Soma 1/2 Ironman is now just a distant memory, but I wanted to express my gratitude and appreciation to ALL of you who supported me on this journey.

For those of you who donated to this great cause, you helped me to raise over $3700 to assist in the great work that the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society are doing. Each and every dollar goes to funding research to help cure leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma and related malignancies. Helping to improve the quality of life for patients diagnosed with these cancers. Thanks to generous people like yourselves and the work of LLS, survival rates have doubled, tripled and even quadrupled for blood cancer patients.

For those who supported me along the way ... your messages, emails, facebook updates and on-going encouragement meant alot to me. It kept me pushing through those 110 degree training days, those early morning bike rides and those laps upon laps upon laps of swimming in the pool. Thanks to all that were scattered along the race course, bearing the 97 degree heat for almost 8 hours, holding signs of encouragement, flashing pictures and screaming out my name ... thank you.

To the coaching staff of this years Soma & Malibu Team ... you prepared us, you motivated us and most importantly, you gave us your time. Your commitment is 'awesome.' A special thanks to Coach Steve, who on information night convinced me to sign up for Soma. You held up to your promise and got me to the finish line ... thank you ... I've found yet another addiction (lol).

Finally, to my Soma and Malibu Team ... thank you for sharing this journey. Together we raised over $56,000 dollars ... what a feat !!! You ALL made the training fun, bearable, and motivating. I couldn't have asked for a better group of individuals. We all come from different backgrounds and have our own unique personalities, but we shared this one mission ... and we did it well! Thank you for being YOU ... Don't ever hesistate to ring me up for upcoming events or if you want a riding companion or a training buddy ... I'm there.

Thanks again to each and every one of you who's shared this experience with me ...

GO TEAM !!!

Wow ... I can't believe it ...

We're about 2 weeks away from the Soma 1/2 Ironman ... WOW !!!

We finished our last long ride with the team this morning, as we begin to taper off. The time has come to rest our minds and bodies, waiting for October 23rd to come around.

Where o'where has the time gone? I know ... let me break it down. Let me break down how this team has spent the last 4-5 months.

Swimming

We've spent over 45 hours in the pool. Between ASU and our own individual practices, we've completed laps upon laps, drills upon drills. I still can't believe, that when I first started, I would be so out of breath after just one lap (25 meters). Today, our warmups are 500 meters *smh. It's still my weakest of the three disciplines but I'm actually enjoying swimming these days. Its a far cry from wading in a pool, with a beer in my hand .. ha ha ha.

Biking

Over 85 hours in the saddle. For me, that's almost 1500 miles ... (I'd almost be home to Toronto). Early Saturday morning rides were usually pleasant, since we rode as the sun comes up, marking the sky with it's bright colors. Though not all mornings were so enjoyable ... as this season, I was plagued with flat tires. Being on the side of the road fixing a flat ... is no bueno ... arghhh !!!

Running

A combination of different workouts to improve our speed, stamina and distance consisted of brick workouts, bleachers, interval work, and resistance training. We would run after every swim workout and after every bike ride. With all this, we covered about 350-400 miles during this training period.

Since this is Arizona, majority of this training was in over 105 degree heat (for my Canadian family and friends ... yes that's over 40 degrees celsius ... flipp'n HOT!). Gatorade, water and GU have become a regular staple in my diet. I'd give you the stats on that ... but I've totally lost count. My fridge reminds me of MTV Cribs ... open it, and all you see is water and gatorade ... lol.

Anyway, this is how I've spent my summer. Training, making friends, raising awareness and raising funds to help this great cause. Of course, all this couldn't have been done without your generosity and support ... THANK YOU !!!

Check back again in a couple of weeks ... hoping to share some great pics, awesome stories and an amazing experience .... see ya soon !!!

Here we are ... 46 days away from the big event. I'm like a bag full of emotions. Excited, nervous, doubtful ... in any case, I know I've been working really hard to get to where I am, and have confidence in completing this experience.

So, here is my team and my first 'real' experience with open water swim (without a beer in my hand - that is). Squeezed into my wetsuit, and out into the water I went. The first 5 minutes or so went fairly well, then all of a sudden, I felt the wetsuit start to feel like it was squeezing in on my chest and I started to hyper-ventilate. Luckily coach Steve was there, and started to pull on my wetsuit, and give me some air. It was a horrible 3-5 minute experience ... but I managed to relax and breath normally again. Once I overcame that feeling, I was good to go. A few laps around ... and I felt pretty good. So much different than swimming in the pool ...

