route is below;


View Larger Map

Please have adequate food and hydration with you along with spare tubes, pump, tools and clothing appropriate for the weather that day.

We will meet in the grassy parking area at 37th St SW and Spruce Meadows Trail SE.

Time: We will begin at 9:30am.

Please RSVP to Jack at jvandyk@talismancentre.com by September 14 2011. If there is not enough interst the ride will be cancelled.

I will post a confirmation on this blog that we are either riding or not riding by 5pm September 15 2011 so you can make alternative plans if need be.

Let's get out and ride folks!

Hello all,

With race season well under way and 70.3 this weekend, I thought it would be a great time to do an open water swim. This Thursday, July 28, instead of the regular swim run workout, there will be an open water swim session available to the first 20 people to respond to grantburwash@gmail.com.

Tushar has graciously offered to open up Lake Bonavista for us to use. We will meet at 6:30pm Thursday night (May 28th) at the address below. Wetsuits will be required and I will be in the water with you to provide feedback, support and a little push. Hope to see you there and all the best to those of you racing this weekend.

Grant
Here is the address -


757 Lake Bonavista Dr SE, Calgary, AB T2J0N2


The link below can provide directions -

http://www.canpages.ca/page/AB/calgary/lake-bonavista-home-owners-association-ltd/1758146.html#mapdirections
The general direction - From Anderson Road East take Acadia South. On the first set of lights, you will see Esso gas station on the right. There is small shopping center behind it and lake entrance is behind the shopping center.

VOLUNTEER FOR IRONMAN 70.3 CALGARY - July 31, 2011

If you are not participating in this years Ironman 70.3 Calgary, maybe consider volunteering.

IRONMAN 70.3 CALGARY has an URGENT need for volunteers particularly for the following events:
- Canoeists or Kayakers for the Swim
- Marshals for the bike course

If you are interested in getting involved and volunteering for IRONMAN 70.3 CALGARY, please email the following people today:

Scott Allan - sallan@swagelok.com
Cheryl Lowery - cheryl@tricalgary.com

www.ironmancalgary.com/volunteers.htm

70.3 Training Ride

Hi everyone, hope you all had a great long weekend and are now sporting great tans.

I will be riding most of the Calgary 70.3 race course this Saturday starting at 8am. I plan on leaving the parking area no later than 8:15am to beat some of the traffic and for everyone to get back at a reasonable time.

Meet at Westhills shopping complex behind Second Cup and in front of Indigo bookstore.

Route will start off as the reverse of the course which will provide you a different perspective of the ride. Once we get to Grand Valley Road we will now be riding the course in the correct direction and heading back to to our start point in Calgary. This would be a great opportunity for Club members to ride the hardest portion of the race route at their planned race pace as well as dial in hydration and nutrition plans.

Last year when we rode this route it was roughly 135km.

Please ensure you have enough spare tubes, water/fluids, food and money on board to be self sufficent if you find yourself dropped. We will make a stop or two in Cochrane to re-fuel as needed.

The intention is NOT to hammer or drop anyone however it is my experience in group rides that this is inevitable. Please be prepared and ready. Also make sure your bikes are in good working condition.

Please rsvp to me by Thursday July 7th at 6pm so I know you are coming and won't be riding alone. I can then make alternative arrangements if no one is interested.

Thanks and hope to see Club members come out!

Jack

jvandyk@talismancentre.com

Race Season Preparations

I have been asked by numerous road cyclists and triathletes what they should do now that they are in race season. As I stated at the Calgary 70.3 talk back in May, “it all depends upon what you have done up to this point in time”. Now this statement garnered some sneers and some people felt I hadn’t “answered” their question. How can I?? The act of training or preparing for an event whether you are a beginner or elite can follow a similar path, that of a structured approach and knowing how everything fits to create a greater whole. Yes this would seem to advocate for the hiring of a coach to help construct this plan which is similar to the process of building a house where there are key steps to follow along the way otherwise you may end up with a faulty foundation, leaky roof or no plumbing! I have decided to provide to the best of my ability a “plan” for Club members looking for some more clarity on preparing for their race season.

Now I will make several assumptions in this post that people in the Triathlon Club have been attending their selected training courses as well as supplementing this training with regular and consistent aerobic training including long rides and runs. I will also assume that most would know what events they are training towards (their “A” race) and what the course profiles look like.

The discipline I see most of our Triathlon Club members making their biggest performance gains in is the bike and I base this off the most recent races our Club members have done. Most have not been outside long enough so their training volume is low or they claim to not know what to do on the bike for training other than just going for a ride. The fact remains that the bike is where you will spend the greatest amount of time in during a triathlon and if you can ride faster more comfortably you will be fresher transitioning to the run. Therefore I will focus on cycling workouts below.

