Subaru Vancouver International Triathlon!

Today (Sunday July 4th) LiveFit athletes again raced really well at the Subaru Vancouver International Triathlon! Way to go!

1/2 Ironman
Jim Broere, placed 18th, M4549, 5:39
Kirsten Dibblee, placed 14th, F3034, 5:56
Karyn Anderson, placed 15th, F3034, 5:57


Sprint distance
Rebecca Staynor, LiveFit Elite, place 1st Junior female
Lesley Hartford, placed 3rd, F40-49
Cam McDiarmid, placed 10th, M40-49

Elite Off-road triathlete award!

On June 25 2010, Triathlon Canada announced the Triathlon Canada Annual Awards, Coach Kelly Guest received the Elite Male Off-road Triathlete.
Thank you to Triathlon Canada and congratulations to all of the other award winners!

LiveFit Coaching news!

We are almost done our first open water swim session and looking ahead to our next block of open water swims.

We are going to be holding open water swim sessions on Monday and Thursday nights 6:30-7:30 pm at Thetis lake, 7 weeks long (July 5th to Aug 19th). Save $36 by paying in advance getting 14sessions for only $130 or drop in for only the sessions that fit your schedule and pay $12 drop-in.

These sessions are not only a lot of fun but they are safe and a great environment to improve you open water swimming skills!! Who wouldn't want to improve there swim split on the results? This is how to do it!!

If you would like more information or to register contact LiveFitCoaching@gmail.com

Quite a few races in a short span of time!!!

Three of the LiveFit elite athletes headed off on the a long and gruesome … well, maybe not gruesome but definitely long drive to get to Kimberly, B.C. to race the Wasa Lake Olympic distance triathlon. If any of you remember my former mountain man days... (living in a cabin in the middle of nowhere with no electricity or running water for three months during the winters of 2003 and 2004), well, the cabin was put to good use again this summer as it housed the guys while they got race ready.

Unfortunately the guys struggled with some cramping and dehydration issues (we’re just not used to heat!) but all managed to have decent races. And... Carlos got a chance to escape the raven that seems to have taken a particular liking to attacking his head every time he walks down Royal Oak Drive to the pool.

And Last weekend, the same three went over to Iron Mountain and Lowell Rockliffe won the race overall, Carlos Lesser was 4th with the fastest swim and run splits and an additional 12km on the bike, Andrew Hall also added the 12kms to his ride and felt the effects in the run.



A little closer to home... My home, that is... other Livefit athletes raced really well at the Western Subaru Triathlon Series at Elk lake.

Sprint race:
Kelly Guest 1st overall
Lesley Hartford 3rd overall women, 1st 40-49 female
Cam McDiarmid 10th male 40-49
Dale Mackie 16th male 40-49


1/2 Ironman:
Jim Cambridge 3rd, 55-59 male, 5:36
Kirsten Dibblee 10th, 30-34 female, 5:56
Jim Broere 21st, 45-49 male, 5:38

As well, on June 6th, Jim Cambridge (6:02) and Don Costello (5:41) raced the Oliver 1/2 Ironman.

Nice work Gang, Keep it up!!!!!!

Yeah! Summer is here! Let's get into the Lake!

I would like to invite you all out to LiveFit Coaching's open water swimming sessions, Monday's in June (7th- 28th) 6:30-7:30pm. If you know of anyone that would be interested in these sessions please forward this invite to them, the more people we have the closer to race conditions we will have! The cost for the session is $13/drop in or $40 for all. We will be meeting at the main beach (with the washrooms) at Thetis lake.

**Wetsuits are required!**

WELL DONE! To all of the LiveFit athletes that raced on the weekend at the Shawnigan lake triathlons.
SPRINT RACE
Lesely Hartford 1st (F40-49
Cam McDiarmid 3rd (M40-49)
Dale Mackie 4th (M40-49)
Helena Price 7th (F30-39)

OLYMPIC RACE
Carlos Lesser 1st OVERALL
Scott Dagnoll 2nd OVERALL
Lowell Rockliffe 3rd (M20-24)
Jim Cambridge 3rd (M 54-59)
Andrew Hall 5th (M20-24)
Kirsten Dibblee 5th (F30-34)
Jim Broere 6th (M45-49)

1/2 IRON RACE
Karyn Anderson 8th (F30-34)


This Sunday I want to have an short open water swim session followed by a transition practice. The time would be 8-9:30am @ Hampsterly beach (Elk Lake). The cost for the session is $20 and is guaranteed to make your transitions faster! Please let me know by Thursday pm if you are planning on attending as we will require at least 10 people to have the session run.
Remember to bring all of your transition stuff!

Where’s the sun?

For some folks May brings us towards the end of spring showers and that much closer to reliable sunny weather. Those that is, that don’t live in Victoria, B.C. that is! We haven’t had a great start to spring yet, although, here’s hoping it is just around the corner!

Over the May long weekend, LiveFit elite and age group athletes took to the chilly waters of Shawnigan Lake in preparation for the triseries Shawnigan Lake Triathlon race coming up this weekend. The course starts off in beautiful Shawnigan lake which is located here on Vancouver Island and, interestingly enough, is fed by the run off of Mount Baker, in Washington State. Apparently Washington State has yet to see the sun this summer as the lake was still extremely chilly! The bike course is a loop circuit around the lake and the number of loops depend on whether athletes are racing the Sprint, Olympic or Half-Ironman distance.

