I don't Mind and it don't Matter

Why Write?

2012-01-10T23:38:00.001-08:00

I have been asked why do I want to be a writer? I take this question to mean why do I want to write? I find it hard to answer this question. It seems easier to answer “why wouldn’t I?” In simple terms I love stories. I love the romanticism, the nuances and the characters. I love the lessons, the metaphors and the meaning. I love to be entertained. I love the way a good story makes me feel. A good story can take a bland event and turn it into an earth shaking tale, and while the earth is still buzzing around you there is no denying that what you feel deep inside is trembling as well. At my heart I am a romantic. People fault me for this. Some see it as a weakness, others are judgmental. But I am programmed to be moved by ideals rather than events, by feelings rather than rationality, and by my own sense of what life means. I wear my heart on my sleeve and that will never change.

I have grown up a storyteller, an entertainer. I take any chance to explain my views to others through a literary metaphor. I once read a quote by Ernest Hemingway “one must have suffered much in their life to be a good writer.” I think what Hemingway means is that your writing will fall on deaf ears unless you have lived enough to believe in the things you are writing, to have the courage to put faith behind your prose.

I want to write because I feel I have something to offer. I feel that I have the courage to expose the things I know to be true and demolish the hollow ideals that haunt me. I want to write because I feel I have to, even if it is for the selfish reason of lifting the weight off my shoulders for a short time.

Best Run Ever

2012-01-02T18:46:00.001-08:00

Last night i was fortunate enough to enjoy the greatest run of my life. I did not set any personal best times, or cover an unbelievable amount of distance. It simply felt amazing. I returned on New Years day from Red Deer late, not setting off for my run until 7:30 pm. The air was crisp as I left the shelter of my front door and ventured onto our street, then turned right to reach my usual route towards Foote Field via 72nd ave. It was dark, the trails illuminated by the street lights, and that was enough to navigate my way into the trails near snow valley. My ipod touch was plugged into my head and the sounds of Caleb Followills eerie vocals penetrated my mind, dazing me slightly. I entered into the tree covered trails, illuminated only by a half moon through a cloudless sky. The snow underneath me was heavily packed but not icy. Indeed every foot step struck ground deliberately and did not hesitate in propelling me forward without a slip. My feet began to tingle and slowly lose their awkward thumping feeling. Soon my legs followed suit and i felt as though i was floating. This is a sensation i have not felt in over a year and dare i say a sensation that after my ankle injury i thought i may never again. My mind was sharp and focused on the task despite being wooed by the music in my head. My thoughts turned from dark and dramatic to nostalgic, thinking of times with Aimee, times with my brother and time spent alone. Every song had a different meaning and each song that played seemed to have been chosen for a reason. What started as a run to run away from the demons in my head, the ones i fight with so often, turned into a run down of the last year of my life. From darkness to light, from fear to hope, i left the past behind as i exited the trails near Hawrelak Park and turned onto the Groat Road bridge.

As I ran across the river i felt at peace, this city is a home to me a place i love and cherish and at times it has been my best friend and my worst enemy. Tonight it was my friend, offering it's snowy trails and frigid bridges up to me to strike with my legs, and it's air to cut with the exhales of my breath. It's lights were on full display as i ran through the legislature and felt a hint of regret at things that i had not done when i had the chance. This is where i saw another soul for the first time in over ninety minutes. I was beginning to think that i had fallen into some sort of dream state, and that description would not be far off. To say that i was transcending myself and my body would not be enough, i was certainly transcending the menial task of which i had partaken. But that is what i love about sport, in a simple act we can transcend the very activity that allows us to enter into a new state of being. I wonder how many people actually get to feel like this. My thought is not very many. I turned again onto the high level bridge, taking in the view of the university, of the Kinsmen Sports Centre i had to smile. As i ran down 109 street i actually felt so good that i realized i was running close to 3:00 per km pace and let myself slow down. It had felt so natural, and i hadn't realized how much faster i had started running, or had i been running this way most of the night?

When i finally reached my house one hour and fifty minutes after departing, i stood outside for a moment and said my thanks to whatever is out there for allowing me the chance to experience this moment. And after looking a tad crazy for pointing to the sky, i entered the relative safety of home again.

Love,

Shack

Winter training rig

2011-12-30T12:50:00.001-08:00

Life and times of the Loshack

2011-12-30T09:48:00.000-08:00

Update time

I have been very busy with school and training over the past few months and have had little time to write for pleasure, thus the lack of blog updates. Everything has been good over the past few weeks and i feel that i am now on an upward curve in life and training after the dip i had in November.

On November 11th I raced the CIS national cross country championships in Quebec City with the University of Alberta Golden Bears. The race was abysmal, I was sick for the week leading up to it and was in survival mode. School was busy and i was trying to maintain my swim fitness, while my ankle was giving me serious problems on the running front. I had one of the worst races of my life but i really didn't care. I raced cross country for the first time in three years and did not enjoy it at all. I love cross country and love the guys i ran with, but the idea of a school team and all the school spirit is not my style. I also prefer to work with Kevin, and i can tell you honestly that i will not run cross country for the bears in my last year of school unless i am allowed to train with Kevin instead. In the end my body broke down, i had to take two weeks completely off and my ankle was in shambles and this was not worth the scholarship money i received.

Kevin is my coach, he is fully qualified to take me where i want to go and i refuse to work with anyone else for any reason unless he is the one to bring that person in.

So after this time off i have had to make up a lot of ground in the pool, but i can honestly say that it is finally coming along. My run is going amazing, which goes to show that with Kevin i can run over 70km per week and feel great and healthy and with anyone else 20km per week causes injuries. The right training for the right body type is important, and he knows i cannot handle too much speed work or high intensity running.

In the pool i am slowly starting to find some form, nothing magical, nothing great, but it is getting to a point where i feel comfortable in the water again. I am closing the gap between the faster guys in my group and am hoping to still rip off a best time in the 400m and 1500m by the time the season starts.

The weather has been beautiful in Edmonton and i have taken advantage to ride outside as much as i can. I have been riding a chromoly hybrid mountain bike with 29er wheels and 2.4 inch tires for my long rides. It is a single speed, so i mostly just grind it out at 80rpm for 2-3 hours at a time, but at this time of year that is the perfect training for me. I can definitely gain a lot of strength and have managed to stay upright so far (knock on wood). I will be sure to post a few pics of the rig soon to give you an idea of what it is like to train in the Great White North.

As far as writing goes i have been enjoying my non-fiction writing class and have lined up some more writing classes for next year as well. I am learning the tools and techniques which is important to developing my skills. I have to remember that it is a process, i used to think people just wrote a book in one shot, now i understand it takes years to develop the ideas needed for a novel or even a short story. The problem i have is that i know most of what i write is autobiographical and in that sense it is hard for me to apply perspective to my life experiences as many of them are still fresh. There is a lot of material swirling in my mind and at some point i hope to find a way to filter that into something cohesive and entertaining. I relate the process to my triathlon training. You can't win a gold medal in one day nor can you write a novel in a day. It takes a whole career of training and practice to reach that pinnacle and it is ridiculous to focus only on that pinnacle for your whole career. First you must learn the skills involved which is where i am at right now with writing. Then you must use them in smaller, less important areas such as publishing small stories or non-fiction pieces, or do smaller races to practice. It is only then that you can begin to leave your mark on more polished pieces that carry more weight and significance, or likewise begin to race more national level races and be in the race, which is what i hope to do this season in triathlon. There is a lot more to come after that, but it seems pointless to think about it now.

Everyday is a process, every workout and every word spurs me on to another level in that process. There is no ceiling, no predetermined end and there are no guarantees. Nothing is ever fair or right and it is impossible to plan for every road bump. The only thing i can do is to write one word at a time, run one step at a time, swim one stroke at a time. Those words turn into stories, those steps and strokes turn into workouts, and those stories and workouts come to define not only your career but also who you are as a person.

One word at a time, One step at a time, One stroke at a time

Love,

Shack

First Essay from Intro to Non-Fiction Writing Class

2011-10-17T12:00:00.000-07:00

Alright, so here is my first essay from my class in it's entirety. It was meant to be a descriptive essay on a place that means something to you, for me I chose Waskesiu Saskatchewan, where i first learned about triathlon. I definitely think it could use a bit more work in polishing it, so lets call this a draft, even though it is the draft that I submitted for my class as a final product.

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B7X--_7-0CkTMjJmZDhlNWItMDdmNy00NGEzLTg5ZTMtMTlmODg3MzhjNmU4&hl=en_GB

Forgetting how to turn it on

2011-10-08T21:30:00.000-07:00

Stolen photo... Copyright Jordan Bryden

I figured that over the last few weeks i have forgotten how to race. I forgot how to turn it on and just open up on a race course.

I had two weeks off after nationals which was super chill and i am still stuck in that relaxing/have a good time/chill mode. With so many events looming over the next couple weeks and some serious goals for next summer its time to step it up and get my shit together again. I need to get back into serious training/racing mode and get back to doing what i do best, crushing workouts and putting the hurt on other people.

So tomorrow I am racing my first ever cyclo-cross race here in edmonton at the velodrome. To get back into the serious mindset i had to make a bit of a change. Off went the leg hair and back came the beard.

Then i have a couple big cross country races before the end of that season, but realistically we are going full bore again in training so i have to keep on it until i get to race for real next summer.

I'm back on it again, not a moment too soon

I want that feeling that Crowie has in the photo

Shack

Race report of Kelowna Nationals and a status update

2011-09-01T23:27:00.000-07:00

The Tri season has come and gone, and mine ended on a bummer of race, i don't want to bore you with the details of my unfortunate day, but here are some facts to put it into perspective.

1) I was feeling in good shape going in, probably the best i ever have
2) I thought i had some serious nerves before the race, which turned out to be a stomach bug
3) I was ranked second last, but still lined up in the 34th position out of 50 guys somehow
4) I made the main pack in the swim (best swim ever)
5) I got fed on the bike and run
6) I still finished the race even though it was slightly embarrassing

So at nationals, aside from the swim being a great improvement, i just didn't have it on the day. Whether i was sick, or it was nerves, or just me working myself up too much, i just had no power on the bike and cramped horribly on the run.

It was an off day, and although it was a big race i am really not worried about it, its been two weeks since then and i can put it into perspective and see that some days you have it and some days you don't and the ultimate goal is to have it more often than not.

Coach was awesome all weekend, lending me much of his time to go over race stuff etc and supporting me even on a tough day, i know it was just as tough to him to watch me suck as it was for me to actually suck.

Parents were rad, thanks for taking me out there and cheering me on, and convincing me to keep going after i was going to drop out on lap one of the run. I think it was the concern in my mothers voice that forced me to keep going when she said "no kris, keep going."

But they were great and helped me shrug off a tough day, next time we take a trip together i promise to bring home the bacon for you!

Jason Jama, chill as always and although he can't sit still it was awesome to be able to have my main training bud out there to do sessions with, i feel bad that i couldn't see his race, but i know that next year i will only have to look to my left on the start line to see him.

Guri for giving me time off work and as usual for being a sounding board for me for everything, and for the loan of a sick set of wheels. Love ya man

All the ETA kids were killer, great races and efforts for everyone, things only go up from here and so far things are going awesome. I love training with you guys and you inspire me every session.

So life is good, now i move forward and get ready for running cross country again for the first time in a few years, it will be exciting for race for the green and gold of the U of A again and to get back into the swing of school. I'll still be working 3 days a week at PRW and taking a full course load along with training so it should be a busy year. I'll also try my hand at a few cyclo-cross races this fall and do some of the tuesday night races here in edmonton.

Blog updates will continue, although if you only tune in for race reports you may be surprised to see more actual literary offerings showing up in the coming months... I am in a few writing classes all year to finish my concentration courses in my degree so hopefully i will be able to kill two birds with one stone and write pieces that will apply to the blog as well.

Whoever said I couldn't be efficient?

I was thinking today that the only way i could be happier with things at this point is if i had a motorcycle to rip around on, and a beachy surfer girlfriend to tell me how awesome i am and blow sunshine up my arse (not sure if that is code or not, maybe both?)

You can make bets on which will come first

Love,

Shack

Photo's are from Frank Dunn Toyota Triathlon on August 7th, Courtesy of Michael Loshack

Frank Dunn Toyota Triathlon Race Report

2011-08-14T21:32:00.000-07:00

I figured I should write a report about my race last weekend in Waskesiu Saskatchewan. I did a race called the Frank Dunn Toyota triathlon. It consisted of a 1.5km swim, 62km bike and a 13km run set in Prince Albert National Park.

I have been spending a chunk of my summer in Waskesiu every year since I was about two years old and have watched my dad do the race every year. I have done this race myself 3 times before and I won it back in 2005 when I was 17 years old.

Back then I thought that was going to be my first big win, the first big race of many races to come. It did show some signs of promise, but largely my career did not lift off the way I thought that it would, and I could not forsee all the issues that I had over the past two years creeping into my life.

The point is that when I began recovering from my broken ankle I decided that regardless of whether I wanted to race anymore or not, I would at least do the Frank Dunn Toyota race this year and decide after that. It had been 4 years since I had done this race, and I was not going to end my career without heading back there one last time, to the place that I believe my obsession and passion for this sport began all those years ago when i stood on the side of the road and watched my father race. The place where I had my first big win, and the place that feels as much of a home as any place I have ever been before.

I grew up around that race and the plan was to come back and pay homage to it one last time, and possibly be the last time that I raced.

Well we all know that somewhere along the road over the last little while I found my passion again, and have had one hell of a successful season both sporting wise as well as personally.

So the goal for this race went from paying homage to it with being motivated to compete, to wanting to honour the race by absolutely having the best performance there has been there. That's what I wanted to try to do anyway.

So I was more motivated for this race than any other race I have ever done. And I did what I set out to do.

I started the morning by having guys come up to me and say "It will be cool to see if you can track those guys down on the run and win again," I turned to my dad and said "these guys obviously don't realize I can ride now..."

The gun went off at 8am and I swam into the lead and opened up for the entire course, I ended up leading by over 40 seconds out of the water in a swim that was around 200m long. I exited exactly where I had planned to, had an amazing transition and warmed up into the bike.

I ended up having one of the best rides of my life and put over five minutes on the guy with the second fastest bike split. I ended up getting off the bike with over 11 minutes on the second place guy.

In the transition from bike to run I did something I have never done before in a race in over 11 years of racing. I put the wrong running shoe on the wrong foot. I guess there is a first time for everything and all I could do was stop and laugh.

I headed out on the run and passed my little bro and mom who were super excited and just going nuts. I felt super good and just settled into a rhythm. I got out onto the open road and there were age groupers rolling by me and yelling encouragement, it felt great and i was so happy to be out there. I hit the turn around 6.5km in and still felt great, then i passed the second place guy who was not 3km behind me. Everyone was super supportive and cheering me on.

About 700m from the finish i passed my dad who was just heading out onto the run, I high fived him and he looked as proud as I have ever seen him. It felt good.

It started pouring rain with about 1km to go and I thought to myself that it was just fitting for me to finish this race in the pissing rain, it just made sense that the sky would pour out its emotions just as I did on this race. As I ran through the main street filled with people I put a finger up in the air, and got really choked up. I actually started to cry, even though i was holding it back as hard as I could.

I came into the finish and just pumped my fists and went nuts, It was the greatest race of my life and i let it all out at the finish.

I ended up winning the race by 15 minutes, and it was the most successful race of my life, I put it all on the line and led from wire to wire without thoughts of anyone else, instead I was just completely focused on the emotions of the last year of my life, and of paying homage to a race that means so much to me.

I ended up having the fastest swim, bike and run splits, and I would have broken the course record if the swim had not been long. Race director Mark Nagy acknowledged this at the awards ceremony, and i thank him for that.

I feel like after this race there is no pressure anymore, i already had a successful season, anything else is just a bonus.

I also feel that after winning this race, I have opened a new chapter in my life. The chapter starts with this win and the emotions that went along with it, and with that I close the last chapter and can put all my agony and pain behind me.

I have a new breath of life and am determined this time to make this chapter a worthy one.

Thank you to my Parents, and my little brother, love you guys, you make it easy for me to do what I do because I see how much support you give me.

Thanks to my coach too, we did this together!

Kris

Pictures soon to come

Bowness photo

2011-08-14T21:31:00.001-07:00

News... What else?

2011-08-02T21:29:00.000-07:00

Whats up? How's your summer going? Racing much?

Well I myself have been back at it again. A year that was not supposed to see any racing has probably seen more than i could have imagined and it doesn't seem to be stopping anytime soon. I just seem to jump into whatever is available that sounds fun, plus i am in good form lately so it helps to take advantage of any opportunities available. Plus racing is fun, especially when i am doing it rather than watching it!

Let me take you back to the past couple of weeks

July 24th, 2011 approximately 3:10am, my mother is waiting outside of pedalhead road works while i run inside to grab my front race wheel. We had just come from working a casino for my triathlon club (thanks mom!) and i needed to grab my wheel for the race coming up in about 5 hours... Kevin was set to pick me up at 4:30 am and then pick up our buddy and massage guru Lincoln and then race out to Sylvan lake for the half ironman. Clearly as you can tell by now we were doing the event as a team, and i was doing the 90km bike. What you may not realize is that after picking up my wheel, my mother dropped me off at home and i got my stuff ready and left. By the time i started the race, i was going on 24 hours straight without sleep. Something i had not done yet this year as i was actually trying to be somewhat serious about my racing.

I won't bore you with the details, but Lincoln led out of the swim, then i rode a 2:14:30 for the 90km bike without the transitions included and Kevin finished up for a half marathon with us taking the win in the race, the first team to ever win. But it was just good times, took a dip in the lake, checked out the "beach" and then had Dairy queen before driving home and me lying down at 5pm and sleeping until 7am the next morning, sweet.

The week after that was the Tour de Bowness

This was a good trip with Jama, Isa and I staying together and getting to race and hang out with our 3 other team mates: Bill, Steve, and Chris Coleman.

Drove down on friday right after i finished work at 6pm and got to our hotel in cochrane around 10pm after a long drive and we all just crashed out.

Got up the next day to nice weather, had a solid breakfast and headed to the road race area. I got caught by some psycho lady who worked for the gas station for pissing on a barbed wire fence and apparently she was pretty pissed herself... Needless to say i ducked my way out of there pretty quick and did not return.

Then the race started and well, Cat 4 were just dicking around... Our team was only three guys so we had no options to really put too much work in, but there were other teams that were a lot bigger and frankly didn't use their size to their advantage whatsoever. Apparently guys were looking out for me, but what they didn't realize is that sitting around for the first 44km lap played perfectly into my hands. The pace didn't ramp up until i got to the front and started to hammer a bit, but i took a good chunk of turns in the front on the first lap too. So i got on the front and pushed it a bit while there was two guys off the front. I asked for someone else to pull and he said no cause he had a guy in front. I was like dude he is getting caught, lets string this out, but he had not interest. So when i pulled those guys in he went on the attack. I figured this guy was not cool and not getting away so i chased him, then one other guy caught on but i dropped them both on a hill and they got swallowed up by the pack.

I went on as hard as i could solo because i knew that our group screwing around allowed the cat 5 group to catch up and if they did catch the pack they would neutralize them. I had an ace up my sleeve. So i hammered to the turn around and then straight back into the head wind and they did get neutralized and i got a 2 min lead. They slowly widdled it down, but i was in control the whole way to take a solo win by around 40 seconds. Sweet. I headed straight to the porta potty to piss cause i was holding it since 10km in. Isa finished 5th in cat 4 and Jama was 4th in cat 5. Solid day.

We went out that night to hudsons downtown in Calgary and partied a bit, i had anywhere between 2-8 rye and cokes and we got home around 3am. But the hill climb was not until 6pm so we knew we were good.

Got up, had breakfast, spin for an hour with Isa, and then starbucks. Lunch, stretch, drink, then head to hill climb. Got there early for a recon ride, looked hard but i figured just kill it as hard as you could and it would be fine.

I was put with the guys that were 2nd and 3rd in the RR the day before and I wanted to hit them hard out of the gate so they got no draft and blew up and hopefully got no points... It worked and i put at least 15 seconds into them straight away. Won the hill climb and led in points, now its all down to the crit for the GC. Jama was second in his hill climb.

Jama was our direction man for the crit, but somehow he read the directions backwards and we ended up at the airport rather than the crit, so i took the reigns and we had only 20 mins to get Jama back to bowness for the crit on time. We sped through Calgary and jumped out at the road closure to do a nascar stop and get him off towards the start. He made it with only 30 seconds to spare. I nearly shit myself.

Jama held solid in his race and he ended up finishing 3rd in the crit and good for 3rd overall in the omnium.

Coleman, Steve, Isa and myself had discussed tactics to keep my lead safe for the crit, but all that went out the window pretty much straight away as the only ones strong enough to stay at the front for an extended period were Isa and Myself. Coleman and Steve definitely tried to help but it was so fast and surgey that it was really hard to control. I just ended up staying on the front as much as possible to stay safe and be in good position. I attacked with 4 laps to go, but the entire pack was not letting me go anywhere, i was a marked man. I ended up going into the last corner in 2nd place and ended up sprinting to 9th. Which was exactly what i wanted to do, i stayed safe on the last corner and had good position because i know i can't sprint.

In the end i did enough to stay in 1st for the Omnium GC and with my hill climb results got into Cat 3. Isa finished 4th in the Crit and was able to get into Cat 3 as well. Road racing is now done for me for the year, time to focus on what is really important and what is actually my real focus, TRIATHLON! Nationals are now only 19 days away and i need to get my shit together, specifically my swim.

Headed to Waskesui this weekend to race the Frank Dunn toyota triathlon as a tune up race, wish me luck.

Photo's from the weekend soon to follow.

I will leave you with our pump up song from the weekend

cheers,

Dream Sponsors

2011-07-21T21:21:00.000-07:00

This post is inspired by the hottie red bull girls that dropped by the old PRW on Wednesday. How they have not figured out that our shop has nothing to do with downhill mountain biking, I will never understand. But I love them for it cause they bring me free red bull and compliment us on the shop.