I am often asked if people should be doing interval training during this final race preparation phase and I can emphatically say “yes” to this question. Especially in the 6 weeks out from the race. You should also select routes that would mimic the course profile of your goal race. If it is a flat bike course then do the intervals in your aerobars. If hilly then do half the intervals on the hills and the other half on the flats in the aerobars or alternate them – odd numbered intervals on the hills and even numbered intervals climbing. However I would also state that the intensity level for the intervals as well as length of the intervals will vary depending upon the race distance;

Sprint events:
Intervals should be of higher intensity at MAP (Maximal Aerobic Power) intensity and done between 3-5min in length for a total of 15-30min of time spent at MAP intensity.

Option 1: 3-6x 5min @ MAP effort/power + 5min easy spinning as
recovery

Option 2: 5-8x 3min @ MAP effort/power + 3min easy spinning as
recovery

The Final 6 weeks:

Week 6: Aerobic focus long ride 2.0 - 2.5hours and long run 60-80min
2x Workout Option 1(above)

Week 5: Aerobic focus long ride 2.0hours and long run 50-65min
1x Workout Option 1 & 1x Workout Option 2(above)

Week 4: Aerobic focus long ride 2.0 - 2.5hours and long run 60-70min
2x Workout Option 2(above)

Week 3: Aerobic focus long ride 2.0 - 2.5hours and long run 50-65min
2x Workout Option 1(above)

Week 2: Aerobic focus long ride 1.5hours and long run 45-50min
1x Workout Option 1(above)

Race week: Complete 60% of 1x Workout Option 1 & 1x Workout Option 2 (above)& race day.

Olympic Distance:
Spend more time at your Functional Threshold power or E4 level and do longer interval sets totaling 20-45min of time spent at E4 intensity. Get comfortable being in the aero position while throwing down the power.

Option 1: 2x 15-20min @ E4 effort/power + 7.5-10min easy spinning between intervals

Option 2: 4x 8min @ E4 effort/power + 2.5-4min easy spinning between intervals

Option 3: Over-geared work 6x 5min @ E4 effort but pushing a MASSIVE gear ratio under 75rpm + 3min easy spinning >95rpm as recovery

Option 4: For those with a power meter perform 3-4x 10min alternating every 2min between your low & high end E4 power + 5min easy spinning between intervals

The Final 6 weeks:

Week 6: Aerobic focus long ride 2.0 - 3.5hours and long run 60-90min
1x Workout Option 1 & 1x Workout Option 3(above)

Week 5: Aerobic focus long ride 2.0hours and long run 60-75min
1x Workout Option 2 & 1x Workout Option 4(above)

Week 4: Aerobic focus long ride 2.0 - 3.0hours and long run 60-90min
1x Workout Option 3 & 1x Workout Option 1(above)

Week 3: Aerobic focus long ride 2.0 - 2.5hours and long run 60-70min
1x Workout Option 2 & 1x Workout Option 4(above)

Week 2: Aerobic focus long ride 1.5-2.0hours and long run 45-60min
1x Workout Option 2(above)

Race week: Complete 60% of 1x Workout Option 3 & 1x Workout Option 2 (above)& race day.

Half & Full Ironman:

More of your time will be spent in the high E2 to high E3 range for these races distances. Again get comfortable being in the aero position as well as climbing on your triathlon bike as many long distance courses have hills on the route. Interval sets are long (20-60min) with total riding volume in the neighborhood of 60-120min depending upon your fitness level. These are good workouts to practice your fueling plan and products to see how you absorb and tolerate them.

Option 1: 2x 30min @ your mid-E3 effort/power/HR intensity + 10- 15min @ E2 intensity between intervals done on a rolling course and focusing on controlling your intensity level on the climbs

Option 2: 3-4x 20min @ your E3 intensity level + 5min easy spinning between intervals

Option 3: For experienced athletes: 1-2x 60min @ E3 intensity level

These workouts are great to do on loops of 10-20km with mixed terrain like down south in the Priddis area or in the north near Madden.

The Final 6 weeks:

Week 6: Aerobic focus long ride 4.0 - 5.5hours and long run 100-
150min
1x Workout Option 1 & 1x Workout Option 2(above)

Week 5: Aerobic focus long ride 4.0-5.0hours and long run 100-150min
1x Workout Option 1 & 1x Workout Option 2(above)

Week 4: Aerobic focus long ride 4.0 - 5.0hours and long run 90-120min
1x Workout Option 3 & 1x Workout Option 2(above)

Week 3: Aerobic focus long ride 3.0 - 4.0hours and long run 80- 100min
1x Workout Option 2 & 1x Workout Option 3(above)

Week 2: Aerobic focus long ride 3.0-3.5hours and long run 65-70min
1x Workout Option 3(above)

Race week: Complete 50% of 1x Workout Option 3 & 1x Workout Option 1 (above)& race day.