LiveFit athletes participating this weekend are Leslie Hartford, Mike Hucal, Jim Cambridge, Jim Brore, Cam McDiarmid, Dale Mackie, Helena Price, Carlos Lesser, Scott Dagnall, Andrew Hall, Lowell Rocliffe, Karyn Anderson, Kirsten Dibblee, Joyce Metcalfe, and coach Kelly Guest.

Carlos Lesser, a LiveFit athlete from Cancun who is living and training in Victoria, will be taking on LiveFit head coach Kelly Guest in a little friendly competition in the Olympic Distance race. Rumour has it that the runner up treats the winner to a post race snack at the ColdStone Creamery… I am sure it’s just a rumour though!

Good luck to all LiveFit athletes!

Sunday Technical Session

This past Sunday we had a solid group out for our technical swim and run session. We snapped some great video for analysis and were able to give instant feedback both in the pool and out on the field. I think everyone was able to take away some great feedback..and hopefully they don't mind us picking apart their technique.

We are coming up to the first major triathlon of the season, the Subaru Shawnigan Lake triathlon. We have athletes competing in both the Olympic and the Half-Iron distance and should be a really good turnout and hope the weather is nice.

I thought I would share this video for those that have not seen it. It is of the first few runners at approximately Mile 17 of this years Boston Marathon. Notice their foot strike and body position. Their foot plants directly under the body and they have a slight lean forward. If you also notice the level of the fence and their head height there is very little pop up or collapse down.

Elite Men in the 2010 Boston Marathon - Super Slow Motion from Runblogger on Vimeo.

Video clip of elite males running near mile 17 of the 2010 Boston Marathon. Runners in order on video are: 1. Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot, 2. Deriba Merga, 3. Tekeste Kebede, 4. Moses Kigen Kipkosgei (red/green singlet); 5. Abderrahim Goumri (purple singlet w/ yellow stripe), and 6. Mebrahtom Keflezighi. Video was filmed at 300fps with a Casio EX-F1 digital camera and slowed down in Virtualdub to play back a rate of 10fps. Video courtesy of runblogger.com.

Recent Happenings

Things have been ticking along well. Kelly and I were training quite consistantly together but as of late he has been battling some foot issues. I on the other hand have been feeling quite good (knock on wood) and starting to feel much stronger in workouts and races. I raced this past weekend at the Merville 15k and ran a strong 50:30 for 3rd place overall. I felt quite good throughout the whole run. Ran from 3km onwards by myself which made things tough..as did the down pour and 4C but I came out alive. My right hip was aching a bit. Ever since I did a beep test my right hip has been sore....it was probably because that was my take off leg for each of the repeats back and forth...a fun test though. I'd like to get a hold of the disk and try it again.

Coming up we have the Sooke River 10k on the 18th, Boston Marathon on the 19th, (good luck Jim!) and the Times Colonist 10k on the 25th. We have a lot people entered in the TC and hopefully weather permitting it should be a great race for everyone. All that ran Bazan Bay 5k, looked extremely strong and was a great indicator of whats to come this season.

Upcoming Fast One

We are less than a week away from the Bazan Bay 5km. This is one of the fastest 5kms on the Island and draws all the quick athletes. Training for both Kelly and I have been a bit disappointing lately. Kelly has been sick and with my lack of self-motivation and heading to Vancouver for the World Snowshoe Championships and Gold Medal game (way to go CANADA!) my training has been slack. Regardless, I am racing the 5k and am attempting to hack my way through it. Most of our athletes are racing this weekend as well and should give everyone a great look at how things are going.

My advice to those racing this weekend is to stay controlled. There will be a lot of people going out 15-20s faster for their 1st km than they should be. Don't let yourself get drawn into that. Just start strong and comfortable and work your way through the people that went out too fast over kms 4 and 5. You will feel more encouraged to finish strong and pass people coming home than you would if you went out too hard. Good luck to all those racing. See you on the weekend!

Social Night

We had an informal social night with a few of the LiveFit athletes at Spinnakers brewpub on Saturday evening. Scotty, Lowell, Carlos, Kelly, Eric and I all enjoyed a few beverages, nachos, Olympics, Pool and Darts. Good times were had by all and I feel that this will become a more common occurrence. Give us any reason to drink beer, watch sports and play pool or darts and I think all of us would be there.

Update

Well its been a bit since we last updated..but hopefully i can get my butt in gear and post more frequently. Training has been going well and the LiveFit group is looking strong. We are coming into a great time of year and the 'winter' we have had has been amazing for training. I just raced the Cedar 12k this past weekend. All round it was a good race. Just tried to stay relaxed and keep the turnover going. I am trying to race my way into shape a bit.

I am using the Frontrunners Island Race Series as strong tempo runs. I try to get a good warmup in and then a good long cooldown, essentially turning my race day into a long run with hard tempo. Today Kelly and I got out for a solid workout. We did 4k warm up, then 9k of hard hilly tempo and then 5k cool down. It was a struggle and the kms just didn't seem to go by fast enough. Kelly pull ahead around 5k into the tempo and looked really strong. Its always great to have someone to chase...and i'm sure he wasn't easing up and wanting me to catch him. Finding a training buddy for me is huge. I'm all about the social aspect :)