Barrie Kids of Steel

Three days ago fun2tri traveled to Barrie to compete in the annual Barrie KOS triathlon. Our 14-15 year olds were trying to qualify for the 2010 Ontario Summer Games while the rest of the crew looked forward to a great day of racing.

The weather at Barrie is usually absolutely stunning but this the weather took a turn for the worse. Prior to the race the clouds didn't look to friendly but they seemed to be holding off. Our first athletes to race were in the 10-11 girls catagory. Ellen and Ginny bothed raced amazing. Ellen finally broke her dreaded streak of 4th place finishes to place third and Ginny had a solid race to finish 6th. Shortly after the girls took off the 10-11 boys raced off. Connor, Andrew and Nolan raced well and showed some solid results. Nolan raced into 5th while Connor and Andrew finished stong in 12th and 19th.

Next up the 12-13 girls started out and our lone fun2trier Lauren Beals did a great job to finish 4th and was just edged out of a podium spot. Shortly after the girls started the boys took off and Ben, Aidan and Chalmers raced hard to get the job done. Chalmers' race went very well while Aidan had a hard swim and paid for it on the run while Ben had a difficult run but managed to pull himself to the line. Aidan placed 3rd, Ben in 7th and Chalmers finished it off in 23rd.

Finally our 14-15 athletes took off with the boys starting first. Myles and Kyle swam side by side and stayed close on the bike but separate crashes for each caused them to lose ground on the lead. Both held on for some strong runs which ended up with Myles finishing 2nd and Kyle in 5th. On the girls side of things Sasha and Alana were both in the heat of the race and both had to work hard. Unfortunately, Alana crashed hard on the bike and injured her arm, but still hung on to run into 11th. Sasha raced well but was passed in the last little bit of the run to finish second.

Overall we had 4 podiums, 7 top 5 finishes, and 9 top 10 finishes. Great job everyone. Upcoming races still on the calender are Orillia, Valleyfield (Quebec), and Lakeside II. Keep up the great work.

Le Tour

Even though the tour de france is over i found this video while browsing the specialized site and thought it was hilarious.

Cheers,

myles

Catching up on Things

Sorry for not posting in a while I've been busy with things lately. Here's is the latest updates for the club.
This past weekend we had nine fun2triers race at the 9th annual Loyalist's Kids of Steel Triathlon, run by race director Clive Morgan, whose race is one of the best run in the province (thanks Clive). Everyone put out a great effort even though the conditions were not ideal. That effort paid off as everyone in the club had a great race with great results. We once again managed to pink the podium in all but one age group. Congrats to our first place finishers, Sasha (14-15 girls), Myles (14-15 boys), Lauren (12-13 girls), Aidan (12-13 boys), and Nolan (10-11 boys). We also had some even more gutsy performances by our second and third place finishers Kyle (second, 14-15 boys) and Connor (third, 10-11 boys). More solid performances were put in by Ellen, who finished fourth by just 4 seconds, and Andrew, who looked great in the swim, bike, and run to finish ninth. In all we had seven top 3 finishes, eight top five finishes and nine athletes in the top 10. that's 100% top ten finishes. Now what can you say about that? Wow. Keep up the great work guys.
PS. Congrats to all our fun2triers who competed at the Junior LC Provincial Swimming Championships. Its no doubt that our athletes our always some of the first out of the water in tri's.

Recent Events

Sorry for the lack of posts. It sure hasn't been because of a lack of news. Training has been going well and racing has been going really well.

A few weeks back, Ellen and Hannah travelled to Lakeside to race in the 10-11 category. After a cold swim, a hilly bike and a nice flat run, Ellen finished in second place and Hannah finished in fourth place. Great job on the race course and great job having fun afterwards at the beach. Nice mud pancakes.

This past Sunday, six athletes travelled to Lindsay for the KOS race there. ALL six athletes raced to podium finishes - you definitely pinked the podium. Congratulations to Nolan (10-11), Aidan (12-13) and Sasha (14-15) on their first place finishes, to Ben (12-13) and Myles (14-15) on their second place finishes and to Kyle (14-15) on his third place finish. Congrats also goes to honary fun2tri member for a day, Dylan Bates who placed first in the 16-19 age group. Nice pink shirt Dylan.

Next race stop for fun2triers is Loyalist. Happy training until then.

First Time is the Best

The first time you do anything in life is pretty special. First steps you take (for your parents anyway), first day of highschool, first kiss (yikes) and yes, your first triathlon. Yesterday at the Kinetico Kids of Steel race, fun2tri had six athletes complete their first triathlon. Congratulations to Brianne, Carter, Paige, Chalmers, Ginny and Natalie!! All of you did a fantastic job and should be very proud of yourselves. All of your hard work has paid off and you achieved your goal. I hope you enjoyed yourselves and that this is the first of many.

In all, fun2tri had 19 athletes race and we "pinked the podium" in all but one race in which we had athletes entered. Congratulations to Sasha (1st female, 14-15), Aidan (1st male, 12-13), Nolan (1st male, 10-11), Paige (2nd female, 12-13) and Myles (3rd male, 14-15). fun2tri had 6 athletes in total who placed in the top 5 in their age group and 11 athletes in total in the top 10 in their age groups. Great job.