Thanks Ladies

So this post is dedicated to the hotties! It is about my dream sponsors. The companies whom I would take onto team Loshack without a moments hesitation. Here it is for your viewing entertainment:

The Super Amazing Loshack Dream Sponsor List

1) RED BULL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love your company, your style and your swager. I think that this is one company that actually raises your personal cool points for being associated with them. I don't even care about the cash that you give to your athletes to allow them to accomplish the craziest goals, like free falling from space or giving up road cycling to be a full time kick ass cyclo-cross guy Just give me a hat and some free cans and I will be a happy man. Actually if you throw in a red bull girl that would be great too!

2) Oakley
I am a slave, I know, I recognize it and I am completely ok with it. Oakley is the shit, the best glasses out there. I have 3 pairs, all paid for with my shop discount, and they are awesome. I would love to rep it like Gorgeous George

3) Focus Bikes
I have the Izalco with full dura-ace and it friggin kills. Best bike I have ever ridden, and they are a cool company started by cyclists with an eye towards workmanship and efficient engineering. As a mechanic I love to work on Focus Bikes because they are so well thought out and designed, unlike some bikes out there ("cough" Cervelo "cough"). They are a joy to work on and this company is clearly all about the sport. Plus they have cool commuter bikes too I would take their bikes over Specialized or any other brand or any other brands cash!

4) Mavic
I love this crazy French company. There are so many wheel manufacturers, but I love Mavic. They have bomb proof wheels that you don't have to worry about on our rough roads. Plus their engineering is cutting edge and well, just cool. If you don't believe me then come to the shop and see the new R-sys wheels on Guri's fair weather riding rigg.

5) Adidas
I used to be a Nike fan, but Adidas hooked me on their Adizero flats and I am loyal now. Adidas running shoes fit me the best, plus they are more involved with triathlon and well Impossible is nothing for Adidas.

6) Lazer for Helmets. Enough said.

7) Patagonia
Half the stuff I own these days is from Patagonia. I dig their environmental work, Yvon Chouinard was one of the co-founders of 1% for the planet. And their clothing is amazing. Period. They took on the Malloy Bro's and created a surfing line, maybe they would take on me to do some run and tri stuff for them. A bearded man can only dream right?

8) Safeway
This one is from my mother, and it really does make sense. Pleas sponsor me Safeway, If you do I might not ever have to eat pancakes for dinner again!

9) Air Canada
Free flights, and my bike flies for free and never gets lost. Am I just dreaming?

10) Fairmont Hotel Group
Hotels all over the world and they let me sleep on a cot in the basement of all of them. Hows that for a sponsorship deal Fairmont? I promise I will make myself scarce and clean up any mess I make.

So that's it, my dream list of sponsors.

Thanks for reading

Kris

I like to race my bicycle

2011-07-14T21:32:00.001-07:00

Just thought i would give a quick update as to my plans for the rest of the season so that if anyone is curious they can now know.

There is only 5 weeks until nationals in Kelowna (elite nationals for me), i am looking forward to that race and will be putting in some intense efforts to get things tuned up in time.

However i am still doing some racing in-between in order to keep myself entertained, and also to allow the beard i am growing to be out in full force and infecting the clean cut world of triathlon in numerous cities across the province.

Side note, i am growing a beard for Kelowna, I started just after the devon GP race and will keep it for the race at nationals. I kinda figured that i am an unknown, no one knows me or remembers me, and no one will be looking out for me, so i might as well run with the underdog theme and grow a big grizzly beard just to freak people out...

Alright so next on the race calender is the sylvan lake half ironman. No i am not doing the whole race, just the bike, my coach and our bud lincoln will be doing the other parts, but we still hope to bring home some glory just for fun, race date July 23rd.

Then I am off to Calgary for July 30th and August 1st to race the Tour De Bowness stage race and try to bump myself into cat 3 for next year.

After that I am doing the frank dunn toyota triathlon in waskesui Saskatchewan, kind of like a home away from home race for me since i have spent parts of every summer there since i was born and have really grown up watching my dad do it. This one is a feel good race for me, it is a bit nostalgic as i won my first big race here when i was 17. I feel like for my journey to start a new i need to go back to where it began and conquer it once more, really come full circle on the past 6 years of my life and begin the next and equally amazing part of it. Race date August 7th.

Then I have two weeks until Nationals to get my shit together and grow my beard some more.

Hopefully that gives a bit of an update, if anyone feels like coming out and slaughtering me in a few training sessions to get me ready for the pain of nationals, just drop a comment and we will get it going. And to those who already do kill me in every workout, just keep doing what you are doing.

Cheers,

ITU Edmonton Sprint Provincial Champs Race Report

2011-07-11T19:21:00.001-07:00

Well the ETA and myself included had a good week of getting to train with athletes from around the world such as Gavin Noble, Bryan Keane, Hollie Avil and Barrett Brandon. They and many others were in town for the World Cup triathlon and Kevin managed to get them out for a few sessions.

I missed a bunch of them due to having to work during the day, but Gavin and Bryan along with Todd Lecke beat me up in the pool during a 5 x 400m drafting set on the wednesday. I was just amazed at how easily these guys can accelerate in the pool and then settle back in. I realized that I definitely have some work to do before i am at that level, but also realized that these guys are no different than myself, just a few more years of training and racing is all that separates me from these great world class athletes and that is motivating in itself.

So after the big week we got down to business in the Sprint tri which was also the Alberta provincial champs. Since I knew i could not get into the world cup as i am not quite there yet Kevin figured this was the most worthwhile race to do.

So we started at ten am and representing the ETA on the mens side was Jama, Max, Guillaume, Brendan and myself. The horn went off and Bo Simpson (who bragged to me before the race that he had already swam a 17:20 mile earlier this year) took it out hard on the right side while i took it out hard on the left. at the first buoy i surged to get onto his feet, and from then on it was smooth sailing. We hit the beach in 9:00 for the 750m. Definitely my best swim so far this year. I had a good run to transition and headed out on the bike. I decided to use my road bike with no aero bars and no race wheels (Guri calls this "eddy merckx style") to see if i could still get the best bike split. It felt a little ridiculous blowing by guys with a full aero set up, but i am a good bike handler and used the corners and downhills to my advantage. I rode the first lap of 10km in around 16:40 including the super long run into transition and the transition itself. Then on the second lap i felt better and hammered a bit harder to extend my lead.

I got off the bike with a very large gap and really had nothing to worry about but i wanted to put down a solid run time and a good overall time so i had a fantastic 2nd transition where everything went smoothly and headed out onto the run.

I ran past my dad who was calling out splits for me the entire race and he told me i was on pace to go under an hour for the whole race. I ran a good solid pace for the first 2.5km lap and then kicked it up a bit for the second lap, I ended up finishing in 59:34 with a sub 17 min run split. That is by far the fastest i have run since i broke my ankle.

In second and third were my team-mates Max and Jama and i was happy to meet them at the finish line.

I have to say that this was a totally complete race for me, i had a great swim, bike and run and perfect transitions, was totally motivated and ready to race and did exactly what i wanted to do. It seems like things are on the right track for nationals only 5 weeks away. If i tune up my swim and run just another 5-10% of what i can do, then i really think i can do a great race in my final year of racing as a U23.

Thanks to Isa, Dave, My dad, Kevin, Hack, and all the other guys out there watching and cheering in the pouring rain. You guys give me a lot of confidence on the course, especially Isa with his constant talk of things to come! All in good time my friend.

So I was pretty fired up about my race and then I watched the elite men compete and the first swimmer came out in 16:40... Then the whole pack at around 17:00... Thats when i realized that if i held my 9:00 pace I would have been one of the last guys out... So needless to say I am going to have to bust my ass over the next 364 days until next years race in order to hopefully race in front of my home town in the elite race.

I'm game for it.

Kris

Canada Day Crit Report

2011-07-04T10:04:00.000-07:00

Well after my devon stage race weekend i was able to get my upgrade into Cat 4 in time for the Canada Day Crit. This race is put on by the Juventus club and is quite a Gem. It is organized around the Alberta Legislative grounds and is surrounded by screaming fans and people who are just there to take in the festivities. Needless to say, i wanted to impress.

The race started at 3:30pm so i showed up with my coach Kevin and room mate Jama (who were racing Cat 5) after a quick coffee at the coaches flat. I kind of hung around and watched them race the first few laps before heading off for a spin to warm up.

I did my warm up spin with my cat 4 PRW team-mates: Isa, Chris Coleman, and Alan and we discussed tactics. Clearly Isa was our sprint man and the race format favored him. It was a points race consisting of 28 laps of a little over 1km circuit with a solid uphill on one side and downhill on the other. There was a points sprint every 4 laps worth 5,3,2,1 for the top four with double points on the finishing sprint. We had planned to set Isa up and have Coleman and myself help out. If it seemed feasable then my job was to attack after 8 laps to let the PRW boys keep the work to the other teams. For Coleman it was a similar strategy if I could not get away then he would go. Basically we would find a way to strong arm the race and take a win.

We lined up and headed out for the first lap. All the guys in the field were pretty twitchy and the pace was ramped right up. I was in the first pack but barely hanging on for a bit. By the time the first sprint came at 4 laps in Isa was not placed high enough so i sprinted for fourth and one point. Then an attack went and I chased and it settled down again with the group. For the second sprint I tried to lead into it but got nipped at the line and took third. After that i was getting frustrated and kind of angry. I surely wanted a win and a good showing in front of all the fans. At ten laps in a Juventus kid went off the front on the hill and i went with him, I heard Isa yell "GO" and looked back at the top to see we had a gap. So i poured the pressure on to open it up. The kid hung on my wheel for a lap and then i told him to take a pull, he pulled up the hill and i got in front on the downhill to take the sprint win. I looked back and had popped him, so as it usually goes in these types of situations I heard a British voice in my head say "And Loshack, Now Committed" and that was it. I hammered as hard as I could, putting time into the group with every lap. I heard 45, then 55, 65, and it kept going. I started lapping guys like crazy and the only people I never caught were my own guys.

I collected first for the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th sprints and came across the line with well over a minute on the next group. I was on a solo break for 16 laps and was cooked. I heard everyone yelling my name during the break and felt better and better and I really just felt like I wanted to put on a show for everyone and maybe get some people excited. I came into the finish straight alone and pointed to my PRW logo on the Jersey (something I just started doing out of respect to Guri and the shop and the opportunities that it has given me) and then i pumped my fists in the air across the line. Totally knackered, but completely satisfied.

I won 80 bucks for the effort and some gift cards, but the real reward was having people congratulate me and respecting my solo break.

It is the only way that I know how to win, and it is the only way I want to win, I think a solo break is a classy thing to do and I will always try it no matter what race it is.

A couple more wins and I will be in Cat 3, hopefully i can do that later in the summer.

Thanks to Saskia, Max and Kam King, Kevin and Jama, and all the people i recognized on the course for the encouragement. Thanks to Bill Hodgetts for the photo's

And thanks to my team mates Isa, Coleman and Alan for keeping it civil in the pack and allowing me to get away.

Next up Sprint Tri at the World Cup on Sunday

Devon GP Stage Race Report

2011-06-26T15:50:00.000-07:00

Howdy all,

So i got the Saturday off of work this weekend and entered the Devon GP stage race as my first cycling race ever. It was better late than never as i missed a few of the early races due to work or a nagging knee issue.

Somehow I convinced my PRW teammate Isa to put up with me all weekend so that i could get a ride to all the races with him, thanks for that Isa, I definitely appreciate the Digitalism in the car on the way to all the races.

So the first stage was a 2km Prologue held in downtown Devon, it was Friday night at 7pm and we went off in 30 second intervals according to your category. I was racing Cat 5 (the lowest category) as this was my first year holding an ABA license. So Isa picked me up from the shop at 6pm just after work and we headed out with Jama to the race site. Got there a bit early and it had just stopped raining so the roads were soaked, I was racing deep wheels like in Half Moon so i rode around a bit to get used to the tires in the wet cause i had never tried them before. I didn't know the course as we got there after they closed it so i was just flying blind. I took off and hammered as hard as I could and just took the corners as hard as possible. I finished up quick, rode a little cool down and then drove back to Edmonton.

I had noticed earlier that my time trial bike had a frayed cable that needed to be changed so Jama and I headed over late at night around 10pm to the PRW shop so i could work on the bike and get it fixed. We ordered pizza there and finished up around 11:30pm then road home in the pissing rain. Got to bed by midnight, not a perfect pre-race night.

The next morning i found out that i had won the cat 5 prologue, and had the 5th fastest time overall when you count all of the categories, definitely a nice way to start the race.

Time trial started for me at 10:10 am Saturday morning and Isa was pretty late picking me up due to having problems with his own bike but i knew a better route to get out there and he hammered down the highway to get me there at 9:30am with plenty of time before the start. I was a little worried but it worked out perfectly. It was a perfect situation to practice something going wrong and learning how to deal with it (my coach Kevin would have loved this). I had a great warm up on the trainer and in full TT kit rolled down the ramp motivated to crush the 16km flat T style course. I hammered the course as hard as I could, accelerated out of the 180 degree turns and kept the throttle on to catch 5 guys who had started in 1 min intervals in front of me. Afterward I had a solid 30 min cool down on the trainer and we headed home to rest for the crit.

When I cam back for the crit at 4:35pm I found out that i had won my category in the Time trial by over a minute and had placed 7th overall when you count all the categories. So now I was sitting 1st place in the GC by over a minute with two my teammate Dave in second and my other team mate Joe in fourth. After chatting the Cat 5 team of myself, Joe, Dave, Matt and Dan decided it was best to be on the front and set the pace for the crit and control the attacks to preserve GC place. The course was a four corner 1km lap and we did 15 laps total. We took off and controlled for the first two laps then i got a bit relaxed and let a couple guys ahead who almost took down the group. After that I sat at the front with Joe and Dan the rest of the crit hammering to whittle the group down. Joe took the time bonus halfway in, and though we botched the finish i was able to scrape on the podium with a third place, unfortunately Joe and Dave got caught in the back while Dan had got caught after a hard late lap attack. I had a solid cool down and got to think about how we would approach the next day.

After talking to the race organizer Bruce about the road race course i realized there was a good chance of a tail wind on the way home and that there was a deciding hill with 30km remaining in the 70km race. After talking to the boys and seeing the standings (me first, Joe second, and Dave third) we decided that the best option was to let others take over for the first 30 km, and then when we got to the turn around we would have either Dan or Matt go with me on the hill if i felt good, and the other would get Joe and Dave in a good position to stay with the lead group on the hill. So when we got to the bottom of the hill I attacked hard in the big ring and pulled two guys, one of which was Matt, we dropped the other guy and had a 10 sec gap at the top of the hill. Matt was able to then take a pull and give me a rest, and then when i pulled around him he hung for a bit before he dropped. So I was alone, with 30km of road between me and the finish. I got into my 53 x 12 and hammered like a time trial as hard as i could to build a gap. I ultimately got close to a minute and then just kept the pressure on all the way home to win solo. I turned around and waited for the boys to come by and saw Dan and Matt lead out Joe for second place and dave for 6th. Which meant that we had swept the gc podium for cat 5.

It was so fun to work with those guys and be successful, everyone did an amazing job and we showed Cat 5 a taste of some real PRW tactics. Guri would be proud.

As far as other results, our girls took 1st and 2nd gc, and Nick took 2nd gc in Cat 1/2. A solid weekend for all.

Cheers,

Half Moon Lake Triathlon Race Report

2011-06-11T18:54:00.001-07:00

Two weeks ago my coach Kevin challenged me to race the Half Moon Lake Triathlon. Basically I was dealing with some nagging issues surrounding my whole ankle breakage situation that happened in September, but also I was just being soft. I didn't feel like racing, was committed to not racing, and was just going through the motions, training like a real athlete without any benchmarks in sight. You can't suck if you don't race like shit right? Well I guess you can't start to build confidence until you step up to the plate and put it all on the line either.

So I reluctantly accepted his challenge and went about doing the proper things that would precede a race. I took care of my nagging problems, got a massage, dialed in my bike, made every session, ate properly and even avoided beers for a bit before the race. I started to get more focused towards the day and my attention narrowed and I got to be in a pretty decent place.

Tichelaar and I had some smack talk going into the race, as he said that he would politely "Not use race wheels in the race and also ride out to the race to give me a chance" to which I accepted. I personally pulled out every trick in the bag with some sweet tubular cosmic carbones from my shop PRW courtesy of Guri and my aero helmet. I even tapered for this race which was actually quite pleasant and left me kind of hyper in the days before.

Tichelaar was true to his word, he rode out to the race with no race wheels or tt helmet, gotta love the guy for that. I wouldn't be surprised if Kevin told him to do it just to fire me up a bit.

I had to remember what the hell i was supposed to do before a race, it has been a long time since I actually have raced a tri(a year exactly) and it has probably been 2 years since I raced one that i actually cared about (FYI i only did one race last year and bombed due to no training and my own problems with injury and a solid of year of being in a shitty state of mind, after which i decided not to race anymore, that all changed of course when i busted my ankle in September and was forced to sit on my ass and work through my life for two months, anyway I should write this whole story at some point, but there is just a few details for those who don't know) so it was kind of a big deal.

I had a bad swim, felt terrible, totally off, panicked, freaked out, and just cramped up. I felt like it was last year's Wasa Lake Triathlon all over again where I was out of my league and out of shape, i started questioning why i was there, what i was doing with my life when i realized that i was being a baby and needed to just hold it together. I was worried that Tich would take all three primes and annihilate me, and I was going to show everyone how shitty I really was once again. I thought this might be the dagger in the coffin for me, end my comeback before it starts. Then Kevin's Scottish voice creeped into my head and told me to let it go, finish the swim as best you can, control what you can control and focus on what's important. I have learned many lessons from this man, and i think he is actually making me tough again.

So I let it go, got out of the water in 3rd or so and was 40 seconds behind Tich. Had a bad transition (probably due to lack of practice) and headed out on the bike. I decided then and there that I was going to catch him, I didn't care how much pain it took, I was angry with my swim and wanted to show that I have the fire still, that i can push as hard as I want. So i threw it into my 53 x 12 and hammered, i didn't let off on the hills, I didn't even let off to take a drink, I was consumed by the thought of catching Paul. Every turn around I was closer, going by the main gate of the park I heard my dad yelling "you're catching him" and it fired me up. I was riding so hard I think I was going cross eyed at times. I have never ridden that hard or hurt that bad on a bike in my entire life, but with 2km to go I caught and passed Paul. Mission accomplished, I made up 40 seconds over 30km.

Then I remembered that there was a run after the bike...

We rolled into transition in a dead heat, i ran past my rack, rookie mistake. Paul had a brilliant transition and I had a very rookie one, he beat me out by 5 seconds and that was the last I saw of him all day. I hurt so bad the first lap that he gapped me by a huge amount, but then the last three laps I felt better, in the end he outran me by two minutes and took the race by the same margin, but I didn't care.

I had won my own sort of race, maybe against my mind I don't know, but i felt tapped out, satisfied and happy.

In the end what I care about is doing an honest effort, I probably could have had a better run if I had eased of the bike a bit, but I killed myself to make a race out of the thing and it was worth it to me.

Bike prime of $100 sounded like some sweet McDonalds money, breakfast is on me on Monday boys.

I know that my blog, my thoughts, sometimes confuse some people. Let me assure you, I love this sport, I love to suffer, I love to make other people suffer, and I love to let it go and not let it consume me. When I say that I don't care about being a triathlete, it doesn't mean that I don't care about triathlon. It means that I don't care about the "stuff" that people think makes a triathlete. I care about the pure athletic feat, and about the lifestyle that I live that surrounds it. I care about being an athlete, about being passionate about the effort, the suffering and the act of sport.

Thank you to Trevor Soll and Craig Murdoch for the organization of the race, and for supporting me and the sport, and for rewarding excellence in our sport!

Thanks for reading

Shack

New Feel

2011-06-06T11:06:00.000-07:00

Gone are the lessons that I have bored everyone with for the past three months until I chose to write nothing at all for a while. I figured out through all of that writing that the person I am is just a really chill and internally motivated person. I really don't care for race reports, and blog posts about the things i could change, or reviews of my workouts. I like travel, I like going for breakfast, I like being a wrench at Pedalhead Road Works. I don't like mornings and I don't swim before 7:30am because at that time of the day my body does not care, and as I have learned there is little i can do short of having Megan Fox wake me up that would make my body care. So I swim at 7:30am.

I like the lifestyle that I live, and quite frankly I have learned that it can be very similar to that of the other sports like surfing that I have envied for so long. It can be organic and natural and fun, as long as I make it that way and don't but into anything else that anyone is trying to feed me.

I don't care for triathlete magazines, or impact, or runners world or any of that shit. To me it is all the same story over and over again. Those don't relate to my lifestyle or what I view Triathlon to be, so i stopped reading them. I don't read slowtwitch or any internet forums, why? Cause it is boring to read about triathlon, I would rather be playing guitar or reading a novel.

From now on this blog is going to just be a documentation of me living and things that I think are interesting, I think i will post a lot more photo's from now on, and write about other things than my own philosophy about life which I realize is so dull and preachy...

So on that note here are some photo's from my life over the last few months, enjoy!

Efficiency

2011-03-31T12:20:00.000-07:00

Efficiency

I am far from the most efficient and focused person. This very post is currently being written while not reading an article for a class I have in just over fifty minutes from now. I will probably have to bull shit my way through the discussion again. The thing about efficiency and me is that we just don’t seem to get along. I still have a bit of an inner bad ass who likes to rebel and do whatever he wants, and well that damn efficiency bugger just doesn’t mesh with my style. We have been friends before, there are times when we will walk down the road, punch drunk with an arm around each other and celebrate great achievements and look to the future. It is a tumultuous relationship however, and we usually end the night by doing something that someone else doesn’t like and waking up in the morning avoiding each other.

I know it is a virtue to be efficient, but I just can’t get it through my thick skull. When it is time to get down to business I usually partake of my favourite type of procrastination: that of watching and reading interviews with famous athletes and successful and well “efficient” people. I think that I truly could be an unbelievable biographer, because I literally know most facts about most successful or interesting people. Or people that I find interesting anyway. I am damn good at reading interviews and doing research on generally meaningless things. But really in the long run, is it actually meaningless? I mean maybe I learn a lot of lessons from these stories and interviews, maybe I am just preparing for the future by learning all the habits of people who are successful in order to one day be successful myself.