Yeah, here's the shirt, I was told to wear ... and that I needed to 'represent.' My bro sent me this shirt ... and so, to ALL my fellow Canadians ... I'm represent'n it on my weekend rides. So send me all your Canadian encouragements ... coz I need it to help me conquer some of these darn hill work that Coach Steve puts us through weekly. (ha ha ha).

Lastly, after our ride this past weekend, we had a conversation over breakfast about 'shaving' our legs for this event. Well, here are my results ... "The BEFORE and AFTER" snapshots ...

Now, if that doesn't get extra donations ... I don't know what else to do ...

Have a great week, and thanks for popping in ...

If this picture doesn't get you up for a 5:30am Saturday morning ride ... you're missing out. This was taken last weekend, on our ride up the Beeline Highway (parts of the actual course we'll be riding in October). Ahead is Meredith, who decided to ride away from me, after calling me 'crazy,' for whipping out my camera to capture the beautiful sunrise while trying to keep my pedal stroke in tact.

We're about 2 months into training, and all of the team members are showing flashes of brilliance and much improvement in each discipline. We do 3 team practices and 3 individual practices during the week. We're up to 60-70 minute runs, 40 plus miles in the saddle and 2000 plus meters in the pool and that only covers three days of the week. The other 3 days consists of interval work, bleachers, swim to run brick workouts, bike to run brick workouts (wow, this is getting tiring just listing them) and the list goes on.

Team In Training has been nothing short of a positive experience thus far. Our coaches have been phenomenal, the comraderie amongst the team is strengthened each day and the inspiration from the alumni, the cancer survivors and just the determination from all of my teammates keeps you pushing forward to get better with every stroke, every pedal and every footstep we take ... as hard as it may seem at times.

Here we are after a long ride, brainstorming as what to do with the rest of our day. It's about 9am, with the full day still ahead of us. Crash on the couch, clean our bikes, catch the last stage of the Tour de France, get a massage ... well, let's start with breakfast and go from there ... yeah another great Team In Training idea.

Oh yeah, we also had a bike maintenance session held for us by a local bike shop (a shoutout to Curbside Cyclery). Mike gave us some great tips on bike maintenance, changing flats, and some basic do's and don'ts of cycling. Of course, for those who know me, I always jump in with both feet when I'm determined and put what I've learned into practice ...

Check out those showroom sprockets ...

Btw .. this training burns a crap load of calories, leaving me 15lbs down (gotta love it).

If you haven't donated yet ... it's not too late so don't be shy.

C'mon, follow the crowd ... everyone's doing it !!!

DONATE DONATE DONATE !!!

Hello all,

Yes, I'm still alive. One month into training and I've got to say, I'm loving the 3 sport discipline. Training 2 days a week on each sport, of which 3 days are with the Team. Throw in 'Brick' workouts on Wednesday and Saturdays with the team ... and I'm seeing progress with each of us.

Swim ... what can I say? It's the sport that I really need to work on, but I'm up to about 1100m. Three and half more months to race day, so I need to be patient and just keep working. It will be just over 1900m on race day ... and coach Steve and Liz promise to get me there. I'm putting all my confidence in them. I'm actually starting to like this .. but Micheal Phelps has nothing to worry about.

Bike. We're upto 25miles as of last weekend, and I did the same route this past Tuesday. We've started some hill work, which wasn't really too bad, til you turn around and see what you've just conquered. Riding on Tuesday inspired me to just enjoy the moment. I got on my bike about 4:40am, and about 11 miles into my ride, the sun began to rise just over the mountain tops. It was the sun rise, the mountains, me and open road. Purple and orange filled the sky and just letting my mind and my thoughts to be free ... it was a good morning.

Run. We've been doing much of our training on a high school track, which consists of interval training. Running on Thursdays at 6:30pm, for the past couple of weeks in over 105 degree heat. Water just refuses to stay cold ... argh. I haven't been doing much of the individual runs on Sundays which calls for longer runs ... but that's my goal to add it to the weekly routine in July.

The BRICK. If you don't know what this is ... well, it's combining two sports disciplines one after the other. So every Wednesday after the team swim ... we run a couple of miles and on Saturdays after our bike rides, we run a couple of miles. Swim to run has been pretty good and I've been feeling quite strong. As for the Saturday bike ride to run ... well, that's another story. I think this is exactly where the name came from, because your feet feel like bricks for each step. Like everything else ... this can only get better !!!

Fundraising ... thanks to all who have contributed thus far, but its not too late for the ones still looking to do so. Even though I've met my goals ... every extra dollar that goes into the fund is also always very helpful to this cause.

Thanks again for checking in ... I'm hoping to have some pictures for my next blog.

Have a GREAT LONG weekend.