Keep in mind this is simply a guide based on a number of assumptions I have made. For some this basic plan will work and for others it won’t. If training was as easy as swim, bike and run then we coaches or performance specialists would be out of work. Our roles are to help filter the information and apply what we know to each individual based upon their specific circumstances and needs. Good luck to everyone and if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask me.

JVD

Summer Registration

Hi everyone, I hope the summer comes soon so it will stop feeling like it is fall and that there is in fact a race season ahead.

An important announcement to make regarding the registration process. I will no longer be handling registrations and administrative duties for the Tri Club. These duties are being passed on to Jenn Mireau who was one of the original founding members of our club a few years back. As we transition these duties I will still be helping Jenn in some of the processes and will always be willing to answer questions related to the training side of things.

My role is moving into more of a technical advisor role to the coaching team, focusing on coach mentorship, training information gathering and implementation into our programs and coaching methods, and of course an increased involvement in customized coaching and testing services. The organization has deemed triathlon a priority program/service and as such the needs to run such a department are expanding and hence the need for delegating various roles in order to best build this business unit.

We are currently planning the Fall and winter line up of programs for both ETS and Tri Club and we have some exciting changes happening. The details will be released at a later date as we get closer to the fall registration period. Heck we still have a race season to attend to.

Wasa Lake Triathlon is upcoming and it would be great to see a big club turnout. I would like to enter in a team or two for the Club competition but need to know who is confirmed for the OLYMPIC distance. We will have Grant Burwash on our team so we have a great head start! Derek Campbell is also going and has recently finished 17th place overall at Oliver despite a 5min penalty. Curtis McCall will also be racing so that gives us a strong male contingent. We need some women racers too so please let me know ASAP. Of course we will need a longer list of Club members in the Olympic distance race in case someone dnf’s like I did last year (due to a crank arm falling off).

Reflective Practice with John Clubb

SPORT PSYCHOLOGY SEMINAR

WHEN: Friday April 15th 2011
WHERE: Riverview Room at the Talisman Centre
TIME: 7-9pm
Cost: Free to Talisman Centre Triathlon Club members and ETS athletes
registered in an custom coaching package.

John Clubb is an accredited sport psychologist, sports coach and age group triathlete.

The focus of this seminar will be upon reflective practice and planning for future goals.

There are three key areas of developing a positive mental approach to competition;
Performance evaluation Performance planning Maintaining self-esteem.

Practical strategies will be presented that will enable you to reflect and plan to meet your race challenges 2011 with a positive race experience.

For further information about Clubb Sport Consultancy or this seminar please contact John Clubb at info@clubbsport.ca or call (403).710.1627


“never let your memories be BIGGER than your dreams”
GAIN A CUTTING EDGE ON THE OPPOSITION

About JOHN CLUBB

John operates Clubb Sport Consultancy and has over 20 years experience in sports coaching and sport psychology. He is currently awaiting completion of the ASA triathlon comp intro coach award.
As a competitor John has been racing since 2003 and last year qualified through Ironman Canada to race in Kona.


Please reserve a spot for this great presentation with Jack at jvandyk@talismancentre.com.

Bird Swim Camp April 9th & 10th

After several years racing the elite ITU circuit for Canada, Jon Bird is returning home to Calgary for a weekend workshop on Triathlon Swimming. Sharing some of the cutting edge concepts he has gained training at the National Training Centre in Victoria. The focus for the weekend is on increasing performance and confidence in the pool. With the aid of underwater video camera, swim snorkels, swim specific paddles and cutting edge drills; Jon is looking to pass along the tools to improve your swim and change the way think about training and racing.
The weekend aims to give each triathlete specific feedback and information directly related to increasing performance for this upcoming race season, and this opportunity will assist athletes in the development and visualization of their swim stroke. This course is limited to 15 participants and the cost is $300.00 a person.

More Info


This cost is being used by Jon to fund his upcoming season in a points race to qualify for Pan American Games and the 2012 Olympics.

Hope to see you there

Yoga Sessions

On Saturday March 26th 11:30am - 1pm and April 16th 1-2:30pm, Hillary Higgins will be leading Triathlon Club members through two yoga sessions in the Profile Room at the Talisman Centre. These sessions take place after the morning group ride and will offer up a nice way to relax your tired muscles.