I have written about being immersed in the moment in some of my previous blogs and of how I cannot force myself to do anything. I really can’t. If I genuinely don’t feel the want and desire to get something done, then it probably won’t get done. Lord knows this has left me with half finished essays and only an hour or two to write, but the point is that I am a creature of passion. When I am passionate about something I want to learn everything about it and master it and leave everything else to the wayside no matter how important it may be.
I find myself using an acronym from a Michael Phelps biography I read (see, it is paying off already) where Bob Bowman tells him to focus on WIN, the acronym being what’s important now? Is it really important for me to clean my room, or should I get this damn project done so that I can focus on things that I want to do. When I show up at the pool and feel like shit and know in my heart that I cannot finish the set on the board, what is important? Stepping up and surprising myself, that is what is important.

To be totally honest I think I am doing quite well at the moment and am becoming a very focused person thanks to all the patient and kind mentors and family that I have around me. I would be nowhere without the people who impact my life every day. I know that I am still not efficient with school, but the discipline will get there. I am trying to find more passion in it every day. The training is there again, I find so much passion within those acts of swimming, cycling and running and honestly am focused and happy to complete each set or workout. I have come a long way since my injuries and illnesses and just general disdain for everything that I was doing at the time. I will find a way to balance it all, and maybe even be efficient at it.

There have been bigger miracles in the world. Right?

Part 14: It’s Important to Look Back to Understand the Future

2010-12-29T22:45:00.000-08:00

Part 14: It’s Important to Look Back to Understand the Future

When I get down, or tired, cranky and lazy; when I feel like the last thing that I want to do is get in the water or outside in the cold; sometimes I wonder why? Things can get to me at times, can eat away at my mind and spirit, and make me feel hollow and robotic. So I think why? Why do all the training, deal with the politics, deal with the ego’s and the personalities that I really cannot stand? Is this sport really right for me?

So I think back to the beginning of my life. I think back to when I was a two year old child, standing on the side of the road with my mother in some random Alberta town, at some random race course watching my dad go by on his bike. I think about being dressed up in my baby bike shorts and cycling hat. I think about sitting in the back of the car on my way to my grandparents place or pretty much any drive we ever took and having my dad place a triathlete magazine in my hands. I couldn’t even read yet, but somehow that kept me quiet for the entire car ride because I was fascinated by the pictures of these great athletes.

I think back to watching my dad train, staring at his bikes in the garage or the basement for hours and picking him up with my mom and little brother when he flatted out on the road too many times. I think back to when I was twelve and how I finally learned how to float in the water, and my dad finally let me do a triathlon after years and years of wanting to. It was at Peter Hemingway pool and I wore a t-shirt and baggy Nike running shorts and rode my dad’s mountain bike. I remember totally sucking in that race and feeling terrible, but then I did another one later that year and I won my age group at the Southside YMCA triathlon.

Then all of a sudden, that was it for me. I never wanted to do anything else. When I got my first road bike, a borrowed Bianchi from my dad’s friend John Mah; I used to come home every day from school at lunch (this was grade 7) and ride up and down the block on it until my mom had lunch ready, then I would eat, and get on my bike again until it was time to walk back to school. I remember buying my first ever new road bike, a giant from Pedalhead Roadworks, and the guy that sold it to me when I was fourteen years old is now my boss/advisor/good friend at Pedalhead Roadworks. I remember watching all of my dad’s old video cassettes with the taped races on them, stuff like escape from Alcatraz, Ironman Hawaii, St. Croix, Mrs. T’s Chicago triathlon; I watched them over and over again until the tapes wore out. All these races were from the late 80’s and early 90’s.

I remember what it felt like to win, what it felt like to go for my first 100km ride when I was 13. I remember getting lost on my bike and having my parents go looking for me out on the highway when I didn’t come home after being out for four hours.

Alright, I’m getting a little nostalgic I guess, but the point is that I really was meant to do this sport. I have a passion for it, and it is in my blood. When I get down about bullshit and politics and crap like that, I just think about standing next to my mom and watching my dad race when I was a toddler. That stuff meant nothing to me then, and really it means nothing to me now. I look at my father as an inspiration to me, he is not built to be a triathlete, far from it; he encounters his own challenges in the sport, but he loves to do it. He has been doing triathlon ever since I have been alive, which is going on 23 years. There is no glory in it for him, he won’t ever win a race, his times are nothing close to what I have accomplished, and yet that’s not what matters to him. He has the mind of an elite athlete with the love of the sport of an age grouper. He does not care about results, he just does it because he always has and can’t imagine not doing it. He would never get an ironman tattoo, or think he is hot shit because he finished some random race. He talks to me about training and racing and that’s probably about it.

I get some motivation from who I was as a child, and from the kind of athlete that my father is. I also get some motivation from seeing my mother out there on the race course weekend after weekend cheering me on in the cold and rain; I could always hear her voice above everything else, even when I was suffering really badly. I want to keep at it for them as much as myself, for the people who have always supported me and believed in me. I want to keep at it for that twelve year old kid without a care in the world who just wanted to show his dad that he could do it too.

No one really understands what this sport means to me, they probably never will, hell sometimes I don’t even fully understand it. When I look back I think wow, look at where I have come from, and where I am. I have a different outlook than most athletes, this is not some opportunity for me to make money or have some fame, or anything like that. I didn’t do the sport because I was not good at anything else. This sport chose me for some reason. I need to remember that from now on, and understand just who I was and who I am now and where I want to be. I need to look to the past to understand where I am headed in the future, and my past is pretty unreal when I think about it. I have to keep a sense of innocence in the sport for myself, and for that twelve year old kid.

Part 13: Don’t Force It

2010-12-25T21:33:00.000-08:00

Part 13: Don’t Force It

Huge lesson that I have learned and one that I really need to give credit to. One of the things that has taught me to not force results and inspiration is getting into painting. I am a sucky painter. I will gladly make that statement because it is true. I am sucky based on a preconceived notion of what good art actually is, although that is kind of misleading because art is one of those things that you cannot really put any sort of judgement system on except for your own thoughts. So anyway I am sucky in the fact that I have no training or any sort of skill, but I quite enjoy painting, it is one of the greatest things that I do.

When I choose to paint, I feel no pressure to get started. I start whenever I want, if I have an idea sometimes I just think about it for a week first and then when I really get motivated to stand in front of the canvas I do it. Usually this happens when I am drinking a beer and listening to a really good song at a very high volume in my small apartment. Then I just go for it, I am not trying to make anything specific, or try to stay within a guideline, I have and idea and I strive for that. If I stop then I might leave it for a week and come back to it later. When I think it is close to what I wanted then I stop and put it up in my room. I am proud of that particular piece and have no judgements about whether or not it is good enough or detailed enough or whatever else.

I have tried to pull this thought into my writing. I kind of have a love-hate relationship with the idea of a blog. Really in its true form I believe that a blog should have new and interesting ideas presented on it everyday sort of like a newspaper, and people who read it, would tune in everyday to check it out. When I first started my blog I felt a lot of pressure to write something great and inspiring everyday. I struggled a lot to come to terms with the ideas that I was trying to present because honestly taking an idea from my mind and putting it into words with some kind of eloquence is a very hard and time consuming thing for me to do. I will never be the kind of writer who can write something inspirational everyday; whose work is always great and follows the voice that he has created. I strive for that, I honestly do; but for me to do that, for me to create a coherent voice within my writing that I am very happy with, I really need to limit myself. I can’t force it.

If you look at my blog and there is nothing new for a week or so, please don’t think that I am slacking off. I am not being lazy; I am just making my own attempt at limiting the amount of mindless chatter that I contribute to this world of internet publishing. God knows there is enough of it out there already…

This attitude of not forcing the issue also translates into my sporting life. Honestly everything does, that’s kind of what this Transitions project started out as, although I really feel that I get farther from relating issues to sport everyday, and instead drift towards a sort of social commentary on my own life in a context of being an odd duck in our society. I am still trying to keep it close to the issue of my sporting life however. So I am not rushing my training either. I could probably be training my ass off right now due to the fact that I really don’t work that often at the moment and I do have a lot of spare time; but I am enjoying life. I really feel like I need to swim to be normal and I am building up slowly and surely to the point that I will almost be training full time again. This keeps my motivation up; it is easier to look at a small increase in training week after week than from nothing to all of a sudden have to dedicate your whole life to the damn thing again. I also know I probably won’t race a whole lot this summer, but I am content to put my focus on other things for the time being.

I really feel that this lesson connects to the lesson of having to be myself. It is like a giant spiral that everything gets caught within. I have to paint and write to be me, but I can’t force those things because that will take away from my own happiness and then might cease to be true to myself. I also have to do those things and look out for myself above other people; if I get caught up too much in other things then I will have a hard time focusing on my own self development.

I really am trying to slowly put all of these lessons together into one amazingly profound blog post at some point, not only for your pleasure but for me to understand just how much everything really relates to each other. I am not going to rush it however…

Part 12: I Have to Be Myself

2010-12-15T19:34:00.000-08:00

Part 12: I Have to Be Myself

One major thing that I have learned throughout the past while has been to always be myself. I kind of figured this out little by little, like I was chipping away at an incomplete thought in order to fully understand it. When I decided to take triathlon seriously and become a focused athlete with goals and ambition I thought that I had to fit into a prototype. I thought that in order to become great I had to sacrifice, and give up things that I loved in order to focus fully on my one all encompassing goal. So I became a serious athlete, I stopped going out with friends; I didn’t write as much, I stopped playing guitar and writing music. I pretty much gave up everything that made me who I was in order to focus on one aspect of my life. I even gave up on school for a while and was not planning on returning to my studies again. I didn’t need to do this, but I thought that this was what was necessary in order to be great.

So I trained, I rested, I did everything right. I started getting a bit faster, but then I kind of peaked and my improvement stopped. I started to hate my training, and got really bored of the sport. I became disenchanted, un-motivated and downright depressed. My life started to suck and I really never wanted to do a triathlon again. I decided that this could not be the path for me, it did not allow me to do the things that made me happy, and I needed to be happy again. So I was ready to give up, and it didn’t really bother me when I broke my elbow and missed racing the Great White North Half Ironman, I really couldn’t see myself getting through that race. So the season was done, and I just worked and hung out trying to figure things out. I started training again and I hated it again, and I was ready to give it up when I broke my ankle. This is why I think that my ankle was really meant to be, someone or something was forcing me to slow down and think about what the hell I was doing.

So I can’t train at all, well what do I do with all my time then? At first I did nothing, relied on other people for happiness and enjoyment and suffered through my times of solitude. Then I started thinking about my life and the whole journey that had led me to this place. I started working through a lot of the problems that I had. I spent more time alone and actually really started to enjoy the solitude and single mindedness of my life. Then I started playing guitar again, I started writing again, I started painting and going out and getting shit faced with my pals and trying to pick up girls, I started drinking beers every night and talking shit with my roommate. I started listening to music again, and letting it become a big part of my life. I started making new friends, and reconnecting with old ones. And then I started training again.

When I started training it was because my boss Guri said “why not” when I asked him if I should bother racing anymore. He said “do it just to prove a point if nothing else;” what started as proving a point to other people has slowly become proving a point to myself. And now proving a point to myself has become enjoying the sport, and feeling motivated again.
So I am living the life that I want right now, and instead of trying to fit my life into triathlon, I think triathlon is just going to have to fit into my life. I will probably show up drunk to swim practice at some point and have to suffer through a set. I will definitely drink beers before a race, or go out all night with my pals on the weekends. I am going to spend a huge chunk of time really exploring my creative side, and focusing on developing my writing and music skills. I am going back to school in January to finish my degree because I realized that being in an academic environment is important to me. I can see myself getting numerous degrees because I really do love University and want to continue to develop as a person. I work at a bar and a bike shop, it is a pretty unreal gig, and I love every minute of it. I am going to grow my beard out and not shave for races, because that is who I am, and really who gives a shit about being clean shaven or looking respectable? I just want to be fast and happy. And lastly I am going to be honest. I cannot keep my comments to myself, I will post them on my blog for everyone to read or I will say it if I get the chance. I am not going to suffocate the ideals that I have inside because some things are not “socially acceptable” to talk about.

I am happy being me, and when I am happy I can train well and race well and be focused. These other things in my life and parts of my personality make it bearable to do the hard training and make me realize that I really need racing and training to be a part of my life. I know now what I need to do to remain motivated and happy and I am not willing to give up any part of my personality just to race fast. Even if one aspect seems to be destructive towards my racing, I don’t care. The day that I have to give up anything in my life in order to be an elite triathlete is the day that I quit and never come back. I am just not willing to not be happy in order to be fast. But I realize now that I can be happy and race well; it just takes balance and being able to stand tall and not give up on your ideals.

Part 11: The Underdogs

2010-12-10T19:51:00.000-08:00

Part 11: The Underdogs

I am going to get off of my apparent philosophical pedestal that I have created over the last post to get back to some real blunt opinionated writing. As my buddy Harry Moore would say, “This is real talk.”

So with that little disclaimer out of the way I am going to make a statement: I love underdogs. I think most people would know this about me based on my nature and general discontent with any sort of favouritism within sport. I cannot respect the polished and proper athlete. The man or woman, who came from a nice background, has had great support and is now a big star and very humble in interviews and media obligations, always open to the fans and never saying a bad thing about anyone (god forbid there be some smack talk). I cannot stand it, it’s boring, it’s too fake, and it’s just not my style. I love the guys or girls who come from broken homes or bad backgrounds who rise above every foreseeable obstacle to get a bit of a name for themselves. These are the people who may not be so humble, the people who have a bit of a chip on their shoulder, who are out to prove something and will stop at nothing to do so. They may do a bit of smack talk, they may be disliked or seen as a villain, but often times they do not let what they are doing change who they are. These are the people who will not change their personality to fit into the idea of the humble and gracious athlete.

I personally believe that sport is one of the few places where the bastards can’t fuck with you. When you are out on the road or the track or in the pool, politicians, high performance directors and board members don’t matter worth shit. It is you and only you against everyone else and everyone on that starting line regardless of where they came from or who they know or how much money they have all have the same chance to come out of the race with some glory. Sport is the arena for the underdogs. It is where we shine, it is where we become something great and it is where we stick it to everyone who has ever talked shit about us. I cannot think of any greater platform in the world for a person to prove something than in a major athletic event.

I have always felt like an underdog, I feel more like an underdog every year that goes by. With every injury, every bad choice, every missed season my stock has plummeted and at the moment has disappeared. I have brought these things on myself; I blame no one else for my inability to achieve. I am happy to be an underdog; I could never be that blank stare kind of athlete. Look at my blog for god’s sake, some of the things that I write on here border on ludicrous and some of them are just plain ridiculous but I do believe that I have my moments and sentences and if I am really on fire then paragraphs of clarity; where I may strive for some resemblance of a worthwhile literary offering devoid of too much bias or personal content. I kind of feel like I have pushed myself into the corner of being an underdog. Maybe I have caused a lot of the things that have made me this way to happen myself, maybe subconsciously I have purposely put myself in a position to fail time and time again in order to gain some type of strength of character and clarity of purpose that I can now use in the current state of my affairs. Or maybe I just got unlucky, who knows.

Every long shot, written off underdog knows one thing better than any other person in the world. They know the strength of their character, and they know the specific things that create their persona in the world of sport, I think this is the strength of the underdog, a strength that no one else can possibly have without having a chip on their shoulder.

Part 10: Honesty

2010-12-08T13:06:00.000-08:00

Part 10: Honesty

In our present society I feel that we can be honest. We can be honest about our opinions of world events, culture, and others around us. We can be mean, and angry and tell a person exactly what we think of them, whether it is good or bad. Honesty is a valued commodity, but no one has really looked at the specific kind of honesty that we as a culture embrace. Think about something that you have been honest about recently. Maybe it is telling someone how you feel about them, or complaining about something in the world that bothers you. Maybe you are honest about hating something or wanting to quit something that you have been working on. Now let me ask you another question; when was the last time that you were honest about yourself as a person? When was the last time that you blatantly looked at yourself and picked yourself apart, and not in a derogatory way, but in a constructive and healthy way. We all ignore things about ourselves or pretend that certain things are not true to do not exist. We try to fit into a mold that has been created without our input rather than an ideal that we are a part of.

One of my favourite sporting stars at the moment and I would like to be honest right now, probably one of my hero’s and someone that I greatly look up to and admire both for his on field accomplishments and his personality off the field is Miami Dolphins running back Ricky Williams. For those of you who know him you probably know what he is characterized by, which is his one year suspension from the NFL for smoking pot and his decision for a few years to give up playing professional football. What you probably don’t know however is that ricky Williams is one of the most honest and genuine people outside of his public persona. Ricky gave up football because it did not make him happy and he needed time to deal with his personal issues of depression and anxiety. He is a brave person for being honest about the problems that he was having and for dealing with them in a way that allowed himself as a person to grow. I highly recommend watching the documentary “Run Ricky Run,” it basically follows his path from dropping away from the NFL through to his recovery and subsequent reinstatement. You can see it on youtube by following this link

I have taken Ricky’s approach over the last few years of dealing with my own personal injury problems as well as my anxiety issues and the problems that I have had with depression. I have been bluntly honest with myself and this has allowed me to heal and grow and find a way to accept myself and become a better person. I have evolved so much over the last two years and really feel that I am in a good place. The other day my dad and I were talking about some of my blog posts and he was saying that people will think I am a good writer but that they might think I am a little bit too honest about some of my own problems. This really pleased me to hear him say this. At this point in my life I really don’t care who knows that I have had problems with depression or anxiety. I feel that since I can be honest with myself, I really have no problems being honest with the rest of the world (or whoever reads my blog anyway). If I felt that I could not be honest about myself and my problems that I used to have and be open about them and act in the way that I think is best for myself then I would not be doing this sport anymore. I am doing it the way I want to, and for me it is all or nothing and there is nothing held back. I hope that through these pieces of writing people get a sense of who I am as a person and realize that I am not just some kid who had some talent and decided to party too much and fell off the radar. I want people to know that I have always worked my ass off, and the only reason that I have disappeared from the world of triathlon over the last two years was because I was dealing with a lot of problems inside of my own head.

One of my favorite quotes from that documentary is when Ricky says "If I could just fix my mind, I could be the best player in the NFL" That quote has resonated with me more than anything else I have ever heard. For two years I really felt that I was being held back by something that I did not understand and could not yet control.

When I became honest with myself and started to admit that things were pretty bad for me, and that I was headed down a scary road I started to get better. I learned how to deal with the problems that I had because I accepted them, fully and completely.

I think that dealing with what goes on inside of my head and my own mental health will be a lifelong learning process. I really don’t mind if years from now people associate me with having gone through these issues because I am happy being open and getting the word out about it. I would not be in such an amazing place right now at this moment where I am fully happy and motivated if I had not had these experiences.

So I challenge you to be honest with yourself, take a lesson from Ricky Williams and maybe even from me, and look at yourself deeply.

Part 9: Being Present Minded

2010-12-01T20:26:00.000-08:00

Part 9: Being Present Minded

I read a great quote the other day from an interview with ten time world surfing champion Kelly Slater in Huck magazine (a surfing/skateboarding/snowboarding publication). Kelly was asked: how does it feel to be Kelly Slater, the center of the global surf industry? Kelly responded by saying “I just try not to think about it. The only way you get to the end is to focus on right this minute. Worrying about the end result of something is never going to be the way of accomplishing it. I’ve got to think about the heat I’m in, the wave I’m going for. […] You’ve got to be really present-minded.” This quote really resonated with me and how I used to approach the sport of triathlon and almost every other aspect of my life.

Being a serious athlete means that you are bred to understand how to meet and exceed expectations. We have classes on goal setting and are stressed about the importance of thinking long term and being completely focused on our end goals. Athletes enter into four year, or eight year plans with coaches, and are expected to follow through that entire time with only one goal at the end, of which they have a small chance of accomplishing.

I am going to go out on a limb and just say straight up that I believe this attitude to be completely wrong and very seriously flawed. I believe that this system produces athletes that lack passion and heart, and instead build contempt for the sport that they once loved. We are not taught to just enjoy what we are doing. A friend and I were talking at Da Capo about this exact topic, and we both have the same attitude. It is sport, it’s not serious, and it’s supposed to be fun and something that can make us grow as human beings. It is too easy to get caught up in the expectations that you have for yourself without allowing other people to influence that as well. The pressure to focus on goals that are years ahead of where you are right now is not only daunting, I think it is downright ludicrous. Human beings by nature are nomadic. Our nature is to be constantly moving, thousands of years ago if we were hungry then we ate, we did whatever we needed to do in the moment to survive. It was as simple as that.
I truly believe that sport reflects society, and although it can often transcend the problems seen in modern society, it is still a mirror to the attitudes and choices of the people that make it up. Life is out of control. We are all so focused on the future without any importance given to enjoying the present moment.

This is something that I hate. So I am following Kelly’s ideals in the above quote. When I am in the pool, I do what my coach tells me to the best of my ability on that day and I enjoy the shit out of what I am doing. When it is done, I leave it behind and focus on my next task. When I am walking home, I am sure to take in the smell of the air, the animals around me, say hi to everyone that I pass by. When I get home I might do a number of different things, but I feel no pressure to do anything specific. If I want to paint or write then I do so, and if I want to lay on the floor listening to music while kicking my legs in the air then I do that too. I don’t care where I end up with my sport. I want to do my best job that I can, and I want to enjoy every moment of every training session. If I can do that, then I am a very happy man. Whether that takes me to the Olympics or gives me a few more years of racing local elite stuff, I really don’t care. I’m going to have a beer before a race, and I will be the guy in the back of the crowd at the post race awards cracking a beer and lying around on the grass. You can’t change the past, and life is too short to worry about the future, all you can do is enjoy the present.

Part 8: No One Should Love You as Much as Yourself

2010-11-29T18:17:00.000-08:00

Part 8: No One Should Love You as Much as Yourself

This one just hit me after lying on my floor spread out like a star fish and listening to some tunes. I definitely did not mean to start thinking about it, but it came to me and I decided that as selfish as it sounds, I needed to write about it, and try to explain my thought patterns.

