Setting the Stage

Now that we've had opportunities to have individual meetings with all the athletes and using the motivation and knowledge gained from the Triathlon Canada and Petro-Canada Sport Leadership conferences, I thought it would be a good time to lay out some overall goals and principles for the season. In the coming weeks, I plan on expanding on each of the "principles" outlined below. 

2008-09 Core Principles:

1. Consistency - adopting a consistent approach to training and racing, not just in attendance, but in focus and effort.

2. Detail - taking care of the small things that make up the difference between 95% performance and 100%.

3. Negotiation - or more specifically, non-negotiation - a.k.a. sticking to the plan.

4. Teamwork - working together to beat the rest!

5. Risk - taking chances at the right time and making smart decisions.

6. Nutrition - ensuring that performance is not compromised and hopefully optimized from some basic nutrition principles.

7. Recovery - ensuring that the body is given the time to produce the positive performance adaptations.

In addition to monitoring everyone's individual goals, we will also evaluate our progress against these principles as a measure of the team's success throughout the season. More to come over the next few weeks!!

Sign-Up Now for 08-09

Coach Dan and OREA racing have limited spots available for 15-20 year old triathletes for this season. Both in-person group training (in Hamilton, Ontario) and online coaching options are available. Continue reading or contact Coach Dan for more info.

Training Schedule

• Schedules will be released on a monthly basis. Group workout times may vary depending on coach availability
• There will be anywhere from 2 to 4 weekly group workouts. The type of workout will depend on the needs of each individual athlete (often we may have 2 or 3 different sets all going on at the same time depending on what everyone needs).
• Practices will be geared toward those attending on a regular basis - i.e. we will set the group workout schedule around those who attend most consistently. Workouts are all planned in advance so we need to know who is coming!
• Group workouts will start after October 20.

Fees

• Team Fee - includes t-shirt, workouts and special events: $100 per year
• Coaching Fees - includes start of season meeting, annual training plan, training schedule, race schedule, training logs review, race support (where applicable): $500 per year (October to August) or $50 per month for athletes joining later in the year.
• Family Discount - 20% off total fees when more then one sibling registers.

Racing Round-up

Finally an update from the past two weekends where we've had athletes competing in Ottawa, Orillia, Kelowna and Cobourg ...

On Thursday the 14th, Derek and David raced in the first Ontario Summer Games Triathlon in Ottawa. This race featured the best 16 & under athletes in the province and to make it even more challenging, Derek and David had spent the previous 3 weeks on vacation out west, one of them managing to bring back pneumonia (usually you are supposed to bring back a t-shirt, not an illness Derek!).  came off the bike in 2nd and ended up 7th while David finished 14th. Using the performance ranking points, Derek and David both had their 3rd best ever non-drafting bike splits in Ottawa.

 

Up next, John raced in the Subaru Series event in Orillia. John paced a good effort throughout the race with no real weak parts - the swim, bike and run were all close in effort. This strategy was enough to win the Junior Men's division while coming in 22nd overall. This weekend John will look to improve over the same 750/30/7 distance in Guelph Lake.

On the same weekend, Anita & Gina Demczuk along with Natalie Wilkinson travelled out to Kelowna, BC for Age Group Nationals. Anita finished 11th overall in the Sprint Nationals Triathlon, finishing 1st in 18-19 age group. Natalie, on a very last-minute trip decision, finished 10th in her age group in the sprint race, earning her a Worlds spot for next year's Championships in Australia. Gina competed in the highly competitive Olympic distance race, finishing 13th in her age group.

Finally, this past weekend, Derek and Ang (coached by CT at the PTC) raced the sprint triathlon at the Multisport event in Cobourg, Ontario. Derek had a great race, leading from start to finish to win the event overall. Sister Ang nearly matched this effort, winning the Junior Women's race and finishing second overall.

August Long Weekend

Over the long weekend, we had athletes racing in Owen Sound and PEI. Owen Sound served as Provincial Olympic Distance Champs and is a World's qualifier for 2009. Here are the team's age group results:
- Andre Simon: 6th in Men's 20-24
- Simon Gabsch: 8th in Men's 20-24
- Coach Lee: 4th in Men's 30-34
- Anita Demczuk: 1st in Junior Women
- Gina Demczuk: 5th in Women's 20-24
- Natalie Wilkinson: 19th in the sprint distance race.

Heading east, John Rasmussen joined Coach CT's road trip to race a National Junior Series race in PEI. John had an excellent swim before having a small crash in T1! Unfortunately this caused a bit of a back injury but John was able to finish in 21st overall and 8th Ontario athlete. In the Junior Women's race, OREA member and PTC athlete Angela Quick, had a great race finishing 6th overall and 2nd Ontario athletes across the line.

Weekend Racing

This past weekend again saw OREA athletes racing on two sides of the country. Out in Corner Brook, Evan and Deanne took on the challenge of the Ironman Newfoundland 70.3 race. While Derek Quick spent the weekend in Calgary competing at Age Group Nationals for Swimming.