Embracing an athletic background, Hillary has taught yoga specific seminars for runners and sports teams as well as one-on-one personal programs. Yoga has provided tremendous benefits for the athletes not only in body awareness but also injury prevention. Now for the Tri-club, she will present a two part series incorporating the practice of yoga in a tangible class focused specifically for triathletes. The multi-level class will incorporate a variety of yoga styles to lengthen muscles, relieve tension and encourage breath capacity – all skills to enhance training for the race season. Whether you are a practiced yogi, or have never stepped onto a mat, this is an opportunity to flow your triathlon training into a light-hearted yoga practice.

Over the last five years Hillary has been teaching yoga to a variety of ages through a wide breadth of class types. She completed the 200 hour Yoga Alliance Teaching Certificate in Calgary in the classical Ashtanga training series. After, she spent a considerable amount of time in Rishikesh, India at the Anand Prakash Ashram obtaining a further 500 hour accreditation with the Yoga Alliance and further specializing in yoga for children, pre-natal yoga, and yoga for athletes. Enjoying the depth of a multitude of yoga practices, she loves sharing the classical Ashtanga series, flow, hatha, yoga nidra, meditation and hot yoga fundamentals classes.

Please contact Jack at jvandyk@talismancentre.com to reserve your spot.

Wasa Lake Accomodations

For those looking to stay in Kimberly B.C. for the Wasa Lake Triathlon June 11/12th, we have once again been able to get a Club rate for condos.

The accommodation and rate will be the same as last year.

3 bedroom condo – Timberstone $250 per night plus tax
2 bedroom condo – Timberstone - $180 per night plus tax
1 bedroom condo – Timberstone - $100 per night plus tax

The 2 and 3 bedroom condos have a private hot tub. The 1 bedrooms do not.

Please contact Anne Harris of Rocky Mountain Accommodations at info@rockynow.com or 1-866-822-2666 to book your condo. These are fantastic condosso everyone will be comfortable on race weekend.

JVD

Club Presentations

With our meeting rooms now available, I am lining up a series of presenters for the Triathlon Club. Please indicate to me your interest in the following topics along with preferred day of the week;

Yoga for Triathletes with Hillary Higgins.

Performance Profiling "an effective tool that allows the athlete to assess and monitor their performance needs". John Clubb Sport Psychologist.

Sports Physiotherapist Dave Holmes on dealing with back pain in cycling.

Retul Bicycle Fitting 101 with Adam Redmond of SpeedMatrix.

TYR Wetsuit demo

The TYR wetsuit demo that was scheduled for next week's Tuesday and Thursday swim sessions will now happen Tuesday March 8th from 6:45-8:00pm, Thursday March 10th from 6:00-7:00am and March 10th from 6:45-8:00pm.

JVD

Spring 2011 Triathlon Club Courses

Hello all Club members, we are now accepting your registration forms for the Spring 2011 training courses.

Registration procedures will remain the same where you fill out your form completely for me and I will begin processing registrations in early March. Once again existing Club members will have priority registration before I open up to new members who wish to join. The deadline for existing members will be Friday March 11th 2011. After this date I will begin accepting and processing new members. To ensure you get your selections please email your completed forms to me as this provides me a date and time stamp to set an order for me to process registrations. Many have asked if they have to fill out the forms completely. The reason I ask for this is in case anyone's personal information or payment information changes and therefore I have up to date records for each Club member and I don't have to hound people for missing information.

Triathlon Club Run & Swim
The run and swim portion of a triathlon can be the most challenging and sometimes intimidating components of the triathlon! Intensify your training to boost your swimming and running race paces and be ready for the upcoming summer races.

13 classes $180
Tue Apr 5-Jun 28 6:45pm-9:00pm
Thu Apr 7-Jun 30 6:45pm-9:00pm

Triathlon Club Group Brick
The ability to run after the cycling portion of a triathlon is a key element to having a successful day. This group training session is designed to build your aerobic base and increase your ability to quickly run comfortably off the bike. These are also fun training sessions that makes the time go by quickly with your Club mates.

12 classes $180 Mon Apr 4-Jun 27 6:30pm- 8:30pm
13 classes $195 Wed Apr 6-Jun 29 6:30pm- 8:30pm

Triathlon Club Group Ride
Triathlon Club members can ride in a group setting using their own bicycles on the Tacx ergotrainers. Focus specifically on increasing your cycling power this winter by training with power output in a motivating group setting. Make the bike your strength for next season.