I found that when I was dealing with my injury problems as well as when I was perfectly healthy, nothing really ever made me completely happy. Now complete happiness may be an arbitrary measure, but we can strive to get as close to an ideal as possible, and I never even came close to that ideal. I would sit at home being paralyzed, not being able to focus on the important things to me, not being happy with where I was at in my life, and generally wanting to just escape. When I was healthy things should have been good, I have loving and supportive parents, an amazing little brother, a feisty little dog, and great friends Somehow all that seemed to matter less and less as I moved along through my tough times. I treated people in bad ways, and never could show the love that I felt for them.

It finally has come to me that you really can’t expect to show love for others if you don’t love yourself first. When I tried it was just a hollow sort of love that really didn’t show the true way that I felt. After spending so much time alone healing my leg over the last two months, I have had to face things within myself that scared me, that I really did not want to face. Over that time, I really started to get a sense of who I was, what was important to me, and what I wanted in my life. I am a very objective person when it comes to examining my own personality and I found things that I hated that I no longer employ in myself. I also found things that I had forgotten about, that had seemingly been locked away in a vault of self deprecation that I now realized I loved, and desperately wanted to have again. I learned how to be alone with myself. I learned how to deal with my thought patterns and focus on the good and the positive and ease myself away from the negative feelings that had taken over my life. I learned how to make every moment in my life a happy one, no matter what I was doing. I spend hours sometimes just dancing around and playing air guitar in my apartment, and to be honest those are some of the best moments I have had. In that moment I am truly happy; I love who I am and cannot wait to see what I will become in the future.

By focusing on the present moment (which is the topic of the next part) I have found out how to enjoy every moment in my day. I would not change anything right now. I am happier than I have been in over three years, and now I truly believe that breaking my ankle and having the time for self reflection and contemplation has been the greatest gift I have ever received. I look at my scars and find that for me they represent the opportunity that our bodies and minds have to heal. I just had to have everything in my life line up at the exact right moment for myself to do so.

I am starting to feel sincere love for the people around me that really mean a lot to me, but I know that as much as I love them and as much as they love me, no one will ever love me as much as myself. This will never change, but I feel like one day I can give more of myself to others because of this realization.

Side note: Thanks for reading, I am really happy to hear that people are enjoying some of my posts.

Cheers,

Kris Loshack

Part 7: Looking out for Number One

2010-11-24T20:10:00.000-08:00

Part 7: Looking out for Number One

I believe in being a nice guy, doing the right thing, helping other people out and being a good person in all senses of the word; but if it comes down to me and you and one of us has to win, I can honestly say I will do anything within my ethics to be the one who comes out on top. I think that most people are like this as well. When I got injured I relied on a lot of people, people who cheered me up, brought me food, helped me at my house when I couldn’t do everyday tasks. Everyone who helped me wanted to see me doing well, and feeling better, and I appreciate all the help and kind words and favours that I received from everyone. At the end of the day however, it all comes back to myself and looking out for me.

The real truth is that no one really cares whether or not I ever do triathlons again. No one can make me feel happy, or make me not feel depressed. They can do hundreds of nice things for me, but in the end only I can make myself feel good about what I am doing and make decisions that I am happy with. I am the only one that could get myself off the couch and in the pool at 6:00am even though my cast just came off a week ago. There is no amount of support that anyone could show me that could make me want to train again. I didn’t realize that this was the case. For a long time I thought I was racing for other people and that if I did decide to give this crazy sport one more shot, then I would be doing it for them and not for me.

The truth is that there is no one in the world that could make me want to go through all the pain and suffering that this sport takes if I didn’t want to do it for myself. So I am looking out for myself now days, doing things the way I want to and not caring what anyone else thinks of it. I doubt that I will ever really give a shit about what anyone thinks again, I’m in it for me.

Part 6: Growth

2010-11-23T14:19:00.001-08:00

Part 6: Growth

To me it seems that even though our species rules over the earth and basically does whatever we want to it, we are still a part of the world. We learn, we change, we grow, and it is important to not delay or stunt this growth in any way. I truly believe that we can learn a great lesson from nature in this sense. Think about a tree that grows along a river bank, the tree will bend and twist and grow into a ridiculous shape just in order to get at the crucial sunlight that it needs. Grass can grow right through cement and asphalt roads, it seems that no matter what there is standing in the way, nature has a way of overcoming it, and growing even when it seems like it cannot. If only we could be the same way. It seems that sometimes when we are confronted with an obstacle we stop growing, we hunker down and give up and stay stagnant, and just like in nature, failure to grow will lead to death. For us unfortunately, our death is a spiritual death rather than a literal one. Our minds decay and our spirits slowly get worn down until there is nothing left to hope for, no magic, and no innocence. I believe that to stunt growth is to invite death upon ones spirit.

So why do we do this, why do we stop ourselves from growing when the results could be so amazing and the consequences of stagnancy so severe? I believe that human beings crave change, but they also fear it greatly. We don’t want to change because we don’t know what will happen, we would rather be safe and live within our dream world than to face the cold hard facts that life is different now and it will never be the way it was again. When this happens we have our choice to change and grow, roll with the punches, be risky and strive for happiness and peace. Or we can shut down, grow stagnant, give up and permit ourselves a life of complacency and depression.

For me, I learned that everything in life is changing every moment of the day. Nothing ever stays the same, yeah sure you can go cut the grass and it could look great, but no matter how many times you cut it and how exact you are every time, the cold fact is that every time is different and equally beautiful every time, it can never be the same. There is no point in hanging onto the past or striving for an ideal that you once set or that you want in the future. There is really no point at looking years down the road, because everything is changing. My broken ankle is a perfect example of realizing that I really have no control and that I needed to grow from this experience. All we can do is change ourselves, and make ourselves better people than we were when the change happened in the first place. Strive for happiness and contentment with where things are now, and know that growing as a person is one of the greatest things you can achieve in life, even if it feels like we are taking a step back sometimes. Trees do not grow smaller, they do not shrink, and the same can be said of our spirits and our minds, by the end of my life I hope to have a spirit comparable to a red wood tree that is hundreds of years old, because I allowed myself to grow to my potential.

Part 5: Dress for Success

2010-11-18T22:04:00.000-08:00

Part 5: Dress for Success

This one may sound a bit trivial upon first glance, and if that was your first inclination then I would definitely agree with you. However dressing for success runs a bit deeper than just great first impressions and simply looking good. A few days ago I decided that even though my ankle is broken right now, it doesn’t mean that I need to spend my day at home in scrubby clothing trying to work on projects that I am currently invested in. I decided that whenever I am sitting down to work on a piece of writing, or my blog, or some type of business, I will sit down fully dressed in business casual clothing, with a sport coat. This act of simply putting on a suit jacket gets my mind focused and ready to work. I know that as soon as that jacket goes on, I am at a job that I hope to do to the best of my abilities and that needs the focus that a work environment could bring. This has been great for my writing as I have found myself more focused and less likely to get distracted by menial tasks and procrastination.

I would have to say that this act can apply to any facet of life including athletics. You don’t simply just come home in your casual clothing and start pounding out an hour run. There is a uniform, even though you are not part of a team. There are running shoes, tights, jackets, helmets, jerseys, and singlets. When you put those articles of clothing on, you know what you are there to do and you are focused upon doing it. This is one lesson where sport kind of slid into my personal life and my own work ethic amongst other things.

So I think it is fair to say that being professional and organized in any task that you wish to see through to completion is important, and your attire is one way of impacting that. Whether it be in business, sport or even with the ladies, you have to look good and feel good and most of all seem professional if you wish to do well.

Part 4: Following the Advice of those who are Wiser than You

2010-11-02T20:30:00.000-07:00

Part 4: Following the Advice of those who are Wiser than You

This is a tough one for me to admit. I take a lot of pride in who I am and the choices that I make in my life. As I said in part one, I have some trouble giving up control and letting certain things happen. I have always received advice from those around me who I believe have more knowledge on a particular subject than I do. However receiving this advice and actually accepting the advice are two different things. Just like my intuition, the advice of those people whom I trust usually ends up being the easiest and most pain free way in the end.

A good example of great advice comes from my boss Guri at Pedalhead Roadworks. He has a great way of looking at things and was the first person to ever tell me that I tend to analyze things in my life way too much and try to control the future too much. I think that if I would have listened to his advice in the first place then I could have avoided some problems. I did learn some great lessons from not following the advice, but i definitely had to learn the hard way.

I guess the point is really that I need to let my guard down, and put away my pride sometimes to listen to the people in my life who really understand what is going on and know what is best for me. I have realized that I cannot just go through life only caring about my own opinion and thinking that I am always right. It is essential to listen to those who know more about the situation than you do, even if the situation they are referring to is your own life.

Transitions: a Movement of my Mind Part 3

2010-10-29T20:12:00.000-07:00

Part 3: Faith

It doesn’t have to bear religious overtones, or be centred in spirituality. Faith is so broad and overwhelming; it affects every aspect of my life. Having faith in my family to stand by me and support me, knowing that my ankle will heal and I will be able to do everything I set out to do, understanding that everything happens for a reason, the good and the bad, and that it is just a part of life to take it all in stride and have faith in the fact that all these events mean something and that it is all a part of a greater plan. Without faith I know I would be lost. I would struggle to find meaning in everyday things especially those which are somewhat painful or uncomfortable. If I didn’t have faith that one day my training will someday pay off in a big way, then it would be almost impossible to enjoy the sometimes monotonous task of putting hay into the proverbial barn.

Having faith in others is so important and I have learned that it is totally necessary to have faith in those around you even when there is no reason to. I know that no matter what the current circumstance is, that things are going in the right direction. It is so inspiring to put your faith in other people, especially those who care deeply about you. It is a chance for them to rise up to a new level, something they never were able to reach before; and even if they don’t reach that level it is easy to understand that the achievement is not the most important thing. It is the shared feeling of respect and courage and happiness that is important. I have faith in my family, my coach, my friends, and I now finally have faith in myself. I was stuck on the fact that I had a solid string of bad luck, two years in fact. In fact you could say that I had faith in the fact that things were going to continue to go wrong, that I would never be happy, never get better, and never become the person I wanted to truly be. I believe that is why faith is so powerful, for a long time I truly believed deep down that things would never get better and never work out the way that I had hoped they would. Well what do you know, two years later and they didn’t. It is a lesson in the power of my own mind. Faith is scary sometimes; the power it truly has over your own destiny and goals is unbelievable. I finally learned to channel my faith in a positive way, in a way that will actually get me to where I want to be, rather than keep me where I am.

My broken ankle will heal

I will get back into training

I will improve like I never have before

I will be able to do really great in school while training hard

I can continue to pursue all the things that make me who I am without letting go of any one of them

I will mend broken relationships, help the people who I hurt and show them who the real me is

I will be a positive light in other people’s lives

I will accomplish everything that I dream of

I will continue to build strong bonds with those people I love as well as those who I have yet to love

I have faith that all this will happen, I know it deep down inside, my intuition is telling me that it is true, and I sure as hell am going to listen.

Transitions: a Movement of my Mind Part 2

2010-10-28T17:34:00.000-07:00

Part 2: Intuition

That gut feeling, the voice inside of your head, the little devil on one shoulder and the angel on the other, your guiding light? These are all examples of Intuition, which I believe to be very misunderstood; and in and of itself a terrifying concept. Giving in to something inside of you that calls out to you to make a choice, without any real rhyme or reason behind it is a difficult proposition for most rational folk. That is of course if you can even recognize and hear your own intuition.

I used to be terrible at following my intuition. My heart would say something that I knew was right but I would ignore it and take the safer or more comfortable path only to have it come back and bite me time after time. Sometimes they were tiny little events, insignificant, but still noticeable; and other times they were very major cross roads in my life, with the potential to change me in great ways. I was once told that I have a great sense of intuition and that if my heart and mind are saying something, then I should listen to it. I was told it would never be wrong, and to this day it has not. Still I could not get it through my head to actually listen. I think that having to control everything in my life, (as I wrote about in part one) was one of the main reasons that I could not let myself follow what I knew deep down to be the right path and the right choice.

I feel as though letting go of having control has enabled me to be more open to the intuitive side of my personality and soul. I have a better relationship with myself and can hear and understand my intuitive thoughts more clearly. I am working on following every intuitive thought that comes to me, and to use these thoughts as answers to my never ending life questions. These are the most honest answers I can ever create, and they are often the first ones that come to me. I could spend weeks thinking about something and weighing out every tiny, insignificant detail, and after all that I make the wrong choice. In hindsight if I had listened to my inner thoughts the first time I could have skipped the two weeks of anguish, worry and stress and have made the right decision in the first place. That is why I believe that following your intuition can truly alleviate stress and pain from your life.

Letting go of having to control my life, along with being open to my inner most thoughts and feelings go hand in hand. I cannot improve one without improving the other and that is a lesson I need to remember. The potential to create answers and make decisions in a stress free way is very inspiring to me, and it is important for me to follow my heart from now on, no matter where it takes me. Maybe it is a lesson in faith, but I will leave that for part three...

Transitions: a Movement of my Mind

2010-10-27T17:47:00.001-07:00

I decided to actually write some pieces on my blog rather than race posts and training updates. Since I am sitting out with a broken ankle right now I have had a lot of time to think and ponder my life, my situation, the future and where I have gone wrong. This is part 1 of a 30 part series on what I have learned from dealing with injuries and illness for the past two years. I like to call it Transitions: a Movement of my Mind.

Part 1: Control (or letting go of it)

Ask me what I think the biggest reason that I have continually been injured over the last two years and I will honestly tell you that I believe I was meant to learn something, and every event was a chance to learn this lesson. When I did not learn from my mistakes, the events got worse and worse and I have now hit my breaking point with the most recent one. The dissolution of one of the most important relationships of my life along with breaking my ankle in quick succession left me searching for answers.

For me, it came down to one simple concept: Control. For most of the last few years I have been obsessed with trying to control every little aspect of my life. From school, to careers, my race career, my relationships, I planned, schemed and wrote my future. When my expectations were not met, I was caustic, stressed and generally not a great guy to be around. I became a victim of my own stress, my own plan. I could not be spontaneous; I could not let things go. I was consistently let down, and that caused me to become deeply depressed. When those two major events happened I finally realized that these were not in my plans. And yet, they had happened just as well. I broke my ankle doing something so routine, so easy for myself. I just did not get it. It took a lot of thinking and searching, a lot of pain, and it was actually terrifying to look deeply into myself and understand what I was doing wrong. I was paralyzing myself by controlling every aspect of my life and I was doomed from the start. I still do not understand why I became this way. This is not the kind of person that I am at all. I am a spontaneous, care free person, but for some reason I changed.

The important thing for me is to understand that this is my fall back. I try to control things because it is comfortable, because I am afraid of fate and afraid to leave things up to chance; but this is exactly what I am now doing. I have plans obviously; I cannot just wake up every day and let the day figure itself out. Within those plans however, the details are very loosely based. I have no expectations of myself and what I want to get out of myself. I surprise myself every day, and to be honest I quite enjoy that now. Being surprised and happy with myself is a lot easier than consistently failing to meet my own expectations. It is also a lot easier to have family and friends around me surprise me, and do great things without having to live up to expectations I have created for them.

I feel free, free from constraints, control, expectations. It is incredibly difficult to change a part of you that has existed for so long. I realize now that I have no other choice. It needed and still needs to happen. It is something I work on every day, and I doubt it will ever be perfect, I doubt I will ever be able to control my urge to control things. But isn’t that the point anyway?

I'm not really sure what to make of this

2010-09-30T23:50:00.000-07:00

I am sitting at home everyday on my ass watching movies and reading books and just generally trying to keep myself entertained haha. I have people who are helping me out with stuff, my mom is buying all my groceries and bringing me lots of awesome food. My friend Mandy comes by every afternoon (before she has to coach)to chat and watch movies or play crib with me. I have my room mate Jason to help me out with whatever else i need and i have supportive employers like Guri at Pedalhead Roadworks who just want me to get better and assure me that i have a job whenever i can get back into it. I broke my ankle in three places on saturday night and had to have surgery on sunday september 26th. They installed a plate and 5 screws to try to piece things back together. I'm not really sure where to go from here, or what i want to do.

Obviously i am a little frustrated, i sat out almost 2 months when i broke my elbow in the beginning of july. I have done very little over the past two seasons of racing. But to be totally honest i didn't know exactly if i was totally committed to triathlon at the time that i broke my ankle and it was the same with when i broke my elbow. I am still back and forth on whether i want to be fully focused on my sport or if i want to do other things with my life.

This is obviously a blessing in disguise, i have been running wild lately and have been living my life a bit out of control over the last 6 months. This really gives me a chance to focus on myself and get my priorities in order and make an educated and real decision on what it is that i want to do.

Kris

Rebuilding

2010-09-19T20:45:00.000-07:00

I am in the process of figuring out my direction with the sport as well as coaches, training locations etc. I am going to try to put myself in the best position possible to be happy and healthy and well trained for the 2011 season. More to come on these decisions in the future.

Kris

Back Troubles

2009-11-17T21:02:00.000-08:00

Having some pretty brutal pain in my upper back when i am swimming. I have been experiencing this for about a week and am finally heading in to see my boy Rob at Whitemud Crossing Massage tomorrow at 2:00. I swam today for the first time since Friday since i was resting my back, i got in 3km and felt ok. It feels a lot better, but it will be solid after the massage tomorrow. Also got in a 50min ez run tonight with some stretching and then an hour of weights. Running is feeling really good right now and i am really happy about that.

Big things going on with Shack Attack Racing soon. I will hopefully be launching a new site in the near future along with some innovative new ways to connect with me and other Edmonton area sports enthusiasts. Keep tuned in for that.

Finished my last project of the semester for one of my recreation classes this morning. Now its smooth sailing until final exams and then train my guts out and put in some solid volume throughout the christmas break.

November 17th and it was 13 degrees here today. Couldn't ask for anything better.

Cheers,

Kris

Open Letter to the jerk in the silver dodge ram who has a problem with me running across the road at a cross walk

2009-11-14T10:33:00.000-08:00

Hello Sir,

I know this letter will never get to you, because you probably know nothing about any type of sport other than Hockey, which is a shame, but the reality of the rig pigs like you in our country.

I am not quite sure why you chose to get mad at me for running across the road at a cross walk, and since i was running i even made it across before you even entered the intersection. However for some reason, (maybe you are secretly gay and because you don't want anyone to know you have homophobic tendencies and you got mad that i was wearing tights) you chose to stop your truck in the intersection when there was no light or stop sign and block traffic just to give me the finger. At which point of course i chose to wave nicely at you, mostly just to piss you off. You then decided that that was not enough pay back and decided to almost cause an accident by cutting off two lanes of traffic just to turn off onto the closest road to me and get out of your truck and yell something. I couldn't hear you of course, i was too far away by now, but just for kicks i pulled down my pants and gave you a good view of my white ass.

Again this must have pissed you off more because you are probably secretly gay and as such are extremely homophobic. So then of course since i was watching carefully you chose to cross four lanes of traffic back to the other side of the road and cross four lanes of traffic again to pull into a road just ahead of where i was running. I could see again that you got out and were ready to get into an alteraction which sir i have no time for since i was in the middle of my training run, so i ran across the road to the other side and continued on my way there yelling "if you think you are such a tough guy then come race me asshole" to which you did not. I continued my run without any sight of you again.

I have some serious problems with you sir, here is a list of them:
1) Don't bother me while i am at work, do i come to your shit hole of a workplace and try to fight you. No, mostly because i am better than you and would never be seen at the type of place that you would work at.

2) What would your mother say about this? Clearly she did a very poor job in raising you and you clearly have no morals or manners.

3) I didn't even cause you to be held up for 5 seconds, was it really worth the 10 minutes of harassing me?

4) I was going to ask what your wife would say about this, but you are such an asshole that i can't see any woman ever being attracted to you. You will probably die alone. Sorry man, that's the breaks.

5) I really wish you would have chased me on foot. This is what i think about that:

"In training he was fearless, felt himself too easily capable of violence. He often contemplated what he would do if someone stopped and challenged him. He figured he would put them through a little of what his life was all about; taunt them into giving chase. He would stay just a little out of their grasp, egg them on and on. Perhaps they would make half a mile of so, depending on how well he could lure them; perhaps their own sense of pride might surface, a by-product of a terrible misconception about what was actually happening. You would watch for the signs Cassidy thought, the ones you knew so well; the pain, the bewilderment, the blankness that would eventually come close to despair. He would make it a challenge, so they would forget their original purpose and keep on going just to this bastard, this...this... (then it would dawn on them) runner.
Then he would simply turn and face them. He would take on anyone like that, he thought. He would take on Muhammad Ali as long as he could direct the preliminaries.
Cassidy knew very well that he could take men, otherwise strong and brave men to places they had never been before. Places where life and death overlapped in the surreal valleys of muscle gloom and heart despair, where one begins to realize once more that nothing really matters at all and that stopping (death?) is all; where all men finally get the slick skin of civilization off and see that soft pink glow inside that tells you-in both cunnilingus and bullet wounds-there are no secrets.
A visitors taste, in short, of the distance runners daily fare. He would fight them then, if they still wanted to, after they knew. But they wouldn't want to, he was sure of that. They would walk away with nothing more than a hard-won understanding."
-Quentin Cassidy from Once a Runner

One last word,

If I ever see you messing with me or any other runner again, you will wake up the next morning with broken bones and a truck that has been destroyed. And that is a threat bud, this world could use less people like you.

Cheers,

Kris Loshack

Sickkkkkkk

2009-11-05T09:10:00.001-08:00

I figured i would take the downtime that i have right now due to being sick to give an update. Well I am sick, but it is at the tail end of it, and i don't think it was the swine flu cause i only had a headache, sore throat, and bad chills and fever for a couple of days. I'm really hoping to go for a run by the end of today and hopefully will be able to swim and run tomorrow. It sucks that just as i get super motivated to train i get sick and can't do anything.

