Merry Christmas!

Well my off season was going to be just 2 weeks in November, it's now been 7 weeks since I've done any training that could be considered serious. But now I'm ready to put the hammer down to the grindstone and start another serious 11 months of training.
Until today I've been unmotivated. I tend to think of life in general and human behaviour in terms of motivation... I believe that anything is possible if an individual is properly motivated and what they have to start with is completely irrelevant. So what motivates me to start the 4 hour indoor bike training sessions? Well today I saw a couple guys I know in a Triathlete Canada Magazine; that started getting me going cause I know they are working hard right now. Also, I'm getting fat which is a good thing for me mentally - my brain and mood are affected negatively when I get down to the 160 lb mark, I'm a much better and happier person when I weigh more like 175 lbs. However, being out of shape is a huge motivator for me as well, so I'll get off my freshly padded butt to work some of the eggnog/chocolate/wine off starting now. Regardless of where we want to be in life and what we want to achieve, the first step is to establish a goal, and then find the motivation to achieve it based on the reasons why you are pursuing it in the first place.

Today I had a great swim session - 1200 meters of kick because my shoulder's tweaked right now (I wish shoulders would evolve!). I think I've underestimated the importance of a good kick in a tri swim - the old credo of "saving your legs for the bike and run" is a bunch of garbage. I'm starting to be able to kick on 2:00/100m pace and so if you start with that and add the arms, you're going to go quite fast. A good kick also keeps the body in good position to streamline, which is more important that how many "watts" you can pull in the pool.

I've posted a great article for mountain bikers on the relationship between tire pressure, width and speed at the bottom right corner of this blog. Anyone racing or concerned with speed off-road should read it. The results of some experimentation with pressure and tire width definitely go against what's commonly believed to be true (eg: the fallacy that narrower, low profile lugged tires run at higher pressures are faster).

OK, I'm going training! Merry Christmas everyone, thanks for reading.