6 sessions $180 Sat Apr 9 - May 14 9am - 12pm

Triathlon Club Swim
The Spring Triathlon Club Swim courses now focus on increasing your swim speed and readiness to race. Our experienced coaches have helped many Club members reach new levels of comfort in the water and achieve personal best times in their respective triathlon events. Club members also help keep each other accountable to these early morning sessions.

13 classes $130
Tue Apr 5-Jun 28 6:00am-7:00am Code #35171
Thu Apr 7-Jun 30 6:00am-7:00am Code #35172

Race season is almost here! Are you all ready?

Triathlon Club 2011 Update

Hello everyone, it has been a great start to the New Year here at Talisman Centre. We now have our main building back including the competition pool and the track. Sadly I have yet to run on the track!

First off welcome to all the new Club members and welcome back to all returning members. It is great to see and hear all the enthusiasm in the groups during training sessions. Our membership is now 52 triathletes!

Secondly, for everyone in a swimming session you have no doubt met our newest swim coaches Erin Schultz and Ellen Danielson. Both have competitive swimming backgrounds, direct coaching experience with some of the local swim clubs and as many are learning excellent technical knowledge of correcting swim mechanics.

The following are a series of updates from my end pertaining to all Club members in no order of importance;

1. Several people have asked about the Alberta Triathlon Association (ATA) membership which we have covered in the past. For those not in the know, a membership with the ATA has allowed for insurance coverage for Club activities and what many deem the most important “perk” that being a discount on race entry fees where you can get back $10 to $15 in insurance fees. This has typically cost the Club between $1200 to $1700 per year of which many Club members did not register for a sanctioned event or the events in which they signed up for did not offer this discount. Therefore it is deemed a non-essential expense. Coupled with the fact that the ATA has still not after 3 years of requests acknowledged us as an official affiliated club on their website as promised has prompted me to not cover the ATA membership fee as part of your Club fees. Prior to the roof replacement project we had brought in some guest speakers as part of the Club socials of which the fees helped cover their expenses. The Club fees also helped to subsidize several of the weekend clinics and camps we offered. Therefore we would like to bring these components back to the Club this year so stay tuned for announcements on presenters and clinics.

2. Most of you will have noticed the change in the Talisman Centre logo and colors. This means we have a new logo in the works and new uniforms to come! We are looking at a new clothing supplier this year and SpeedTheory has provided us with a full fit kit from Sugoi for us to try on. Over the next several weeks Grant will have the kit in my office for Club members to try on. We hope to have uniforms ready by the end of May.

3. SpeedTheory will be bringing in a representative from TYR for a wetsuit demo to the morning swim sessions and evening swim sessions on March 1st and 3rd. If you are not scheduled for any of those swim times but would like to test a wetsuit you are welcome to drop in to any of them. I have heard nothing but great things about the new TYP wetsuits so if you are in the market for one, here is a great opportunity to try one. We are still awaiting word from Blue Seventy as they may be in the following week for a demo too.

4. For those new to the Club, SpeedTheory has been one of our supporters and offers Club members a discount on most in store items. They are located at 735A 10th Avenue SW Phone: 403.202.1030. Please speak with Darcy Bell the store manager and tell them Jack sent you.

5. We have two Blogs to bookmark. The first one will have updates like this one and anything related to registration or administrative items http://www.talismancentre.com/triclub/triclubblog.php. The second one was created by Jon Bird before he left and is one open to Club members to post their stories, race results, pictures, invites to training or other social events http://talismantriathlon.blogspot.com/.

6. Jon Bird and I had submitted a piece to Triathlon Canada Magazine to have the Club featured in an upcoming issue. They informed me that the spring issue will contain our Club profile and story. Here is hoping that the pictures I took with Alan Larter’s help turned out!

On a final note, I sat down with Jon Bird before he drove out to Victoria for his official move. He made it through the Maui training camp in fine form and demonstrated to the NTC that he deserves to be there. It was a pleasure coaching Jon the past 2.5 years and gives me immense pride to see him move closer towards his athletic goals. We miss his energy and commitment here but he is where he needs to be to take the next necessary steps. You can follow him on his Blog at http://thereisabird.blogspot.com/.

Have a great season everyone!
JVD

Triathlon Club Picture for Triathlon Canada Magazine

Hi everyone, prior to Christmas Jon had submitted a piece on our Club for the Triathlon Canada Magazine which will be profiled in an upcoming issue. We need to submit a Club photo.

For those attending the Saturday Group Ride this coming weekend (January 15th) please wear either an ETS jersey or triathlon club uniform. I would also like to invite any other club members to join the ride and to be included in the photo that I will submit.

Please let me know if you plan on attending so I know how many to expect - I may need to bring along some mannequins and dress them up...

Jack