Training up to then was going good. Last week i put in 5 swims, 5 runs and 6 weight workouts for a total of 16 hours. I was around 45km for the running and depending on what the coach says i would like to build myself up to a life time high of around 80-90km per week by Feb-Mar and maintain that all year long. I have never run more than around 40-50km per week in my life usually due to injuries or focuses on other aspects of my sport. I am committed now to becoming a great runner and am ready to put in the mileage and hard work that it takes to get there. Plus i am enjoying the heck out of running right now. It is the think that i most look forward to all day.

I was swimming with the Edmonton Keyano Swim Club this fall, but i chose to leave the club about 3 weeks ago. I found that along with working a job, doing school and all my other training it was pretty much impossible for me to do a full time swim program. I was swimming 7 times per week and doing two hour swims with an hour of dry-land weights and core before or after. This equaled out to being 20 hours a week just focused on swimming. Which for me and my schedule is way out of wack. The advantage of doing my own swim program before with the help of Bill Humby (head coach of the U of A varsity swim program) was that we could tailor it to fit into my life and along with my other training and commitments. So i have gone back to Bill's program and am excited to build upon the foundation that we laid down last year. I believe that with the same amount of work i will continue to progress and hope to get myself down to 17:30 for 1500m short course by February.

I finally solved the pain in my tibias that i have been experiencing while running for the past three or four months thanks to my coach Kevin and Jack from my sponsor Fast Trax. I had a feeling that since i have done so much weight work and strengthening exercises, that my foot and stride have changed and the shoes i was wearing were inhibiting me. Kevin agreed so i went to see Jack and have him sort it out. He spent an hour with me trying on numerous pairs of shoes and going down in stability until we hit the right point. And the result? No orthotics along with a light weight low stability trainer known as the asics ds trainer. I am stoked, i hated wearing orthotics and to know that all the work i have put in to basically change my foot shape and stride has totally paid off. I have said it before and i will say it again, Jack is the best person to talk to if you want to get shoes that properly work with your foot and body. He has a great approach to it and a wealth of knowledge. I will never go anywhere else, plus his shop is grass roots and just and awesome place to support, check it out at www.fasttraxskishop.com

Thats about it for now. I really want to not be sick so i can hit it back hard tomorrow.

Hopefully it will happen,

Kris

The book

2009-10-26T21:48:00.000-07:00

Every person has times when they doubt themselves, when the mountain seems too high, too dangerous, or just too much. With athlete this is especially true, and with serious athletes and particularly endurance athletes this is our reality. We do not need to live in a world of doubt however. The doubt/questions end with closing the book. During a safe and unbiased time ask yourself THE QUESTIONS, consider them, dwell on them, make decisions, record the answers and the book is closed. My coach Kevin likes to refer to this as "Clarity of Purpose" I like to think of it as a funnel, where the unnecessary is filtered out leaving the true ambition of that person. Once the book is closed, life is easy. There is no thinking, wondering, wishing, hoping, dreaming. Life just is. Training needs to be done. It doesn't have to be fun every time or even enjoyable. But it needs to be done. It just does not change, there is no alternative.

The closed book is the Key to success. It is something i have been missing for the past year or even two. With it comes purpose, and mindfulness.

I closed my book last night.

Have you?

Training Today

2009-10-14T18:56:00.000-07:00

Got back in the water with Keyano today and did a great, tough swim workout. Main set, was:

-40x50m as one easy long course on 1:10, one sprint from a dive short course on 50secs
-20 x 100m as kick/swim swim/kick with fins as 4 on 1:45, 4 on 1:40, 4 on 1:35, 4 on 1:25, 4 on 1:20.

Then I went and ran the 6th of 7 Wednesday cross country series races. It was 5.5km with a lot of snow, it was really fun and my form is coming along really well, even though i am slow from not doing much intensity on the run over the last month.

Bagged now, going to bed, but first i figured out a way to make my schedule a little more easy for myself, so i am going to drop a class on mon/wed/fri so that i have the whole day to relax and focus on training and getting other things done, and i am instead taking a correspondence music course to make up for the credits.

It is going to make it so much easier, and a lot more enjoyable to be serious with my training.

Cheers,

Kris

All is not well in Shack Attack Racing Land

2009-10-13T19:11:00.000-07:00

Alright I have new things going on and new training which should be exciting.

But I can't hold this back from any kid or anyone who reads my site and respects me. All is not well. I have been dealing over the last week or so with a lot of self pity and a lot of problems.

I am Jealous.
I am Jealous that it is so easy for some people.
I am Jealous that some kids have rich parents and haven't had to work for anything.
When I wake up at 3:00am still in pain from last nights swim set and drive for 30mins to get to the airport warehouse and move heavy boxes of freight around for 3-4 hours at a time. I get jealous.
I then come home and have maybe 30mins to nap before doing a run workout and an hour of weights before getting my stuff ready, doing 30mins of studying and heading to school.
When i have to park at the Kinsmen and walk up to school everyday and then walk back down, just barely making it on time to practice all because i can't afford to buy a parking pass for the U of A, I get Jealous.
When i go through a hard swim workout and then drive my truck home and have 2 hours to eat, and study before i have to get to bed and do it all over again in 7 and sometimes 6 hours, I get Jealous.
When i go to class and haven't done any of the readings for a class yet because i spent my time falling asleep on my books, you guessed it I get Jealous.
And when i don't see my pals for weeks at a time sometimes, i just feel bad.

In no way am I complaining, in no way am I looking for sympathy. I just honestly have been feeling really crappy about the disparity and the challenges i must face on a daily basis to become a great athlete.

Think about this:

-There are no full scholarships for triathletes
-There are no scholarships period
-There is no provincial funding
-I get no national funding
-The costs are huge, some of which i cannot name
-It is really hard to hold down a job, train and go to school

But guess what, unless you have rich parents, then this is how our nation develops its athletes who fall through the crack, guys and girls who weren't good enough juniors and are now paying for it.

I just get tired. I get really really tired sometimes.

Again, i don't need sympathy, i'm not looking for it. It may sound like complaining, but i just need to get it off my chest.

I chose this life, and I am still choosing to do it. Therefore it is my own doing to myself.

I could easily just become a normal person, just go to school, run cross country, get my varsity letterman sweater, work during summers and have a great college experience.

It is my choice to live like this. I live like this because i want to be a great triathlete, something really great one day, maybe even one of the best. So i will keep doing it. I will keep doing it until i get there. I will never give up. I don't know how. Sure I will get down sometimes but you know what? as long as you can deal with me for 4 days i will pull myself out of it. I am going to succeed. Because there is no other option. If I don't this will all have been a waste.

You can't teach hunger.
Hunger comes from living like i am for years at a time.
Hunger comes from wanting to knock the ones who are not hungry down.
The prey falls to the hungriest lion, thats the case in the sporting world too.
I know there are others out there like me. I commend you. I know there will be kids who have dreams like I do, if you stumble across this post please take what i say to heart and never give up. Hold your head high. I believe in myself and what i have is enough. I am grateful for the life I have because it has thus far and will continue to make me who I am.

If i endure this, i will be tougher. If i endure this i will want it more than ever. You can never let a mans spirit get too comfortable. It may be hard but "if you're going through hell, keep going." Winston Churchill

The consequences of a lion who hasn't eaten for years will be dire my friends, he may go on a hunting frenzy, all those years of training having built up his aerobic engine, all those years building his hunger. There will be a time to unleash it, and when it is unleashed, the other lions had better watch out as well.

You won't hear this side of me often, but its like a survival mechanism. In times of need it emerges. Its what will keep me going until I reach my goal.

New Training

2009-10-13T18:08:00.000-07:00

Hey,

I am now swimming with the Edmonton Keyano Swim Club in the National Select group under coach Steve Price. I am super psyched to be training with Steve, who i consider one of the best distance freestyle coaches around. The workouts have been hard, and will get harder, but I am looking forward to it all. I have been swimming with Keyano for about 4 weeks now and I am really enjoying it.

I am also working on breaking down my run form and re-building it from scratch with my coach Kevin Masters. We realized that my form was not good enough to get me to the point where i could maybe 4 years from now be running under 29:30 for 10km off the bike, so we took it apart and are now building it up to where it needs to be. It is a lot of work, but I have faith that it will change my racing for the better.

Thats it for now,

Kris

New Video coming soon

2009-10-10T11:38:00.001-07:00

I am currently working on a new short promotional video outlining my year last year and my plans for next year. Should be done soon, i'm hoping in less than a week.

Stay tuned for that,

Kris Loshack

Ch, Ch, Ch, Ch, Ch, Ch, Check it out

2009-10-09T15:41:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, I have just become a representative with FHTM a new Marketing Company in Canada. Basically you can visit this website www.fhtm.ws/krisloshack and enter my ID # 8854692 then click on the Canadian flag at the top of the site so you can see our Canadian retailers.

This will take you to a site that you can connect to and buy products online. The best part is that if you buy something by linking from my site, a percentage of it goes directly to me for advertising. So you are getting what you would normally be buying at a discounted price and helping to fund my triathlon career at the same time. Some of the companies include: Travelocity, Vitamins, stores like old navy and banana republic, long distance service, digital phone, etc. Basically you just click on the product at the bottom of the screen and it will take you to the actual products site where you would buy something from anyway, but because of the link through my site that is how i get to earn money.

And if you are interested at all in having a site like this that will get you discounts without having to go through me, or to even earn money for advertising on your own site just email me at krisman_21@hotmail.com

Check it out, and Thanks for Supporting me

Kris Loshack

My List, It Helped Me Realize My Barriers to Success, I hope it Can Help Someone Else as Well.

2009-10-09T15:38:00.001-07:00

21 Reasons that I Never End Up Doing What I Need to Do, in No Particular Order – and How to Fix these Problems

1. The internet- It takes up so much of my time and I never really achieve anything. I just waste hours looking at things that really don’t matter. Do not use it and limit the time you spend on it. Going on for 10mins and then focusing on something else is perfect.

2. Dreaming- I spend so much of my time wishing things were a certain way and hoping that they will become that way that I never get to work achieving them. Follow this quote by Steven J Ross “There are those who work all day. Those who dream all day. And those that spend an hour dreaming before setting to work to fulfill those dreams. Go into the third category, because there is virtually no competition.”

3. Making useless lists- This list may help me, but in reality it is probably just going to be another hair brained scheme and a waste of my time. Spend the time to make it and then actually follow what you said to do.

4. Not knowing what I want- If I do not know what I want to do then I will spend hours thinking about it and spend hours wasting my time actually doing nothing. Move on to something you have to do then, you need to get it done so why not?

5. Knowing what I want to do but...- being afraid to actually sit down and figure it out. If you finally know what you want to do, go out and do it, even if it is a risk.

6. Not having a concise plan- I never spend the time to figure out a plan on how I will accomplish things. Follow Ross’s quotation, make a plan, make it concise and stick to it.

7. Not sticking to my plan- I really never stick to the plans that I create, I don’t know why, but it does not happen. Create it in a way that you have to stick to it, make it efficient and reprimand yourself for not sticking to it.

8. Not thinking things through- I think an idea will be just great and then I go to do it and realize that it takes way more time or will not work the way I thought it would. Again, plan for a portion and organize yourself, then set to work on what you want to do.

9. Dwelling on things that I don’t have- If I get caught up on this then I just get into a rut and never accomplish anything. You cannot work to achieve a goal when you are stuck on what you don’t have. Think of all the great things that you do have, be grateful for what you have and focus on achieving the things you want.

10. Dwelling on how far off my goal seems- It seems like such a huge mountain to climb, how will I ever reach the top if I am starting down here. If others can do it, so can you. Break it down into little steps and work to finish each one properly. Celebrate every win and every achievement.

11. Second guessing myself- I always second guess my choices and whether or not I am doing the right thing or the wrong thing. When you make a decision to do something, leave it at that. Never question it again and never think of it again, lock it away and start working on it.

12. Putting the less important things first- Thinking that I really need to read other athletes blogs before I get to that essay that is due in 2 hours. You will have time to do whatever you want once you finish what you need to do. Doing your work effectively will leave more time at the end for free time.

13. Making up excuses- I don’t feel good, I’ll get to it tomorrow, I’ll just do this first, I have all weekend to do it, it’s just one workout, it’s just one swim, my shoulder is sore, I might be doing too much, my head just is not in it, I think I’m getting sick. Unless you are deathly sick you are just being lazy. Go out and try it, at least for 30mins, if it is really bad then stop, but at least you tried.

14. Not scheduling my day in a manner that will help me get things done- putting off that run workout until 8:00pm after I stuffed myself at dinner with some friends when I should have done it in the morning. Make your schedule work for you. If you know that mornings are best to get things done first then do that. Always accomplish the most important things first to leave time for leisure later.

15. Contemplating my life- Believe me, no philosophical brilliance is going to come from me figuring out my own life, I already have it figured out. Sometimes there is a need for contemplation, but often it is a waste of time and can lead to second guessing. Lock it away and focus on what you need to do.

16. Hanging out with my girlfriend and being lazy- I know that we can hang out and still get things done, but for some reason we always fall into the trap of slacking off. Put yourselves in an environment to be productive and take scheduled breaks from your work. Feed off each other to get things done.

17. Feeling sorry for myself- I do this a lot, I feel sorry for the situation I am in and I start to get down. This makes it hard to train or do anything. Why would you feel sorry for yourself? It is hard now, but it will pay off and you will achieve what you want to achieve.

18. Feeling like I hate what I am doing- Just feeling like I don’t want to do whatever it is that I am doing but not wanting to do anything else. You cannot love what you are doing all the time, so think of times that you did love what you are doing and focus on that to get you through these times.

19. Putting off important things for other people- I let other people and their needs come before my own. I put things off that I need to do in order to be successful for more trivial pursuits. You are your own person, take control of your own life and do what you want and need to do. If your friends are true and loyal, they will understand.

20. Wanting to enjoy the method rather than the result- The method is not always fun, but too often I opt for the short term happiness rather than put in the work and enjoy a more lasting long term happiness down the road. Try to achieve lasting happiness rather than a quick fix. Work hard at the method and enjoy the results, if you are enjoying only the method, it is not right.

21. Relying on others to help me- I always think that I need the best coach, best help, and the best sponsors to be the best athlete. Those things absolutely help, but you can still work to be the best on your own and you will gain those things in the future by putting in the work.

New Business Venture

2009-10-08T08:42:00.001-07:00

Full Race Report

2009-07-13T12:38:00.000-07:00

So the week before the race in San Francisco I was not feeling quite right. My calves and ankles were killing me and i couldn't do my pre race track workout on the Tuesday before, I only got through the warm-up. So I headed in to see my buddy Rob at Whitemude Crossing Massage and he worked on me thoroughly. I guess my calves were pretty locked up and it took a lot of work on his part to get them back to normal. So I didn't run until the morning of the race after that to rest up.

The adventure started with the Race organizers telling me that although they had promised me a homestay for the race they were now backing out and had nothing to offer me. This was 5 days before the race. So i scrambled and found a hotel for $60.00 Canadian per night right downtown. So the trip cost me a lot more than it should have but that is life I guess. This attitude of "oh well shit happens" continued for me pretty much the whole trip as I had to take a lot of things in stride. I boarded my flight from Edmonton to Calgary at 8:30am and as I found out in Calgary, unfortunately my bike did not. Well i boarded my flight to San Francisco later still not knowing about what will happen with my bike, I told them I needed it that day and they were going to try to fly it out on another flight. "Ask about it when you get to San Francisco," they said. So I did and they knew nothing and one female West Jet representative politely told me to use the information phone on the wall to which i politely responded that she call the Calgary West Jet to find out for me. So she finally did and my bike was due to arrive at 4:00pm on a United Arilines flight. It was currently 12:00pm. So I waited in the airport for 4 hours. But I finally got my bike and after arguing with my shuttle driver that I shouldn't have to pay extra for my bike, got to my hotel at 5:00pm.

I checked in, the room was cool, I headed down to a pool that i had found beforehand and got 3km in. Then had dinner and went to bed.

I met up with Andrew Russell the next day at 3:00pm to take the bus to the race site and do a bike tour and swim. Pro meeting, then bus home and eat dinner, get ready, go to bed.

Took the bus to the race site in the morning, had a good warm up, got in the water for the deep water start.

Got the crap kicked out of me for the first 300m of the swim, I really need to learn to start faster. Came out of the water about 35secs down on the lead pack. Got out with 8 guys who did shit all on the bike and were all useless. So after 2 laps I saw Jamie Stephenson up the road and took off after him. The two of us worked hard and bridged up to the lead group (who had about 90secs on us) with half a lap to go. Took my gel at this point and it was probably too late.

Got on the run and was fried, my legs were gone from the hard chase on the bike, and i had nothing. Finally on the last lap i felt better and made up a bit of time but i finished 19th and was out of the cut off time for points.

I am really proud of my race though as I had the conviction to put in on the line in an effort to do the best that i could and to finish as high as possible. So I am really satisfied and happy with that.

Flew home and they lost my bike. No idea where it is, I'm kind of mad and would have nothing but bad things to say about west jet right now.

San Fran Continental Cup

2009-07-12T18:18:00.000-07:00

Full race report coming soon. Just sitting in the Calgary airport waiting for my flight back to Edmonton. So far they have no idea where my bike is right now, but it is not here and I am pretty frustrated about that.

Race went good. The results don't show it, but i am really proud of my race yesterday. I hung it all out on the line in an effort to have the best possible result i could have and in the end paid for it a bit. But I am proud of the way i raced and the conviction i showed.

I ended up 19th with a pretty poor run split, but will explain my race later as my flight has just started boarding.

Cheers,

Kris

Things that i said i wouldn't do, I did them.

2009-06-30T11:25:00.000-07:00

So i got a little down about my race at Wasa Lake. Even though the factors were out of my control i took it pretty hard and didn't feel much like training for a few days, and even after that i had really mediocre training. I took a trip out to Canmore on my own to try to get back on track and even that did not help. I had to get my shit together because i had a race on June 28th which was less than 2 weeks away.

I think through that experience i lost belief in myself. belief is a powerful thing, if you don't have it it's really hard to do much of anything let alone ravage your body through workout after painstaking workout. And i didn't have it. I got too caught up on results and forgot that sport is fun, i got too caught up in the naysayers and the people who don't support me rather than celebrating and recognizing the people who do support me.

A good friend and at one time boss of mine sent me some words of wisdom and that helped a lot. I know i have counted on his experience before and probably will again, so thank you Brian, i definitely appreciate it.

At some point i got my belief back, i started to put it behind me, i started to feel good again. I started having fun again. I started to get motivated and feel like myself again. I started realizing that there are a lot more people who believe in and support me than the number that don't.

Then i entered the Half Moon Lake Triathlon. My good friend Trevor Soll got me into the race and i decided not to worry about anyone else and just give that race my all through every part of it. I decided to have fun and just go nuts and see how it feels. I also really wanted to get a win. There were also $100 for the swim, bike and run prime. And $500 in prizes for the win.

I felt totally relaxed and not nervous about the race at all. i didn't clean my bike before, i didn't rest, i came into it really bagged with a full week of training behind me, still sore from wednesdays track workout. I got my stuff ready in the morning and headed to the race site. I warmed up well and felt good.

I got a bad start in the swim and was 15m-20m behind Zach King (talented Junior triathlete) at the first buoy. Coming out of the water to start the second lap i got a good run and dove in right on his feet and drafted the rest of the second lap. i thought about going by, but was really not feeling good. So i decided to sit on his feet and wait for the sprint up the hill to the timing mat, which was where the swim prime was counted. So out of the water i was 5m behind him and i left my wetsuit on and sprinted with all i had to beat him to the mat, (he started to take off his wetsuit) and get the swim prime.

Onto the bike and I felt really strong and powerful even though the wind was strong. I rode as hard as i could and ended up having a 1:30 gap on Ryan who was in second place. Had a solid transition and was out on the run. The run went well and i kicked up the pace a bit for each of the four laps. i ended up putting another 30sec on Ryan and ran well to win by two mins.

When the results were posted i found that on top of the swim prime, i also beat Ryan by 7 seconds for the bike prime and had the fastest run by 45 sec for the run prime. I was psyched to win all three primes and the overall. It was a good pay day and extra special because my father and i had put the race on for the last 5 years but decided not to do it this year, so it was a nice culmination to win the event in my family's honor.

A congrats goes out to Ryan, Matt, Pat Kong, and especially Zach King, you guys all had great races out there and it was fun to mix it up.

Next up San Francisco ITU Continental Cup.

Thanks to all the supporters out there, whether i know you or don't, or you cheer for me on the course or in spirit, from my family, girlfriend, grandparents, girlfriends grandparents and family to all the people i see at the kinsmen, at the races or those who read my blog, i thank you with all my heart, it makes it easier to know i am not alone on this road that i have chosen.

Kris Loshack

Wasa Lake Triathlon Race Report

2009-06-15T10:28:00.001-07:00

Well, what can I say about this one?

It was probably the most disastrous race i have ever had. I'm very unsatisfied. I am still waiting to get a chance to test my fitness in a triathlon. I am dissapointed that i did not get to show how much work i have put into my cycling over the last 6 months. I am dissapointed i did not get a chance to show how my running is improving. I am angry that i was beat by athletes that i should have beaten.

Ok, Ok, so what happened? Well i warmed up for the race and felt great. Everything was on and everything was working. I warmed up for the swim and that felt decent. So the race started and I got out to a good start and worked into what i thought was the lead pack. I didn't realize that there were two athletes alone ahead of us (Andrew Russell and Jon Bird). So i missed getting on with those guys and there was no chance at making up the gap. That was frustrating because of my mistake i was drafting and feeling like we were going an easy pace, i think i could have swam with those guys up front. Next time i will pay better attention and start out harder.

Got out of the water in 3rd and felt ok, the swim was a bit off however and i will need to go back and find a way to correct it. Into transition i was quick, i am still a bit rusty though, need some more race experience. Wheeled my bike to the mount line, and my one shoe had moved back a bit so i couldn't step straight on it to mount my bike. Ok well i'll just do a jump and land straight on the seat.

BANG! What the hell was that? Well i couldn't pay attention to it cause i had to get out on the bike. About 2 mins later once i was in my shoes i realized what had happened. I had landed with so much force on my seat, that my seat post had slid down about 3 inches from where i usually have my seat post set.