Here is Coach Lee's report for Deanne and Evan:

Evan Dietz: 3rd in AG, 4:46:48 overall, 29:56 swim, 2:39 bike and 1:34 run

Deanne Hiscock: 2nd in AG, 5:49 overall, 35:52 swim, 3:09 bike and 1:59 run 

...they have both qualified for the 70.3 Worlds in florida in November!!! 

Meanwhile in Calgary, Derek posted some fast times including: (all times long-course) 18:09 for 1500m Free, 4:37 for 400m Free, and 2:12 for 200m Free.

Congrats to all 3 athletes for their performances!

Niagara Results

A quick listing of team results from today's race in Grimsby:

Junior Men: Derek Quick 2nd

Junior Women: Angela Quick (PTC) 1st, Anita Demczuk 3rd

Men 20-24: Simon Gabsch 2nd, Andre Simon 3rd, Jordan Crandall 7th

Women 20-24: Gina Demczuk 4th, Samantha Parker 8th, Kim Volterman 10th

Details and pictures to follow.

Fast Out of Turns

Today's Workout:

Main Set: 

4 X (3 x 1.5km as out and back on a 750m straight)

Sprint 10-15 seconds out of each turnaround. 1st lap of 3 is easy, 2nd lap is moderate, 3rd lap is fast. Rest 2 minutes. Total of 5 sprints per set = 20 total for the workout.

Junior Provincials

This past weekend, the team travelled up to Gatineau (in Quebec) to race Junior Provincials (Ontario's Junior Provincials!). The boys got the opportunity to race a draft-legal format with 60 Juniors and Elites in field from B.C., Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia. All 3 boys managed to avoid several crashes and dealt quite well with the heat (humidex of 35+ during the race). Derek Quick was 29th overall, 21st Junior and 5th for Junior Provincials. John Rasmussen was 30th overall, 22nd Junior and 6th for Junior Provincials. David Hopton was 43rd overall, 31st Junior and 12th for Junior Provincials. On the Junior women's side, Angela Quick (coached by Craig at the PTC) unfortunately ran into some medical issues during the race. I believe Ang is doing okay now and know that from working with her in the past that she will bounce back and show us some fast racing the rest of this year!

All-in-all, this was a good exposure to draft-legal racing for the boys and I'm sure they all look forward to doing more in the future. Here are a few pics. More pics featuring the rest of the Ontario Juniors are available here: http://picasaweb.google.com/dmckerrall/OATJuniorProvincials

Getting Ready for Gatineau

A little bit of fine-tuning last-night:

12 x (30m run, transition 1, 400m bike, transition 2, 150m run) on 4:00

June Racing

June was an exciting month of racing for the OREA team. The racing started in Milton where Derek Quick and Angela Quick (currently training under Craig Taylor at the PTC) took the overall try-a-tri wins. In the sprint distance race, coach Lee Hart took 3rd in the Men's 30-34 age group. Lee's athletes also faired well on the day - Deanne Hiscock took 3rd in the Women's 25-29 sprint tri, Simon Gabsh won the Men's 20-29 sprint duathlon, Samantha Parker took 5th in the Women's 20-29 sprint du, and Natalie Wilkinson finished her first ever triathlon in the try-a-tri. Other Coach Dan athletes included Anita Demczuk taking 2nd in the Junior Women's Sprint tri and sister Gina also taking 2nd in the 20-24 division.

The next weekend, on the other side of the country, Derek and Angela Quick, Gina and Anita Demczuk, and Evan Dietz were in Vancouver for Age Group World Championships. In the sprint race, Derek took 24th in the Junior Men's. The next day in the Olympic race, Angela took 4th and Anita took 10th in the Junior Women's division while Gina took 31st (out of 64) in 20-24 and Evan took 38th (out of 106) in the Men's 25-29.

Back closer to home, the Junior Boy's headed down to Lakeside for the Sprint triathlon on June 7. John Rasmussen took 2nd overall and first Junior and David was 2nd Junior in 4th overall. Both athletes smashed their results from 2007!

Next up in June was the Muskoka weekend on June 14-15. In the Saturday sprint triathlon, Anita earned another 2nd place in her age group, and Natalie finished her 2nd ever tri and first sprint tri race. In the highly competitive Sunday long course race, Evan Dietz took 6th in the Men's 25-29, followed closely by his coach, Lee, also taking 6th in the Men's 30-34. On the women's side, Gina took 3rd in 20-24 and Deanne took 8th in 25-29.

On the same weekend as Muskoka, Simon took the overall win at the Tomatoman triathlon in Leamington while Sam took 3rd overall and 2nd in her age group in the Tomatowoman tri!

The following weekend saw the racing continue in Guelph. Derek Quick finished the sprint triathlon in 5th overall, earning a 4th in the Junior Men's division after starting the bike in the lead! David Hopton took 5th In the Junior Men's with a run split that was faster then his 5k PB from a few months ago. Anita continued her podium finishes with a 3rd in the Junior Women's division.

Finally, on the last weekend of the month, Derek and David took 1st and 2nd overall in the Welland Give-it-a-tri. Angela Quick won the overall Welland Sprint triathlon and Jordan Crandall (coached by Lee) took first in the Men's 20-24 age group.

Keep up these great results in July!