A big thank you to the C3 club and its many volunteers for putting on a great event.

Rolling Right Along

Training has been going very well for everyone. The bike skills continue to improve at a very fast pace. We haven't done much distance running but when we have, the athletes have done a great job.

One week until the Kinetico Caledon KOS Race. C3 always puts on a great event (thank you to them) and we are all looking forward to a fun day and some fast racing. Just a reminder that the Tuesday night group, will meet at the race site next week to review the course and get familiar with everything.

And finally, a special thank you to the Thursday group for their suggestions for the new t-shirt slogan. Your suggestions were most entertaining: tri not to die, tri not to tri, why run when you can walk, and we're serious this year? - I will not go on except to say, stick with the training because you have no future in advertising.

Have a great long weekend. Get out on those bikes and enjoy the weather.

PS Congratulations to the fun2tri athletes who competed in the North Peel cross-country championships. Great performances by Myles, Aidan, Ben, Paige and Natalie - they all finished in the top 20 in their categories. Myles, Aidan and Ben's school (Allan Drive M.S.) placed first among junior boys teams and first overall. Congratulations and thanks to their coaches, Mr. McCauslin and Ms. Dall.

Bike Skills From Week 3

Each week fun2tri athletes practice a variety of bike skills. I have been so impressed this year with how they have improved so quickly. Great job! Last night was the first night of the "popular" bottle drill. The drill works on balance and control. Athletes must pick up a bottle from the top of a cone and place it either in a bucket or on another cone (depending on the difficulty they choose). Above, Graham shows us how it is done. The success rate was fantastic last night. By the end of the session, I think we had almost 100% success on the pick-ups and even a few successful placements back onto the cone. What a great improvement from when we started last year.

Now, if only we could improve on the cheating during the helmet game!

See you next week (hopefully with some warmer weather).

Week 2 - Golf Game

Week 2 of the fun2tri training involved a review of the bike skills we learned in week 1. The mounts and dismounts were looking quite good and on the cornering drills, only a few cones continued to take a beating.

We then played a couple of rounds of golf - triathlon style. Each hole incorporated a running drill and groups of four moved from "hole to hole". Despite my best efforts to avoid it, the game quickly became a race. Perhaps we need to incorporate the snail game into the golf game.

This week we will be working on our transition skills. I can't wait to use the new bike racks than Ginny and Chalmer's dad, Emlyn made for us (many, many thanks).

On another note, I encourage you to check out the Ontario Provincial Triathlon Centre's blog. Craig Taylor, the provincial development coach keeps us up to date on the triathlon world and provides lots of helpful tips. Last week Craig wrote a great post on safety - providing two suggestions that we should all consider. Check it our at www.provincialtriathloncentre.blogspot.com

See you Tuesday.

Week 1 - A Great Start!

Well week 1 was a big success. We have 23 athletes in the club this year which hopefully will mean a sea of pink on race days. A special welcome to newcomers Brianne, Carter, Paige, Duncan, Chalmers, Ginny and Natalie. Great to see our 16 returning athletes too.

Bike handling skills were a big part of week 1 and will continue to be a focus for the athletes throughout the season. A big game of tag at the end of training was a hit, as usual.

Special thanks to Lynn (Chalmers and Ginny's mom) for helping with the paperwork - much appreciated.

Week 2 will involve some new bike handling drills and a game of golf - and you thought this was a tri club? And of course... tag (bring your tag ideas).

I will try to remember to take some pictures this week so that we can get some new pics on the blog (and get rid of Myles and Sean - I did not post this pic). Bring your best smiles.

Tri Training Starts Tuesday

Finally... that time of year. The fun2tri triathlon club training is about to start! Next Tuesday (April 14) we will meet at Robert F. Hall for our first session of the year. There will be a combination of new faces and returing faces which is very exciting. Remember to bring your bike, bike helmet and running shoes (you don't need transition stuff for week 1). If you have any questions, send me an email. Looking forward to seeing everyone.

PS As I write this, I am looking out the window at a winter wonderland - about 6 inches of snow (at least). I will keep you posted if our plans have to be changed. In the meantime, hope for lots of sunshine and warm weather.

2009 KOS Summer Camp

Just a quick note to let athletes and parents know that the camp is now FULL. However, we are starting a wait list and MAY be able to add an additional week if demand is great enough. If you are interested in being added to the wait list, please email me at zagarlp@rogers.com Thanks to those that have signed up - it is going to be an exciting week.

KOS SUMMER CAMP

What a great way to start the 2009 triathlon season - with an announcement of a summer camp for KOS triathletes, aged 13 and older. The camp will be held in Collingwood from Sunday July 19th to Saturday July 25th, 2009. Coaches for the camp will be jay johnson, Sharon Mackinnon and myself, Lorri Zagar.

We will be staying in a chalet close to the base of Blue Mountain. Sixteen athletes can attend the camp. If you are interested in obtaining more information, please email me at zagarlp@rogers.com

More details on the upcoming exciting fun2tri training season will be posted soon.