So that was that, from then on i rode with every part of my body cramping up and my knees getting sore and not being able to put any power into my pedal stroke. I had to stand up repeatedly, stretch, do whatever i could. I thought about dropping out, but i was still in 6th and losing time and i just tried to do whatever i could to keep myself in the race. In the end it was no use, it would have been impossible. Once i got onto the run, everything was so tight that i was hunched over for the first km. Things loosened up a little but i was so tight and sore and couldn't do anything at all. I ran in survival mode just wanting to finish the race so i could go home.

Well i finished the race, in 6th, and we packed up my stuff and went home to Edmonton, no awards, no post race meal or post race chat with the other athletes, i was too angry and dissapointed.

All i could think about was what people were going to say when they look at my results online. But if they judge me off of the Wasa Lake triathlon, they will have a rude awakening when i have a chance to race at my potential.

Soon to race... Wasa Lake

2009-06-09T20:57:00.000-07:00

So i am racing the Wasa Lake Olympic distance triathlon on sunday June 14th. I'm really looking forward to it as it will be my first triathlon of the year and training is really coming around.

I had a few key sets last week that went really well and finished with 23 total hours of training including a running race. Needless to say, i feel like i am on the right track. My coach Kevin has made my weekly training plan pretty tough for the last while. Not so much intensity, but lots of extra things that will pay off in the long run. I feel like i have been training so hard for so long lately that if i only have one workout in a day, i feel like i am completely tapered and it goes really well.

I can't wait to see what a real taper does for this weekend's race.

sponsor update

2009-06-06T11:46:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

I thought i would give all my sponsorship reps a quick update as to how my season has gone so far. I have only raced three times so far this season, with all three being used for training and having no rest before or after, just a usual part of the training week.

On May 10th I raced in a 20km TT just outside of Edmonton. My coach and I used it to see where we were at, i was not focusing on being competitive because i am not a real cyclist, but all in all it went well and i placed 5th in my category with a time of 31:20. It was a tough course and a solid effort for my first real race effort of the season.

Next up was the peach city 10km running race in Penticton, BC on May 17th. I also used this race for training and to see where i was at. The pace went out really slow and at the 2km mark we were 7:10. I decided there to push the pace and see what happened so i took off and lead until the 8km mark where i was passed by my coach Kevin Masters. I held on for second place in the race with a time of 35:40, just 5 seconds off the course record on a really hilly tough course. We also figured out after that the course is actually 10.5km rather than 10km, either way i was happy with the effort even though the time was not quite there yet.

On June 5th I raced the Northlands One Mile road running race here in Edmonton. I was competing in the 20-29 race and was not sure where i would be at since i have done no speed work and very little tempo running. The race went out hard, and i tucked in not wanting to blow up. I was in 4th place for two thirds of the race and with 400m left took off for the lead, i chased the leader down but just missed the win by 3 seconds, finishing 2nd in a time of 4:42. That time would calculate out to a 4:20 1500m which is only 2 seconds off my best time ever on the track. I am really pleased with this race and it gave me a huge boost of confidence knowing that i will only run faster this year once i start doing real speed work. I am tremendously pleased with where i am at right now, considering that i have taken my running very slowly since my stress fracture in October.

I am still planning out a few more races for the rest of the season, but here is how my season looks so far:

June 14th - Wasa lake olympic distance non-drafting triathlon In Cranbrook BC, $8000 prize purse

June 27th, 28th - Alberta SR. swimming provincial champs, here i will race a 1500m and 400m. Calgary, Alberta

July 11th - San Fransisco Continental Cup triathlon

August 9th - Lake Chaparel triathlon, Calgary, Alberta

August 23rd- Kelowna Continental cup triathlon and U23/Elite National triathlon championships, Kelowna, BC

More races will be added, but my coach and I are just deciding upon what would fit best into our long term plan.

I want to thank all of my sponsors for your support. This year has been tough to start for me coming off a big injury, but things are really turning around fast, and i appreciate your patience in all of this. Right now I am thinking about what will make me the best possible athlete I can be for 2012, and that takes some specific work. I am confident however that the plan I am on will make me the best athlete i can be in the future, but will also put me into peak shape for the national champs on August 23rd.

Thanks for reading,

Kris Loshack

Another training camp and a return to racing

2009-05-17T16:03:00.000-07:00

I am In penticton British Columbia where it is currently over 22 degrees for the Aerobic Power Training Camp. This camp is led by my coach Kevin Masters and I have come along on the ride to try to help the campers wherever i can. There is 16 athletes with four coaches.

Today I also made my return to racing in the Peach City 10km race. I have not done any speed work at all really except for two sessions so i knew i would not be at top form. But I managed to finish 2nd in 35:40 on a really tough and hilly course. The time was not really important, i just wanted to see where i was at and get a view on what i need to do to be ready for my races in June and the ones in August. Now that i have a good chunk of base training in I can really focus on honing my speed and high end endurance for the rest of my races.

After the race we headed out with the campers on our first group ride. We headed up towards a quiet road where we were able to break into smaller groups to practice pacelining and echelons. The groups did really well and we headed out for a longer ride to naramata and up to painted rock. My group had around 6 people and they did really well. After we got back from the ride we headed down to the lake and had an ice bath because the lake is still sooooo cold.

We now have to coach a group swim session in the pool tonight at 5:00pm and then we are done for the day.

More updates to come, Cheers

I can't wait to start racing...

2009-05-09T15:00:00.001-07:00

Because then i may have something that is actually exciting to read about. Until then it is just more and more training. My racing season officially starts tomorrow morning with a 20km TT out at Seba Beach put on by my coach and the aerobic power club.

I am definitely looking forward to getting in some serious race efforts and this will be my first shot. After that I am here in Edmonton until Friday and then heading to Penticton for a 8 days to train and help out at the aerobic power training camp, and then do a day of training in Canmore. I am really looking forward to doing another camp where i can just focus on training and only training. That being said, my training has been going really well lately. My swimming is really feeling great, as is my cycling. I think that swimming with Bill a little more often is forcing me to do workouts that i wouldn't always have the motivation to do myself and it is bringing a lot out of me. Plus he is going to work on my stroke and i can already see some differences.

I did my first real running speed workout last week and it went well and now i am just bringing up the volume of the main sets before increasing the intensity. I am pretty happy with where my running is at the moment considering i have only been doing base mileage all year and only started running (albeit for 2mins at a time) in January.

I am doing the Peach Classic 10km race in Penticton when i am there next weekend, and that will give me my first real indicator of where my run is.

Woah......

2009-05-02T14:19:00.000-07:00

That title does not have any meaning, but seriously here people, we have some important things to talk about.

1) Did a solid running speed workout and friday and i can honestly say that it is coming around. I hope to be in solid run shape by my first race of the year (the Wasa lake triathlon in Cranbrook BC) and carry that into the Montreal continental cup race the weekend after on June 20th.

2) Fantastic swim this morning with my swim coach Bill Humby. We just decided on what my swim program will entail for the rest of the summer and i am excited to get at it and feel good after doing all those miles and all that work. Today`s workout was a pace day and we did 3 x (200m IM on 3:30 as 25drill25swim, 5 x 100m on 2:00 at pace which for me was 1:12s, 300m as 25dolphinkick 25slow swim).

3) Equipment choices (if anyone cares to know)

Bike- BH TT frame built up as a road bike courtesy of Cam and Elise from Element Multisport, With Zipp 808 tubular wheels (courtesy of my dad lending them to me) or zipp 404 clincher wheels (from Element) depending on the course.

Running shoes- For race flats I am wearing the Asics Gel-Bandito (courtesy of Asics), For training I am wearing the Asics Kayano.

Tri suit- This year I will be racing in the Kiwami Amphibian 008 (Thanks to Kiwami Canada for that)

Apparel- I was lucky enough to have Asics sponsor me this year and they have taken care of all my shoe and clothing needs for running. I am so excited to be working with this company. I have also been sponsored by Fast Trax here in Edmonton and will be wearing their team kit during training this year as well as running races.

Rehab- Trigger Point therapy has once again signed me for this year and I am really excited to be using their products.

now that i have lost anyone who used to read my blog...

2009-04-27T20:51:00.000-07:00

Because i haven't posted in a while, i guess it is only natural to finally write something down now that everyone is no longer interested because my blog has been update-less for weeks.

Well I don't know if i have too much to say that anyone will find particularily interesting. Training is going well, i am getting my speed back in the pool, wait no that's wrong, i'm getting speed i have never even had in the pool. My cycling is going really well and i even rode for 3:15 in that blizzard of a snowstorm we had on sunday afternoon when it was only 1 degree out. And that run, the one that i'm sure would be the most interesting to people since it is the only one i will not talk about that often? Well it is well enough. I don't want to give too much away, but my run is chugging along and i am building a good base for the season ahead.

I found out what i would have to do to make the U23 National team to go to the gold coast of Australia in September to do the world championships. Here is what it looks like:

Because I am not doing the Pan american champs race on may 16th, the only way that i can qualify for the team would be to place top 20 in a world cup or world championship series event before the qualifying deadline.

But to be able to be entered in either of those events i need to:

a) Compete in 2 continental cup races within a twelve month period before the world cup. (Kelowna last year counts and we can count the Montreal race, so that is ok)

b) Achieve a minimal standard of 18:30 for 1500m swim short course in a sanctioned swim canada meet. (I have swam under 18:29 in two sanctioned meets so we are done that one) and achieve a time of 32:40 for a 10km run at a sanctioned track meet or road race by the national governing body or its provincial associations.

So basically, i need to get a good finish a the Montreal race, run a 10km under 32:40 by the end of june or beginning of july and then get entry into the world championship series events of:

Kitzbuhel Austria, July 11th (20th place last year ran 32:35)
Hamburg Germany, July 25th (20th place last year ran 34:57)

or the world cup events of

Tiszaujvaros Hungary, August 9th (20th place here last year ran 34:10)

or somehow Des Moines Iowa on June 27th.

And at one of these races i need to achieve a top 20 placing, assuming I can get into the race and that not all of the spots are already filled for the race by national team members.

Then i would need to hope that no one else gets a top twenty placing or that based on the quality of field i am ranked with a better placing.

It looks pretty daunting, and i may need to find a lot of help in order to get around to races, but first things first, so lets start with the 10km.

Race to come.

rough week

2009-04-14T21:13:00.000-07:00

After I got home from Victoria i got sick for a few days and did no training at all. But I have bounded back with two solid days and feel back on track. I am working on cutting out some swim mileage right now and trying to build more quality into it, as well as improving my run and continuing to gain specific strength on the bike. All the while attempting to strike a fine balance so as not to get injured again and to cut down on the amount of times i get sick.

I also decided that i want to try to work on my nutrition a bit and get a little more focused on what i put into my body. I think i am loading myself down with too many junk calories and not enough natural fuel.

I am also thrilled to say that I will be coaching alongside my coach Kevin Masters at his Penticton training camp from the 16th-23rd of may. It will be a lot of fun hanging out with the aerobic power guys and i am looking forward to getting another solid camp in, as well as my first running race of the season in the peach city 10k.

That's all for now

Kris

The last two days of the camp

2009-04-07T21:24:00.000-07:00

Sat:
I rode 4 hours in the morning as 1 hr ez, 1 hr at 150bpm hr, 5 x 10min at 160bpm hr with 3 mins rest, 1 hr ez. The ride was ok, but I could never get my HR up high enough. It seems that I was stuck in the low 140’s for the most part. For the hour at 150hr I averaged 136bpm, then for each of the 5 x 10min which was done on a hilly loop I was 134, 147, 144, 147, and 151bpm average. Then in the afternoon I swam 4.5km as 2km free swim, 1.5km pull with paddles, 1km alternating 200back and 200free drill.

Sun:
Sunday I rode 5:10 in the morning. It was about 120km, average pace of 23.4km/h and a total ascent of 2102m. It was a good ride with a short stop three hours in for a snack. I felt really strong and didn’t really fade at all during the ride. After I got off the bike I headed straight into a 51min run on the hilly roads of Mill Bay. It went well and I was surprised at how strong I felt. Didn’t end up doing the swim because the pool was closed in the morning and we didn’t have time to make the commute again that day.

Training camp update number 4 (i think)

2009-04-03T21:22:00.000-07:00

As usual I have nothing too interesting to say, just going to write about what I am doing right now. Training, eating, sleeping and going on the internet and visiting lots with Mandy's grandparents. The whole stay has been so great so far and as we come down to the end (only two days left) I think of how generous Dave and Joan have been to us. I don't think i have ever felt so welcome in someone else's home and am so appreciative of everything they have done for us here.

On to the training.

Thursday:
Today I rode 5 hours on a route that went over the malahat twice and where I spent the last hour climbing every hill I could find. I rode 116km and did 4500m of total ascent. I felt good and it was a solid ride. No swim today as I felt pretty tired. I was so glad that the weather held out and i did not get rained on at all. Mandy stuck it out for 4 hours and she rode really well. She is really coming along in terms of her cycling fitness and that seems to be the only part of triathlon that she needs to sort out anymore.

Today:
I did a 6.0km swim at Crystal pool as short course. Main set of 6 x 500m pull with paddles on 7:00 as 2 descend the 100’s and 1 negative split the 250’s (done twice through). Then we headed to Elk lake where I ran around the lake for 51min where I was just trying to get the legs going. Then we rode for 2 hours around the Mill Bay area as an easy recovery ride.

So that's 9.5 hours in two days. Saturday should be 5.5 hours and sunday will be the biggest day of the camp at 7 hours.

Training camp update number 3

2009-04-01T21:36:00.000-07:00

Tue:

Am: Ran at beacon hill park, 10min warm up, 2 x 50m single leg A drills, 1 x 50m double leg A, 2 x 50m single leg B drills, 1 x 50m double leg B, 2 x 50m C drill, 2 x 50m hurdlers drill. 4 x 100m accels with 100m jog back, 6 min cool down to the car. Then swam 7.0km mix of short and long course. 2000m warm-up, 6 x 200m kick with fins descend 1-3. 800m as 50 drill, 50 swim. 20 x 50m on 50sec holding 36sec pace freestyle, 10 x 100m on 1:30 holding 1:15 with paddles and pull buoy. Done for the day.

Wed:

Really rainy and cold day. Coach said to srap the ride. We still ended up having a really good day. I got to Crystal pool and did my weight workout which took about an hour and it went really well, I was lifting heavier weights than usual and felt ok doing it. Then we got in the short course pool and swam 6.0km. Our main set was 6x 800m as 3 pull with paddles, 3 swim, both sets descend 1-3 and on 12:00, 11:30 and 11:00. I had a great swim and ended up going 10:52, 10:30, and 10:04 for the pulls. Then I went 11:02, 10:33, and 10:18 for the swims. It was my best swim workout so far during this camp since we haven`t tried to go hard and have just been doing aerobic swimming. It was good to get back into some faster stuff again. Then we headed to Thetis lake to do our 51min run in the pouring rain. It was slick and soggy so it was not very fast at all, but I did do 715m of total ascent around the hills there so it was still a good strength run.

Big 5 hour ride tomorrow including the malahat, and a recovery swim. We start early with the ride at 8:00am.

That`s all for now, cheers

Kris

Training camp update number 2

2009-03-30T21:23:00.000-07:00

Well that three hour ride only ended up being 2.25 hours due to pouring rain and getting too cold. Oh well, it still ended up being a decent day.

Sunday I did a 5000m swim with some good pull sets. Then headed out for a 51min run around beacon hill park. It felt really great and running is coming along well. I am excited to almost be running an hour at a time again. After the run I headed out for a 4 hour ride through the hills around lake shawnigan, and up the malahat and then into duncan and around the back roads of that area. It was sunny and warm and ended up being a great ride.

Today I woke up feeling kind of sick. I had a sore throat and was stuffed up so i decided to take it easy on myself and only did a 4000m recovery swim at Crystal pool as 8 x 500m. Then we headed to the observatory hill and warmed up for 20 mins before doing the hill ten times at different paces. The ride ended up being 2.5 hours. Then we headed home for dinner and are heading to bed soon.

Tomorrow is a recovery day with a harder swim of about 6-7km, a short run and a 1 hour bike, before out big day on wednesday.

Training camp!!!!

2009-03-28T11:47:00.001-07:00

Well it worked out that Mandy and I were able to get away from work for a training camp. We left Edmonton on Wednesday and headed to Victoria to stay with her grandparents. So far it has been great. It has been clear and plus 8-10 everyday. Coach Kevin gave us an awesome plan for the 12 days that we are here. We will be heading home on Monday April 6th.

The first training day of the camp was Thursday and I did a 6000m swim at the local pool in Duncan which if you are not a resident of that town is outrageously priced. 10 bucks just for a swim, what a joke. We pay taxes to maintain our pools in Edmonton, but we don't discriminate against people who are not from Edmonton and make them pay more, they pay the same price. Luckily after some badgering they finally let us in for the resident price of 5 dollars. Anyway we did a main set of 3 x (200m drill on 3:20, 3 x 100m IM on 1:40 and a 600m with fins on 8:00). Then I did a 2.5 hour ride to loosen up around the mill bay area, and a 47min run off the bike.

Yesterday I did a 5500m swim, just easy stuff with some drill sets. Then headed out for a 2.5 hour ride with loops around Shawnigan lake. The ride had a main set of 10 x 1 min Hard with 3 mins easy in-between.

Today we have started with a 6000m swim with a main set of 50,100,150,200,250,300,350,400 and then back down again done as pull on 1:30 base time. Still have a 3 hour ride to go, then done for the day.

fell of the wagon

2009-03-16T20:46:00.000-07:00

I was doing so well, posting regularly every couple of days. But then the swim meet didn't go as well as i thought it would, and I kind of fell off the wagon and didn't feel like writing about anything.

Well that will change soon enough. Big news to come...

Day 1 of Senior SC Provincials

2009-02-27T18:28:00.001-08:00

Well after my brothers friend bailed on us, we had no where to stay as of thursday night. So last minute we booked the Ramada hotel for 60 bucks a night for thursday, friday and saturday night for the meet. Needless to say I am a little annoyed at his pal for backing out of hosting us and making me pay 200 dollars for a hotel instead.

We left edmonton around 5:30pm yesterday and got to Medicine Hat around 11:00pm. I drove most of the way and Mikey drove the last hour or so. After checking into the hotel and getting some McDonalds for dinner (there was nothing else around and i wanted to go to bed) (wait a second, i don't need to make excuses, i love McDonalds) I had to shave up and then we went to bed.

Up at 6:30 to eat breakfast at the free continental here at the hotel. And at the pool (which is conveniently an 8 minute drive away)by 7:45 to change and pay my fees before warming up. I found Carl the OSC head coach who is helping me out at the meet since bill is not here and he had already taken care of everything, so all i had to do was warm up. After a 1600m warm up and a couple of dives i changed into my race suit and was ready to go.

I was in the 4th of 11 heats and had lane 8 in my 100m freestyle. I had a good dive but just started out way too slow and had bad turns the whole time. I think it was just the nerves. I went 1:01.06, which is a pb and i am happy, but i know i could have gone a lot faster if i had raced it properly. As Carl said after "you can't make chicken salad out of chicken shit."

I warmed down, changed and went to the hotel for a nap. Got up and mikey and i got groceries and then came back and had lunch. Then i went back to the pool during finals just to do a 2000m token swim.

Now we are chilling and going to eat dinner soon.

I have the 50m free and 400m free tomorrow, should be fun.

Final days

2009-02-24T20:08:00.000-08:00

Well these are the final days heading into the swim meet this weekend, which is in Medicine Hat in case anyone wanted to know and i hadn't said yet. Its the senior provincials and should be a good meet. I'm looking for pb's and the training points in that direction. Training has been good, trying to taper this week and things are starting to come around. I am getting rid of the heavy feeling and starting to feel more of that easy speed which is a really nice feeling. I'm leaving after work on Thursday night to head down there and my first race is Friday morning. I will race the 100m free on friday, the 50m and 400m free on saturday, and the 1500m free on sunday. Mikey is coming down with me and it should make the car ride easier and it will be nice to have some support at the meet.

I had a decent swim this morning, no time for details though. I also met Kevin at custom fit for my first compu trainer ride, and i already learned a lot. That guy is going to make me a great cyclist and it might only take two rides a week. The compu trainer is an invaluable resource and i am so lucky to have it at my fingertips. I'm looking forward to a lot more rides and getting a lot stronger, better, faster.

2009-02-20T22:34:00.000-08:00

So i got a little sick yesterday and ended up taking the day off of training. But I came back at it today with a solid 25 min run and a 4.5km swim workout. The swim was nothing special, just getting back into it after the day off and trying to shake off a bit of a cold. I also met with my coach Kevin Masters last night to finalize some more training plans. My schedule is going to change a bit now that we are getting closer to the season. Cycling is being worked in twice a week along with swimming and running, and the weights will be more strength and power focused instead of stability.

Plans are set and things are going well. As for races, it will probably be last minute calls for the most part. We know that we want to do a continental cup race in mid-June and another in July before nationals in August, but we have to see how the running is coming along. I think i want to do an early season 10km on the road, maybe in may to see where the running is at. Other than that, there are no real plans, except of course to get faster, stronger and better than before.

Cheers,

Kris

yet more swimming and other good training

2009-02-17T21:26:00.000-08:00

Another good swim on Sunday morning, just an easy 5 x 1000m as i was feeling pretty bagged from the week. Also did a 60min spin at the kinsmen after i was done helping out at the swim meet for the last time.

Monday was a day off of swimming (much needed). But Mandy and I did a 25 min treadmill run (my longest yet, with no pain) and then my 75 min weight routine before we called it a day.

Today was another solid swim day with a 3.6km swim in the morning including a main set of 4 x 50m all out from a dive on 2:00 followed by 8 x 25m on 60sec from a float as 15m accel, 10m easy. Tonight we did a really hard set, 15 x 100m on 1:50 but trying to hold goal 1500m pace, It was a tough set but it went really well.

