Welcome to August – yes, back to school month is here!  Or, Subaru Ironman Canada month, as most of us athletes call it!  And speaking of Subaru IMC, we were out in Penticton on the last weekend of July running our Subaru Success Camp on the course.  We went out a few days early so that I could ride the course, do my long run and a few swim workouts and then the camp began.  All of our athletes had terrific training sessions and learning sessions and social sessions.  Our Regina contingent, in particular, had great social sessions capping the weekend off with the Saskatchewan Roughriders defeating the Toronto Argonauts!  You can read more details about this camp in my blog.  Also read about ‘the bet’ with the mayor of Regina!!!

Then it was off to Calgary for the official announcement of our latest venture, Ironman Calgary 70.3 on August 2nd, 2009 (www.ironmancalgary.com).  The press conference was well attended by all of the relevant media – Global, CTV, City TV and a variety of print media.  The funny thing was watching myself on the evening news on the live satellite televisions as we flew home on Westjet!

And now, I am putting the finishing touches on my training preparation for Subaru Ironman Canada.  Just when I think I have reached my limit in terms of cycling wattage or running speed, I surpass another barrier.  Today, I had an amazing ride-run combination where I pushed wattage that I had never seen before (believe me, I checked all of my training logs for the past 8 years!) and then I was able to run on my very tired legs.  But it is not the training Olympics – there are no medal ceremonies happening in my backyard - the key is to put all of that training into practise on race day.  So I am doing everything with a grain of caution not to leave it all out there and to save a little extra blast for August 24th.

Speaking of the Olympics – they are finally here!!  With that in mind, I watched the Sydney 2000 Olympic triathlon and celebrated with Michellie Jones as she won her silver medal.  What a tremendous athlete. Her career has spanned non-drafting and drafting Olympic distance triathlons and Ironman and she has won them all.  She is probably the greatest female triathlete of all time!

So here is to the month of August – cheer loud, train safe, be focused and stay happy.

Stay safe and train happy...

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