Victoria

So I have been out in Victoria since last Wednesday for a Pre Worlds training camp. It is nice to be back, although I was only here for a month last year, I missed it. I don't know if I could see myself living here all year, being in Vancouver last year turned me off the whole living in a place where they get no snow, but get a whole lot of rain. I am homestaying with Matt Sharpe, his mom Barb, and fellow PTC'er Ian D. They live about a mintue walk from Commonwealth pool, which is nice in the morning.

I have done a little tour around town, refreshing my memory of Victoria. I had breakfast at Lady Marmilade'sthis morning with ian, yorkey, and Jairus. Lady Marmilade's is this little restaurant below my apartment last year that has the best french toast, which everyone got, and it is still as good as I remember. Craig took us on part of the waterfront loop, and I have done a lot of riding around the observatory, which was still quite fresh in my memory.

Training has been alright. My hamstring has steadily been getting better, and I have more power on the bike and run due to that. My body was a little shelled from a track workout that we did last week. It is not that it was a tough workout, more the fact that I did it 2 hours after landing in Victoria after a 5hr flight. I have been doing most of my workouts with Pat Kelly's group, with the National Team guys joining in on a few of the workouts. Today was one of those days where they joined in. We did 3X(2X Broadmead loop[a hilly 4.5km loop]) round one was tempo, and rounds 2,3 were building to race pace. That pace is all relative becasue it was geared towards the National Team guys. Rd 1 I was pulling my share, even though some of the hills were done as all out sprints. Rd 2 I pulled twice, once in the first 30 seconds, and once in the last 30 seconds. Rd 3 I just hung on the back for dear life. The problem was that they would climb the hills so hard that I would need time to recover, on the flats I was fine, but if I pulled on the flats I would have been fatigued going into the hills, which would have resutled in me being dropped. So I decided to play it safe and hang on for dear life on the hills. After the bike we had a 3ish km hard run on trails. My legs were pretty fried, but I still managed to post a good time.

I am only in Victoria until Thursday, I wish there was more time, but with Australia creeping ever so close, its almost time to hop on a 15 hour flight to down under.

So until later,

CH