Now to bed

Cheers,

Kris

lots of swimming

2009-02-14T23:39:00.000-08:00

So thursday was a solid double swim day with a 22 min run on the treadmill as well. Had a really tough but fast set of 10 x 50m free all out on 2:00, I ended up swimming 30 lows for almost all of them. Then at night we did a set of 20 x 25, 20 x 50, 20 x 100m. The 20 x 100m were on 1:30 and i held a pretty good pace for them. It was probably one of the best 100's sets i've ever done.

Friday was a single swim because i had to pick up and pay for my truck that broke down on the side of the highway on thursday morning on the way to work. $840.00 and a new fuel pump and i am able to get around again. Brutal... So because of this situation I decided to earn some extra money by helping out at the western champs swim meet at the kinsmen this weekend. I was going to watch anyway so i thought i might as well help pay for my truck while i'm at it. It was a cool job, just video taping peoples races which they pay for. The swim was solid, done at 9:00 till 11:00 pm and dodging old people left and right at the bonnie doon leisure centre. Thats the only pool that was open that late and that was the only time mandy and i had to swim.

Saturday, two good swims. A really hard one this morning holding some sets of 100's on 1:20 Long Course. A one hour weight workout, 22 min treadmill run, and another swim in the long course pool doing speed stuff tonight. I also worked for the swim meet again and will do so tomorrow night as well.

going to sleep now, gotta swim again tomorrow,

cheers

good swim

2009-02-11T21:13:00.000-08:00

Had a good swim today.

I went out of town to seattle for my birthday this past weekend with my girlfriend. We were there from wednesday night to monday night (that includes the drive). It was great, so good to just kick back and unwind. I didn't train a whole lot, just got one run and one swim in, and i was very nervous about that. But i think in hindsight i needed the break to get my mojo back.

Had a really great swim on tuesday (first day back) main set of 30 x 100m on 1:30 as 10 free, 10 pull, 10 IM with fins. Also did a 22 min run.

Had a really good swim today as well. I did a set my coach Bill recomended, it was 10 x 400m continuous (no break) starting at 6:10 and dropping 10 seconds per 400m to do the last one in 4:40, which is what i did. It was all pull with paddles and it felt really good.

Altercation at the pool

2009-02-10T22:28:00.002-08:00

I should be sleeping, but to please the fans, here it goes.

I went to the Kinsmen to do my swim workout the other day and found an empty lane in the 25m pool. I was alone for the workout and did a 2km warm up followed by a really hard 2000m set. I had no problems during the set at all. I was swimming in the lane closest to the two lanes that were opened for kids to play in or swim or whatever. As I started my cool down there were 6 guys all around 23 years old playing volleyball over the flags. A ball came into my lane "no big deal" i thought and swam around it, then another one came and i almost ran into a guy trying to get it. "this is kinda stupid" i thought. The ball came in a few more times and i was getting fed up. Finally as i had 100m left to go i said if another ball came into my lane i would throw it across the pool. It did. And I threw it across the pool.

Then i flipped for my last lap and there was a guy standing in the middle of my lane, obviously mad because i threw his ball away (he is 23), so since i am used to defending my lane, i took a couple hard strokes and made a fist that cracked into his chest. At this point i took off my goggles and he started yelling and i started yelling, i told him to get out of my lane and he flipped out and told me i was an ass and that he would kick my ass. He was this little chinese gangster guy with tattoos all over. Finally the guard stepped in and told him to watch it.

I was done so i got out of the pool and did my run and weights. Well all those guys were waiting around outside of the change room and that little gangster thought he should have a word with me. So he followed me into the change room and said "hey, did you punch me, my bros said you punched me" I said look bud, you were in my way, and i'm not going to stop and i'm not going to slam my finger into you, if you want to take that as a punch, take it as a punch. Then he called me rude for throwing his ball and told me if i was so serious i should swim in the other pool. Well my workout wasn't meant for the other pool and i said look dude i've been training here since i was a kid, why don't you and your goonies find another pool to swim at and stay out of my lane and have some respect. Then he tried to threaten me more and act like he was going to hit me, and finally walked away and said i was lucky. To which i said oh yeah i'm lucky alright, lucky enough to run into a prick like you. He didn't even turn around.

The moral of the story, i hate guys like that. The Kinsmen is a training facility, not a place to act like a hot shot and pick fights. Go swim at west ed or mill woods rec centre where you are meant to fool around and stay out of my pool. I love people who aqua jog, swim fast, swim slow, do synchro, dive, water aerobics, swimming lessons, whatever it may be, i love seeing people out enjoying themselves and being active, and i'm not a guy who can't share a lane, i really don't mind. But to those guys who were there that night i have one message.

YOU DO NOT BELONG AT THE KINSMEN OR ANYWHERE ELSE IN SOCIETY FOR THAT MATTER, SO DO US ALL A FAVOR AND STAY HOME.

2009-02-10T17:43:00.001-08:00

heading swimming now, blog update coming in t-minus 4 hours. I will tell the story of the altercation at the pool. As well as where i have been for the past couple of days and some other news.

Cheers

Kris

Training

2009-02-04T14:46:00.000-08:00

Monday:

Swim 5000m with a main set of 20 x 100m as 4 x 1 on 1:50, 2 on 1:40, 1 on 1:10 with the last set as 1,1, 2 on 1:10. It was a really tough set, but it was really good. I then got into a tussle with some gangsters in the pool who kept running through my lane, i ran into one who was purposely standing in my lane with my fist and the rest was ridiculous. Stay tuned and i will post the story tonight. Anyway, on the treadmill for 15mins then a 75 min weight workout.

Tuesday:

Swim 6000m with a main set of 60 x 50m as 1 on 45, 1 on 40, 2,2,3,3,4,4,5,5 then build back down 5,5,4,4,3,3,2,2,1,1 that was a tough one, but i made all the pace times. Was going to do a spin on the rollers but we got a new puppy that just came home this night and i had to play with him.

Wednesday:

a swim and run and weights again. I will post how it goes...

Training today and a decision

2009-02-01T17:44:00.000-08:00

Today I rode for 90 mins on my new rollers. I had tried them only once before i bought a set, and only for about a minute. That was a few years ago. So i tried them out today and things went well. I fell off at about 70mins, mostly because i was tired and sore from trying to adjust to the new bike but also because I lost focus. So i went over the side and got thrown off, but i pulled out my foot in time and caught myself on a wall and didn't hit the ground. For the last twenty mins of my ride after that I was really shaky and just wanted to finish.

Watching the super bowl right now, its actually a lot more exciting game than i thought it would be.

After the game I'm going to do a 4 x 5 min run with a 1 min walk in-between on the treadmill, with the hopes of going to a 15 min straight run by Wednesday.

I decided the other day that a lot of people have been ragging on me or rubbing me the wrong way lately. I have always heard the phrase "don't burn bridges" from people. I even had my ex-coach from last year glen threaten me to try to make me stay with him. He said in an email "don't burn a bridge with me Kris, because if you do, the door will be closed and you won't be able to take advantage of the funding i will get us." Well I was never scared of him and I never will be. I stuck to my guns and now I have improved more in the three months since i left his group than i did in a year of training with him. Maybe I burned a bridge there, but you know what, I don't care at all. I dare other people to threaten me in this way. He also gave me another comment saying that if I couldn't be successful in his group under his guidance and the guidance of the Keyano swim club I would never be successful anywhere. We will see this summer if that is true. To be frank, i don't care who reads my blog or who will read what i think of people. I'm gonna tell it straight up from now on (real talk) and I don't care if people disagree with my opinion or if I stir the pot. I'm going to speak my mind from now on.

"Why would you care if you burn a bridge that you will never pass over again?"
Kris Loshack

New Frame/bars

2009-01-31T19:36:00.000-08:00

Hey guys

Cam (element multisport) and I just finished putting together my new ride for this season. We didn't find any sponsors willing to give me a new bike this year so cam and elise from element multisport here in edmonton were gracious enough to hook me up with a new BH time trial frame. We took all the components off my old felt road bike and swapped them onto the new frame but we also put a new easton carbon road bar on. Cam and I put it all together earlier today for a couple hours and it turned out great.

I'm so appreciative that I am sponsored by my good friends at element. Since their opening they have given me all the help and equipment I could need and I am very lucky to have such a great company on my side. Cam is a wizz at bike fit and just in terms of knowledge he is above and beyond anyone else in Alberta when it comes to Triathlon. If you need a new bike or a new fit or tune up or whatever, he is your man. Elise knows so much about the clothing and accessories that you need to be successful, plus she probably has one of the most trustworthy eyes for fashion and will give you her honest opinion. Together the two have created a top notch triathlon boutique, and I really suggest you click on the link to the side and check them out.

Other than that, no training to report today. I will be riding on my new bike/rollers tomorrow for two hours as well as a run and hopefully a swim.

A few pics of the machine...

Back into it

2009-01-28T21:33:00.000-08:00

Well after a successful swim meet, I was sick all last week. I finally got back into it on monday with a 4km easy swim and a 15 min run. Then on Tuesday it was a 5km pace play swim with Mandy with a main set of 20 x 100m as 2 on 1:30, 2 on 1:25, and 1 on 1:20. After that I did my weight workout. Then today I did a 5km swim with an aerobic main set with paddles and pull buoy and another 15min run. Feeling good and just about over my cold.

U of A Green and Gold Invitational

2009-01-19T21:37:00.000-08:00

Hey guys

Well the last post was about seed times for the meet in which i competed over this last weekend. I raced as a member of the U of A club swim team and wore the golden bear on my cap with pride. The meet was short course, and was pretty competitive and had some fast swims. I ended up racing a 400m freestyle on Saturday and a 1500m freestyle on Sunday. So here goes the race reports:

400m Free

I went into it with a 4:40 seed time which is the time that i wanted to get under, but i was still a little nervous as to whether or not i could beat that time. I went into the meet with a cold but wanted to give it my best shot so i wore a legskin suit that i bought off ebay, its a race suit, but not a good one, but i really wanted to try it out. I felt great in my first big meet warm up and got ready for the race. I went out conservative and really hammered it at the 200m mark, i fell off a bit after that but still came home in 4:37.73 so i was really happy with that. here are the splits:
50m
[33.04]

1:08.20
[35.16]

1:43.12
[34.92]

2:17.12
[34.00]

2:51.79
[34.67]

3:26.91
[35.12]

4:02.55
[35.64]

4:37.73
[35.18]

1500m free

Really nervous about this one as it is a long race and if something goes wrong you are in for a hard time. I was really in pain having sinus problems with my ear the night before and still felt kinda sick, but warmup went well and I was optomistic. I wanted to go under 18:30 as that is the standard to be able to race world cup races for canada. I took it out conservative and fell into a good pace holding 1:14s per 100m and then dropping to 1:13s for the rest of the race. I ended up going 18:23.17 a new pb and also well under the standard. I was really happy with the race but I think i can go a lot faster as i got nervous and didnt trust my pace so i kept looking at the clock and getting psyched out a bit. Oh well, i will know better for next time anyway. I wont post all the splits but I was 4:53.57 at the 400m, 9:48.18 at the 800m and 12:15.03 at the 1000m, all pb's for me except for the 400m split.

Hard work still to come, but i took today off due to problems with my ear. I look to be back in the pool tomorrow night and will try to up my swimming to 8-9 times per week over the next month or so.

P.S. I would like to thank my coach Bill Humby for all his guidance so far, without him I would still be getting no where with my swimming. And to my girlfriend Mandy without whom i would have never had the chance to meet Bill as well as the support to keep at it.

Cheers

Kris

Seed Times

2009-01-04T16:39:00.000-08:00

I got lazy on January 1st and ended up taking the day off. On January 2nd I decided that since i had accidentally set myself up for a really good day being fully recovered, I would take advantage and do a time trial. I decided that since I took the said day off I would punish myself by doing a 1500m Short Course freestyle swim time trial.

So i warmed up for 2000m with some mixed stroke stuff, then changed out of my drag suit and into my new race jammer.

I started out too fast (or so I thought) and went through 400m at 5:01, then the 800m at 10:01, the 1000m mark I was at 12:30 and i managed to finish in 18:45.

I was content with the effort on the day and now have a seed time for my swim meet in two weeks time. I told Bill about it and his reply was "18:45 is a start, if you are holding 1:15's for a 1500m, that means that you can be doing your 100m repeats sooooo much faster."

I realize this now too, and I think I need to keep progressing things in training rather than getting stuck in a "comfortable" zone. This is always a struggle when I am by myself in the pool everyday, but I will try.

Swimming

2008-12-30T13:31:00.000-08:00

Whats up guys

I'm in the middle of a 10 day swim camp. Basically since boxing day I have been swimming twice a day, everyday. Usually doing between 10-14km per day. I have also been doing my new strength program 3 times per week, and running 3 times per week. Everything has been going really great and I have had some pretty solid swims and have been putting in great mileage. This will really help in terms of getting in some last minute training before my first swim meet on January 16th and 17th.

Highlights include:

1000m freestyle warm up
20 x 50m with fins on 50sec as drill, smooth, drill, kick, build
21 x 100m freestyle swim as: 2 easy on 2:00, 1 hard on 1:30 (1:11, 1:09, 1:07, 1:06, 1:06, 1:06, 1:06)
900m mixed cool down

and a solid main set of 30 x 100m today on 1:30 in which I was wiped but still managed to hold 1:17 per 100m pace for almost all of them.

Cheers

Kris

Driving the Bus

2008-12-23T18:51:00.000-08:00

Check out this great video about what separates champions from other athletes.

http://www.floswimming.org/videos/speaker/812-michael-phelps/8409-driving-the-bus

I totally believe what Jay says in this video. Its all about knowing what you need to do. The best take every step they have to, to be able to succeed. One little step that you forget could be the difference between accomplishing what you want, or falling short of your dreams.

A great quote from this video is from Eddie Reese "You can't get in front of those who are already in front of you, by doing less than them."

It means doing everything right, eating, sleeping, proper turns, proper technique, drills, stretching, weights, massage, physio, recovery, everything.

Most simply are not willing to do it.

Training in Calgary

2008-12-20T10:35:00.000-08:00

Whats up guys

I'm in Calgary at the moment with my girlfriend to visit her mom. But of course i'm getting some solid training in and just chilling and catching up on rest. Yesterday I swam 5.5km with a solid main set of 3 x (5 x 100m as 2 on 1:25, 2 on 1:20, 1 on 1:15, with a 200m easy). Then I did a run of 10 mins as one minute run, one minute walk, with some drills and stretching after.

So far today it looks like an aerobic swim set, and a weight workout. My weight program is sweet and my coach Kevin did a perfect job of knowing exactly what I need right now.

Well off to swimming soon, cheers.

Kris

Personal Burning Questions.

2008-12-17T00:42:00.000-08:00

I had a beer with a friend tonight.
We talked about a tremendous range of things, which usually always happens when I hang out with this individual. One was about self-analization and delving deeper into who we are and our reasoning behind things.
Such as why we use certain words or make certain choices. Why do we get along with some people and not others...

I read a lance armstrong quote that said "athletes have no use for self exploration, the last thing you want to think about during a time trial is a tragic event in your childhood."

I have to agree with lance for the most part.
But i do think that there are times for self reflection and exploration.
How can you know what your limits are or find your drive....
Without getting deeply (and i mean very deeply) immersed in your
Underlying emotions and values

You may want to follow the path of lance however
Because it could be
Dangerous and Risky
to get too deep into who you are and your inner turmoils

You may find something................................................

...................that you wish you hadn't

You gotta push it.

2008-12-14T22:46:00.000-08:00

I had a good workout on saturday, I swam 7.0km as a set of 400m, 600m, 800m, 1000m, 1200m, 1000m, 800m, 600m, 400m alternating between one backstroke pull, one freestyle swim, one freestyle pull. I ended up getting stronger as the set went on and finally found my rhythm after being sick and struggling all week to feel sharp again.

I ran on friday and did ten minutes of alternating one minute of walking with one minute of running. It seems like very little, but it was more than my physio prescribed for me. Don't tell her that though.

Looking forward to a good swim tomorrow and another run. I'm also meeting my coach tomorrow to go over some ideas and plans for the year.

Heard a good quote by Eddie Reese the other day, Eddie is the head coach of the Texas Longhorns swim team and he told this to his swimmers before a really tough set.

"As I was telling the distance men the other day, this is not the kind of sport where you can beat the intervals in and end up where you'd like to end up in the sport, You gotta push it."

I think you got it right there eddie, and I plan to push it.

New Experiences

2008-12-12T09:25:00.000-08:00

So far this last year has brought me to so many new experiences. I was on the podium at nationals, did a half ironman, changed coaches, changed programs, learned what i need to do to do well in this sport, got a serious injury in my stress fracture, decided to focus on swimming, found a new coach, found a new swim coach, took over control of my life more than ever before, and helped my girlfriend deal with her injury too. Its been crazy, and even though it is december 12th I can gurantee that a lot more will happen before the end of the year.

Well Wednesday was another new experience for me as Bill invited me to swim with the u of a swim team a couple times over the next two weeks. To put it in context they are in recovery and maintenance and I still am one of the slower swimmers. This is a great opportunity for me as I get a chance to swim with other people, feel what it is like to be on a real team and have one of the best coaches in Alberta assess my swim stroke. I am definately thankful for opportunities like this, and relize that I am lucky that I was able to work with a guy like Bill.

I am planning to do it again in about 4.5 hours.

Cheers

Kris

Still Sick

2008-12-07T22:41:00.000-08:00

Still feeling crappy, I have a cough and am still a bit stuffed up. But my girlfriend Mandy just made me a cup of tea that made me feel a lot better. She makes a solid cup of tea.

Swimming tomorrow for sure though.

Things are going good

2008-12-06T15:42:00.000-08:00

Well things are going pretty good these days.

My stress fracture has healed and now it is all about strengthening the area around it and correcting my biomechanics to ensure that this does not happen again. I have had some great help from a lot of different people in dealing with this issue. The list includes: Dr. Wagner, My physio Nancy Burden, My Health Ed Professor Michael Kennedy who has been a huge wealth of knowledge for me, Jim Toller from Orthotic Solutions, and my family and friends who i've felt support from along the way. Now the running is beginning to be established, though very slowly ie. Walk/run type stuff.

Swim Focus is turning out great, I would have swam 9 times this week if it was not for pushing a little hard mid week and catching a nasty cold. I have been fighting it and its almost gone though, so i am looking to swim tomorrow. I went 18:35 for a 1500m free on wednesday in a workout with pull buoy and paddles long course. So that was good, I have my first crack at putting up a solid time in the 400m and 1500m at a meet at the u of a in the middle of January. Until then i'll keep putting in the miles and move into doing a swim camp like last year from December 26th to January 4th.

Cheers

Kris Loshack

Swim Focus

2008-11-18T21:47:00.000-08:00

In looking at the fact that I am injured and that i need to work on my swim a lot to get it to the elite level I have decided that for the rest of the year I will swim 9 times a week to be able to raise my mileage and put myself in a position to win races in the future. Today was my first double day and in my second workout I did two four hundred meter time trials with pull buoy and paddles on in the long course pool separated by a 500m easy swim.

first one was 4:54 which broke my Short course swim pb from last season.

Second on was 4:52, which broke the first one by two seconds.

I'm on the right track and the improvements are coming, the road ahead is long, but i'm willing to do what I need to do to succeed.

New Sponsors!!!

2008-11-03T20:06:00.000-08:00

Huge update....

I have recently signed on with two new sponsors for the 2009 Triathlon season.

I will be wearing Kiwami Triathlon suits, they have sent me a new amphibian suit and i tried it on and its great. They have a new Canadian distributor and are going to be making a huge impact in Canada over the next year and I am excited to be a part of that. To see their stuff check out http://www.kiwami.ca/gb/hommes.asp

I am also overjoyed to announce that I will be working with Fast Trax Run and Ski shop. I have had the pleasure to meet the owner Jack over the last year and get to know the folks at Fast Trax and I am so excited to become a part of the family there. When I emailed Jack about the idea he was on board right away. It is awesome to have this kind of support from the Premier running store in Edmonton. Fast Trax will be supplying me with shoes and running gear for the season and have some awesome products. check out their web page at http://www.fasttraxskishop.com/
I encourage everyone to go check it out, their shop has great service and a real grassroots feel.

Of course hopefully there will be a few more additions on the way in the next couple of months, but I will also be working again this year with:

TP Massage Therapy for my home massage and rehabilitation products

Speednutz Sports which is partly my company along with my father that I will always represent.

And Element Multisport.

Cheers

Kris Loshack of Shack Attack Racing

This one is better

2008-10-22T20:48:00.001-07:00

Logo Idea

2008-10-14T13:13:00.000-07:00

Big Announcement

2008-10-14T10:06:00.000-07:00

Well this is an official announcement from the Shack Attack racing crew.

I have recently changed my head coach and swim coach for the remainder of 2008 and the 2009 season. I am now working with Kevin Masters of Aerobic Power Training Systems as my head coach. Kevin will help me with an overall plan and structure as well as being my main coach for cycling and running as well as resistance training programs and anything else I may need.

This was a much needed change, after looking at the 2008 season I decided that I needed to take control of my progress as a triathlete and work with a coach that has my best interests at heart. I believe that Kevin is one of the best triathlon coaches in Alberta and I have a lot of trust in him already.

I am also working with Bill Humby (U of A varsity swim coach) for my swim program on a consulting basis. Bill has a lot of knowledge and is a level III NCCP certified swim coach. I have started to follow his guidelines and can see notable improvements in the last week already.

I have a lot of faith in this new coaching team and look forward to having a better season in 2009.

Kris

Review of the Year

2008-10-12T14:22:00.000-07:00

This year has been a whirlwind for me. I made a major breakthrough, trained consistently all year for the first time, made my first national podium, did my first promotional opportunity for one of my sponsors, organized and directed two triathlons, did my first year at the U of A, reached highs and lows that I never imagined, made my first pay check, made my first varsity team, made coaching changes, did my first half ironman. In short it was so hectic, fast and sometimes hard to comprehend, my life has never been anything but so I’m getting used to it.

