Second Christmas

Ok I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea, my Tassimo coffee maker was the best Christmas present ever and brings me joy every morning (thanks mom). But this week has been pretty good too.

After a long day of training yesterday I was thrilled to see that my 2011 Rudy Project team kit had arrived! A couple weeks ago I resigned with them through the 2013 season and I can't wait for the warm weather to come so I can show off all my cool new stuff.



Their bike kit is super comfy and is great quality. I was also lucky enough to pick up their superlight Sterling helmet and a couple pairs of shades. I'm very impressed with the technical innovation in all their products. But that's not all!

I just finished building my Cervelo TT bike a couple weeks ago and the opportunity arose for me to get on board a Cervelo road bike as well. So today I got a new bike for the second time in as many weeks! I was happy with my Kuota road frame but I'm a perfectionist when it comes to the bike, so I wanted to know I was on the stiffest AND lightest frame in the world.



The R3 frame is 940g in a size 56 and when I finish my build with sram Red, Rotor 3D+ crankset and Mavic wheels it will be right around 14lbs. Big thanks to Brad from Cervelo for hooking me up, I'm sure I'll be pushing the limits of this thing in my draft legal triathlon and road racing this year.

I am a spoiled little brat.

Training Day: Take 2

Stolen cars, foosball death matches, sketchy little hitch hikers...

Must be another LPC Training Day!




Fun Fact #1: Olympic Gold Medallist Tessa Virtue is a regular client at Loaring Physiotherapy. In her first interview after winning gold she thanked her physiotherapist Mary Brannigan at Loaring Physio for making it all possible.

Fun Fact#2: I have a huge crush on Tessa Virtue.


So on my second trip down to Windsor for an LPC Training Day I was secretly hoping Charlotte would set me up with Tessa. Unfortunately she's busy with World Championships or something, so that will have to wait until next time. I guess all there was left to do was have a fun day of training with the LPC squad.

First up was a short technical swim with a bit of open water simulation (if that's at all possible in a 25m four-lane pool). There are a lot of beginner triathletes in the group so the focus was on getting everyone comfortable with the inevitable chaos of open water swimming.

As an athlete-coach I felt it was my responsibility to make things as realistic as possible and create said chaos for those who needed a good race simulation. I wasn't the most popular guy there after throwing elbows and swimming over some people, but for beginner athletes it's an invaluable lesson. Either give an ass-whoopin' or you're gonna get one.

Next up was another couple laps on the Loaring Run Under the Sun (I really will tell you about it sometime) 5k course. First lap easy, second lap champion-of-the-universe pace. Or at least that's what I heard. In trainers on short warmup I ran one of my best 5k's ever. I think I'm pretty fit for February...I'm looking forward to the race season.

I must admit it's a little strange to have a room full of people 2-3 times my age looking to me for insight or as an example. Given my complete lack of maturity it can be a little intimidating when other athletes look to me or want to know how I'm "so fast" (flattering, but untrue). I don't have all the answers (or any of them for that matter), and my only strength in triathlon is my work ethic. All I can really do is show them how: I put in the work.

Training days are a very tough day for most of the athletes and they're capped off with a hard two hour trainer session. So I tried to set a good example and proceeded to murder myself for two hours on the bike. It was a lot of fun with great energy from everyone, and the whole group put in an awesome workout and a big day of training.

Next up is the LPC Florida Camp in a couple weeks and I can't wait to join the group again. It's always a lot of fun training with athletes of all backgrounds and abilities, who all bring a great attitude into training.

Oh, to clarify that first line. Well I stole James' car while he was paying for gas...he was not mad, just very disappointed. The foosball and hitch hiker stuff is better left in the past.

My Newest Toy

My creation!



It's been a long time in the making but my winter project is finally complete. I haven't had a time trial bike in a few years now and even though my focus is on draft-legal, it's still nice to go fast in my other races. I had been contemplating getting a low end tri bike for a while but a bet with Coach James finally pushed me over the edge.

I've always wanted to build up a bike from scratch and with the help of Multisport Zone we made it happen. I don't need a high end bike for my non-drafting races (and my entire life savings is tied up in my road bike), so instead of dropping a ton of money on a secondary bike the focus was on making it look totally badass while spending as little as possible:

Cervelo P1 frameset
SRAM Force/Rival mix, SRAM 500 shifters/brake levers
Profile Design front end (custom modified) & saddle

I had a lot of fun building it all up and making EVERYTHING match - red levers and shifters, silver&red tape...even the cable stops are red :)

Huge thanks to Multisport Zone for making all this happen. Not only did they make it possible but they are also fitting me on it with FIST and Retul fit technology.

RP & RP

We make a good team.

Unlike most professional triathletes I didn't spend my fall and winter trying to sell myself to potential sponsors for the upcoming season. With the pathetic prize money and funding available in our sport sponsors are critical in supporting every elite athlete, but I wanted to keep things simple this year and focus on my training more than trying to live up to expectations. But Rudy Project has been with me from the beginning and I swore by their products before first signing on with them a couple years ago. And I'm thrilled to renew my sponsorship through the 2013 season.

They support my philosophy that looking good is the number one predictor of success in triathlon, and if the sun ever shines again in Ontario you will see me rocking their sunglasses and helmets as I have for the past three seasons. There are some great deals on their online store (http://www.e-rudy.com/), or you can contact me for big discounts on any of their products. Having tried almost every major brand of cycling equipment they really do have the best fitting and best looking gear out there.

LPC Training Day

Having trained with LPC for just over a year I still haven't met many of the inspiring athletes, so I took the rare opportunity to train with a group and had a change of scenery from boring old London.

It was a big training day for a lot of athletes and I helped out a little with a technical swim session before a run on the forthcoming Loaring Run Under the Sun course (more on that another time), some core stability with physio Charlotte Loaring and a solid two hour spin at Loaring Physio. Lots of fun, some valuable instruction and I'm looking forward to the next one! Some photos I stole from James:

The night before...supremely confident in my fitness


This is where dreams go to get rehab-ed (and Olympic gold medallists)


Lionel Sanders felt like going tempo, and ran a 15:52 5k


Hold the pee!


Either I'm getting a head start on heat prep, or I'm just too damn skinny to stay warm


Aww aren't they cute


Thanks LPC for a fun day! Can't wait for Florida