I guess the year started out innocently enough with me entering the University of Alberta to begin my degree and start running with the Bears varsity cross country team. From there I teamed up with Glen Playfair to do a full on triathlon program, including 5:30 am swim practices six days a week and group cycling workouts. I got faster, quite a bit faster; I dropped my 400m short course time from 5:16 to 4:54 within a few months. I made CIS nationals for cross and got my butt kicked by the best runners in the country. In running I went from feeling good to over trained to feeling ok over about a month. I ended up being the third bear on the cross country team, and placing 75th at CIS, which was not so good.

I got through that and continued on with the triathlon training. Around this time our program did a swim camp with Steve Price’s top level keyano group. It was ten days of swimming and we were swimming twice a day with two Pilate’s sessions and tough dryland. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done, but I learned a lot and felt great in the pool after. Indoor track season was kind of a bust, I ran for the U of A but never really achieved my potential, logging a 9:03 3000m and a 4:18 1500m, PBs for sure, but under the potential that I thought I had for the season.

Then we did a one week cycling camp in Penticton BC to log some cycling miles for the upcoming season. We went in February during reading week and rode everyday logging about 700km total for the week while swimming and running as well. This gave me a chance to experience a week in the life of a pro triathlete and see what it was like to train full time. When we got back it was back to training as usual swimming six days a week, running four, and riding three.

The Triathlon season started well enough, I did my first race in Lethbridge, the Olympic distance and had a great swim but mid way started to freeze on the bike, it was five degrees and I was not ready for it. I got so cold that I wanted to drop out, but soldiered on. Three km into the run I was in fourth and finally my legs warmed up and I ran my way into first within a km. I ended up winning and it taught me that I need to be patient and never give up on myself no matter what. Then I raced the Sylvan lake sprint triathlon. In this race I was the go ahead favourite and I showed it, winning by two minutes and running 16:20 off the bike. The next race was in Wasa Lake in BC which also served as the BC provincial Olympic distance championships. I went into this race as a 20 year old that had no real elite experience. I lined up against some of the top triathlon pro’s from BC, Alberta and the northern United States. I ended up having a great race and placed eighth, but more importantly set an Olympic distance non drafting PB of 1:55:50 of which I am very proud of. After this I raced the Canada day five km race in my home town of Edmonton. Here I got a chance to race my little brother and put in a controlled effort before racing Great white north (my first half ironman) just six days later. The half ironman focus was going great and I was really looking forward to putting in a good hard debut effort. I won the 5 km race in 16:20 which I was happy with because I didn’t want to push it that hard. My little brother was third.

This brings me to the half ironman. I was really nervous going into this race; I knew that I would be facing a good field and new that I was very inexperienced at this distance. I was second out of the water, and rode very controlled on the bike. I got off the bike in about fifteenth position feeling really good, and headed out on the half marathon at 3:30 per km pace. I held this for about 10km and then really hit a wall. I completely died and faded from 6th to 8th finishing in 4:18:30. I was really upset about this race, thinking that I could have gone a lot faster, and wondering what had gone wrong. It is just a race though and my friends and family helped me to put it into perspective.

I took a bit of a break after great white north and started to build back into short course training again since the U23 and Elite Nationals were coming up in Kelowna on August 17th. I started to feel really good in training again but realized that I needed to race again to get my body ready for nationals. I decided to enter the Canmore Olympic distance triathlon in order to get back into racing shape. I had a good swim in the race, a phenomenal bike, and had a mediocre run. I ended up placing third overall and got a good gauge of the final improvements that I needed to make before nationals.

With a few more speed sessions and a long taper, I headed to Kelowna fit and ready to prove that I was one of the top U23 triathletes in the nation. The taper went perfect, the day before I felt unbelievable, race morning I was really relaxed and just really excited to race. I lined up again next to guys that were already established on the world cup circuit in my first continental cup. I had a decent start and quickly got into what I thought was a good rhythm. I came out of the water a bit back and surged to close a gap. When I finally finished the swim I was in a pack of four guys, we had to work hard but we caught all but one pack in front of us. From here it was all killer instinct; I wanted to run out front flat out by myself, so I did. I ran away from everyone all alone until 400m to go when Jeff Symonds pulled up on me. A final spring clinched second place in U23 and 8th Elite Canadian.

That was my last race of the season, now I am back at school at the U of A and resting to get rid of some nagging injuries and be fresh for next year. I am swimming a lot already and looking forward to working with Bill Humby for my swim program.

Thanks for following me this season

Kris Loshack

Promo Video

2008-09-23T11:12:00.001-07:00

Hey Guys

My promotional video is finally done and i think it turned out really well. I plan to send it out to sponsors and with new sponsorship applications this year. Check it out at the top right corner of this page.

Cheers

Kelowna Under 23 and Elite National Triathlon Championships

2008-08-18T11:19:00.000-07:00

I was really excited to race this one, it was our Under 23 and elite national championships as well as an ITU continental cup race. It was my first time racing in a U 23 race as well as my first time in a continental cup so i was pretty nervous but excited to get going. Our elite race started at 2 pm which was great because we were able to rest and have tons of time to warm up etc etc. I rode to the race site at 12:30 and got my stuff set up. I was number 28 which was based on a ranking system, out of 34 men. I had a good swim warm up and lined up next to Austin and Ryan. The gun went off and i got a good start, but quickly was overtaken by the better swimmers, i came out after the first 750m lap right behind austin but a little ways back. I came out after the 1500m swim with austin and a couple other guys. Had a good transition and headed out on the bike. I was 27th out of the swim, which was not so good. Austin and i worked our buts off on the bike even though the other two didnt and we slowly caught pack after pack of cyclists. We pulled in every U 23 male except for Jordan Bryden in by the end of the bike and then for the last lap and a half i sat back and did nothing. I came into transition at the lead of my pack and had a really fast transition. I headed out along with Andrew Yorke and Jeff Symonds both U23 in the fourth U23 spot. Once on the run i felt so smooth and quickly pulled away from everyone and started to catch people. I had moved up to 13th overall, the 8th elite canadian and the 2nd U 23 when with 400m to go Symonds came up on me. I put in everything i had for a sprint and beat him to the line by about 5 metres for the second place spot in the U 23 category. Austin came in a little later for fourth place, visibly upset with his run split. I'm still shocked at this race and it makes me feel like i belong a little bit more. Kurt had a bad swim and ended up on his own in the bike, he got lapped out i believe with about 2 laps to go. Ryan got a flat tire in the middle of the bike. I'm psyched that Austin and i were able to work together on the bike, otherwise i don't either of us would have had the result that we did. I'm grateful that i had a team mate like that at my side. That man has pushed me all year and it was awesome that we could be side by side when we needed to be. Hats off to Paula she really is the class of the field when it comes to triathlon in Canada and i only forsee more success in her move to elite and U 23 racing. Overall my race went awesome and i am glad to finally reach my goal of standing on the podium at the U23 nationals. Its been a long year and i am happy to be able to focus on cross now. I'll get some photos up in the next couple days either on my blog or on facebook if anyone is interested.

I couldnt believe how many people were yelling my name on the course, i felt like i got more support than any other racer because there were so many alberta age groupers there to cheer me on, it was amazing.

I just want to say thanks to everyone who has supported me all year long, i couldnt have done this without you guys. I would like to give a big thanks first of to my Parents, My coach Glen Playfair, My girlfriend Mandy, Cam and Elise from Element, Speednutz sports, and everyone who has had a kind word to say. Thanks guys.

Canmore Triathlon

2008-08-04T16:37:00.000-07:00

I know i haven't posted for a while, and i don't really have an excuse for not posting so i'll just get on with my race report of the Canmore Olympic distance Triathlon that i raced on Sunday.

I have felt a little unmotivated lately and needed a race to get my head back in the game, so i was sorta excited to race but also kind of not. I stayed with my parents in Banff the night before and just took it easy. Got to the race site at Quarry lake in the morning and took my bike out for a spin, something was wrong with the zipp wheels element lent me for the race. The free wheel on the back wheel is messed up and not spinning right. Great what do i do now, take it apart, reset it, check the tightness on it, nothing. Luckily Jordan Bryden came to my aid with a back wheel from a bike he wasn't using that day. Thanks bud. Ok stress over i set up my stuff and went to the second transition area to set up that stuff. Good warm up. Time to go. Race started and my swim felt terrible, i just couldnt get going at all. Came out in 19:45 in 5th 1:45 down on the leader. Crappy transition struggling to put on a jacket, lost a lot of time. On the bike and trying to get going, felt good 10km in, at 20km in Kurt passed me and i proceeded to stay 10m behind him for the next 15km until he pulled away in the last 5km and put about 30 sec on me. Good bike for me, i was happy. Fast second transition and onto the run. The bike was insanely hilly and i could feel it in my legs, but the run was through the nordic centre paved trails and was super hilly too. Jordan was almost 4 minutes ahead of me and Kurt dangled about 15-20 sec ahead of me the entire run with me never really making up any time. I came across the line in third behind Jordan Bryden (winner) and Kurt. Finished 1:40 behind Jordan and 24 sec behind Kurt. A so so day, but a lot of fun. The team did well with Kurt 2nd, Me 3rd, Mark was 11th, Paula 1st woman, and Danika winning the womens sprint race.

Results

http://www.trainingandracing.com/canmoretriathlon/id5.html

Race Report for Great White North Half Ironman

2008-07-08T13:20:00.000-07:00

Well guys it happened. After all the talk and training and hypothesizing i finally completed my first half ironman on sunday under cloudy and rainy skies in Stony Plain Alberta.

I had a really good week leading up to the race, the taper was going really well, i was rested, motivated and just really excited to race.

Sunday morning i woke up and luckily it was warm outside, however the skies did look a little angry. I headed out with my dad to the race site at 5:30am. It was about a forty minute drive which gave me a lot of time to wonder, wish and hope. I arrived at the race site around 6:15am and proceeded to get my stuff ready and go through my routine. Warm up went well, and everything seemed good. I stood on the start line with almost nothing going through my mind except the words of my coach "with 800 people you need to get out front fast!" The gun went off and i proceeded to do just that, two lines formed with me sitting back in one of them. I went around the first buoy in about 7th place feeling comfortable. The first lap was 12:58 for a km, and i went around in 4th place. This is when i kicked it up a bit and moved steadily up, i moved myself into 2nd place by the end, still a minute off the swim prime though.

I headed into transition and my first mistake happened. I fell hard going around a corner and landed on my shoulder and elbow, tearing my elbow open and cramping everything on my right side. It let go and i put on my helmet and tore off the wet suit now heading onto the bike. I got into a good rhythm and tried to stay steady and not push too hard, i knew it would be a long day. Going through town i hit the rail road track and lost one of my bottles with my energy drink in it and my sponge for my aero bottle. Mistake number two. So that sucked but i soldiered on steadily getting a face full of nuun or gatorade over every bump. The ride was rather uneventful. I just got passed a lot and fought the urge to ride harder. I came off the bike somewhere in like 15th place. My ride ended up being a 2:27, which i am happy with and i know i can ride way faster because i took it pretty chill cause i was scared of blowing my wad on the bike and having nothing left.

Good transition and i was off on the run. 1st km in 3:30, perfect. 5km at 17:45 not too bad. 10km at 37:00, uh oh this is starting to hurt. Next km in 4:00, oh shit i'm in trouble here. Turn off the watch because there is nothing i can do to pick it up anymore. So yeah i blew to pieces with about 10km to go. I cant fake 10km so that was the most painful experience of my life. I was in survival mode, drinking coke at every aid station and just trying to keep moving. I went from 6th place and running strong at the half way point to end up finishing 8th at a pathetic and pedestrian pace. My run ended up being 1:24:57 probably about 9 minutes slower than i thought i would go.

I dont know what happened or why i blew up, i took the bike easy. I think i either screwed up on nutrition or i started out too fast on the run. I'm not blaming it on being young or inexperienced because thats a cop out.

My final time was 4:18:38 and i was 8th place in a pretty good field. I was the first of only 20 guys in the 18-29 age group. People have been good saying that it was a good time and a good race. But honestly i'm really dissapointed and i view the race as a failure.

I think people assumed that my expectations for my first half ironman were a little unrealistic, but i dont care. I know my abilities and i didnt perform to my potential on sunday. The fact that i am only twenty or that it was my first half ironman does not lessen the dissapointment i feel at all. If i'm going to be a professional athlete, age and experience dont matter. I need to go out and perform at every single race and excuses like that will only limit my ability to achieve my full potential.

One positive from the race is that i went under the standard needed to get my pro card for long course racing, meaning that i can race as a pro at any long course race in the world next year. I plan to use this and do a few halfs in the states next year.

It may be nieve to say, but after screwing up this race and realizing how dissapointed i am about it, i can honestly say that if i did it again in a month i am confident i can take a lot of time off and preform the way i thought i could have. I guess it was good to learn some lessons from this one.

It also makes me want to work harder to know that not every distance of racing will come easy for me. I expected to go into this and shine on my debut which didnt happen, and i'm glad it didn't. This is my dream and i want to work my ass off for it.

Crazzzzy week

2008-07-04T13:42:00.000-07:00

So this week has been insane, so much has happened that it is hard to understand all of it, so i'm just focusing on the race and planning on letting it all sink in after.

I would like to first off say to anyone who reads this and for people who don't, that i have had an unbelievable amount of support leading up to this race. I have recieved words of encouragement from almost anyone i know and it really means a lot. Its clear that when the support is there, i can just put all my emotion and soul into racing the very best that i can.

I feel really good. This week has been pretty easy, and i luckily have taken care of everything today, including my bike so the next few days will be a lot less stressful. The body is coming around thanks to the taper and a solid massage from my buddy Rob at whitemud crossing sports and theraputic massage, he's always there to hook me up.

This will be my last post for a while, as its go time now. I guess all thats left is to put my heart and head into the race and do what i know i can do.

Thanks again guys, it means a lot

Kris

Training for Great White North

2008-06-27T08:56:00.000-07:00

With Great White North half ironman coming up on July 6th i've been doing more of a focus on workouts that will give me a final prep for that race. I still swim every morning with the same group as always because swimming isn't specific to certain distances and the swim in the half is 1900m, only 400m farther than i'm used to. As far as cycling goes i have been doing all of my riding alone, and i've been doing a lot of it. I've been getting a good 10-12 hours of cycling in per week which ends up being about 400km. A lot of that time is spent in my aero position. I often do sets of 30min warm up, 4 x 20 min Race pace with 10 min recovery and 30-60 min cool down. It has been pretty solid.

I also have done a few hard brick workouts like on monday where i went 2:30 on the bike just below race pace and then straight into a one hour run with 40 min at pace and 20 mins easy. That one was also to help find any problems with my nutrition plan for the race and to see if i would feel sick or not have enough food or need to change anything.

As for run training it has been day to day. Good mileage and its feeling strong. On wednesday i went out to the race course and ran it with my dad beside me on his bike. I just cruised it in 1:26 and felt good, it was mostly to get an idea of what to expect.

From here on in the volume will drop right off with the intesity and speed sessions remaining in an effort to taper. I will take a couple days off next week and am also booked for a couple massages.

Most of my training has been done on my own for the past two to three weeks. I know that while i'm racing it will be me alone with my thoughts for just over four hours and i need to be able to deal with that.

The race will be tough. Kyle Marcotte is the main competition and Kyle is Fast. He's won this race twice and has been a major player at ironman Canada for the last three years. The plan for the race will be to lead out of the water, then get passed on the bike but try to limit the losses to Kyle. I may beat him out of the water but at most only by 30 seconds or so. On the bike he can ride 2:14-2:16, which is fast so i hope to hold 2:20-2:22. I need to keep the gap under 6 minutes off the bike if i want to win. Even with that i will need to run fast so the goal is to run just under 1:15 for the half which is about 3:33 per kilometer. This is the goal of course, we'll see how it goes haha. The run course record is 1:14:38 so if i'm having a perfect day i will keep that in mind as well. I don't have a overall time goal but i would be happy with anything under 4:10 and if i go under 4:05 i'll be psyched. I'm pretty confident in these times after the wasa race, and i know if i eat enough and feel decent i can get close to running that in the half, i have always been way better at the longer distances than just 5 and 10 k races.

So i'll keep prepping for the race and hopefully keep updating whats going on.

Thanks for reading

Shack

Busy week

2008-06-19T21:05:00.000-07:00

Half Moon Lake triathlon that we organize as a family is on sunday so its been a busy week. Lots of organizing and getting stuff ready so training is in a bit of a lull. I'm just trying to maintain the fitness i have now until Great White North because i won't make any improvements in the next two weeks. I'm also trying to sleep 9-10 hours per night so that i will get through the weekend and not get sick like i have done a lot of times the weekend of half moon. Last year i didn't because i was strict with diet and sleep. So heres what i got so far for training:

Monday- Rest day after the Wasa race, 1 hour easy with baggy shorts on, just cruising around
Tuesday- Swam 5000m in the morning with Keyano, rode 3 hours at night
Wednesday- 90 min steady run on trails
Thursday- swam 5000m (main set 60x50m on 50 sec holding 37 sec pace) and 70 min ride with 10x1 min hard with 2 min rest

Cheers

Results page from Wasa Lake Triathlon

2008-06-17T07:41:00.000-07:00

Click here for the results

http://www.winningtime.ca/08/08wasa/olyoall.txt

Wasa Lake triathlon (BC Olympic distance Provincials) race report

2008-06-16T11:12:00.000-07:00

All right so i'll get to the race, but i would like to put a context to it by explaining my feelings leading up the the race during the week.

I was coming off one of the best weeks of training of my life two weeks before wasa, while everyone was in vancouver getting a shitty deal thanks to the race directors, i was here at home putting in the work and getting a solid week in. It ended with about 35km of swimming, 350km of cycling and about 60km of running. It was just a very relaxed week and it felt good. The week after included some hard workouts but more of a taper week than anything, i was feeling really tired on wednesday but started coming around on thursday and friday thanks to a good taper by Glen. Friday at work i got my bike ready and dialed in and Cam set me up with a disc wheel to use in the race (thanks Cam and Elise, my race would not have gone as well without you guys). Mandy was nice enough to hang out with me while i was getting the bike ready as the shop was closed by then. After that Mandy and i visited Bryana at work and she hooked us up with really cheap pasta dinner (Bryana=awesome). After this i went home to pack up my stuff.

Friday night i was really nervous and kind of freaking out. Lately i feel little to no support from a lot of my training partners with regard to racing. There are people who offer an amazing amount of support and positive energy to me, these people include:

My Parents
Mandy and Bryana
Kurt, Danika, Glen and our morning swim group
The coaches at Velocity
Mikey my little bro
And Cam and Elise from element
All the other people that have positive things to say that i don't get to see often

However there are a lot of people that are putting a negative influence into my life and training right now and that includes a lot of the guys on the track team. The little comments have been adding up and i definately feel like they want and expect me to fail for some reason. This kind of negative energy is hard to deal with and makes me not want to train with them or be a part of the cross country team. Why should i put off tri training and focus on cross when my team mates are consistently treaing me in a way that i don't find acceptable is a good question and one that i will examine closely before making the decision of whether or not to race on the team anymore. This is why i was so nervous, but mandy helped me to remember that these people can have their own opinions on everything, but i race for myself and no one else and in the end i only care about how i feel in regards to my racing and my career.

With this in mind i headed off to the race along with my dad with a positive mindset and a lot more relaxed attitude. Saturday we got there around 3:30pm, checked in, met Kurt and headed to race pack pick up and pre-race meeting. THere i found out that Jasper Blake (ironman Canada champ) and Brent McMahon (2004 Olympian) had also signed up. This raised the list of pro's to 7. It was going to be hard. After meeting i got a short run and swim in, had dinner and ice bath and got to bed.

The next day Kurt and I showed up at 6:15am to the race site, found good transition spots and got on with out routine. Warm up went well and i was not nearly as nervous, just ready to see how close i could get to these pro triathletes in the race. Lined up at 8:30am to start and it was found that Brent was a no show. Oh well, lets get on with it.

The gun went off and i hammered the first 200m to get a good spot. Came out after the first loop in 11th, passed two on the second loop to come out in 9th, with a 19:30 swim time when i stepped on the beach. Sweet, PB for the swim. Had a fast transition and headed out on the bike. Got the disc rolling and got into a good groove. First 20km in 33:05, last 20km in 29:00 had a wicked ride and another PB for a 1:02:05, thought Kurt would catch me but just held him off. Came off the bike in about 12th place. Good transition and out on the run, first km 3:15 good pace, from there i fell off, i was passing a lot of guys but was starting to feel the bike. 5km in 16:50 and the last 5km i just tried to not fall to pieces. I ended up in 8th place overall. in 1:55:50 with Kurt 12 seconds back. It was a PB for sure. We both had a solid race and were really excited. I knew i could go that fast for a non drafting race, i just had to put it together. Everything went well and i know i can get faster over the next couple of years. I ended up having the second fastest run split behind Kurt beating out all the pro's. The cycling will get there, i am still young and it takes time. The strength i will gain over the next 4 years will be huge.

It was good to be done the race and know that i belong in the same race as those guys, that i'm getting there, and will get there gives me confidence to continue to work hard. Thanks to Kurt for really pushing me, i think that we will be good team mates and training partners for a long time to come and i look forward to seeing both of us improve.

On a somber note i was saddened to hear when i got home that Mandy had crashed that morning on her bike and had to go to the hospital, she landed on her head and has a concussion and could have some head trauma. Its tough to hear of this especially considering how much she helped me before this race. Hopefully i can do something to help her to pay her back for how much support she has given me.

Thanks for reading

Kris

I love it when it rains

2008-05-26T10:38:00.000-07:00

It puts me to sleep, and it makes for a lazy day.

I have not written since my race report from lethbridge because i've been frusterated about the back injury and how it was affecting my training. Well today is may 26th and it feels a lot better. Swimming went great this morning 5km with a big pull set in the bag. Yesterday i did my 2 hour long run with the boys for the first time in like 6 weeks, it was good to see them all after i've been away from the track so long, and no pain when running...bonus! Also went for 3 hours on the hardtail mountain bike last night and that was fun, i wasn't motivated to do my ride so i thought i would switch it up a bit. Its good to be able to mold, and adjust the training when you need to.

So here's how things look now

Swimming: starting to come around, felt good this morning
Cycling: better than ever, lots of mileage, feeling strong
Running: Back is almost solid, getting back into it, haven't lost any speed tho