I saw this video yesterday and had to share it. Hilarious.
Grant
Breakfast Television
Tomorrow morning myself, Jon Bird and Talisman Centre are going to be featured on City TV’s Breakfast television. We are on 5 times from 6:45- 8:30. Check it out if you feel like hanging out by the TV on another cold morning.
Grant
Finally the answer
How many Grant’s does it take to change a light bulb?
None, Grant is so motivating the lightbulb changes itself!
Grant Burwash cowbell cheer
Grant Burwash Iroman 70.3 Calgary cheer
Thanks for the compliment Ted. I’ll remember this one.
Grant
A quote from Bill Nye
Yesterday morning I ran my spin class through time trials. We use these to set baselines for people and to determine wattage training zones specific to the athlete. I have been known to get quite into these testing sessions and get the occasional noise complaint. Even though the class was small, there was a great energy in it on Monday.
One gentlemen in the class named Ted, was doing his first TT in over a year and not really looking forward to it. Now, there are a few things you need to know about Ted. First, he is always smiling and in a great mood. He loves joking around and poking fun at others an himself. He started asking me about the seniors discount at the Talisman Centre before he was even a senior and is one of the most chipper guys you will meet. The most important thing about Ted, is that he is Bill Nye…that’s right, the science guy.
He isn’t actually Bill Nye, but he looks surprisingly similar, is a chemist and is always pointing his fingers like Bill in this picture. Jon and I started calling him Bill and even chanting (from the song) Bill, Bill, Bill during training sessions or races.
Needless to say, Ted is a pretty cool cat and usually has something to say that makes me laugh. After his TT yesterday though, which left him speechless for a while, he said something to me that I won’t forget. It may have been one of the best comments someone has given me and couldn’t have come from a better person.
How many Grant’s does it take to change a light bulb?
The answer will be posted tomorrow.
Grant
Back to big Saturdays
One of the many benefits of coaching at Talisman Center is the ability to train with wonderful athletes as you coach them through cycling sessions. Starting yesterday, my 3 hour Saturday rides resumed for another year. These rides have become a key factor in many athlete preparation, including my own for the summer races. Typically, I do a 90-120min long run before the spin, but yesterday I was relegated to a 90min water run.
I entered the ride with lots of energy and excitement at the new faces as well as the old friends I have been coaching and training with for years. Some of the new athletes thought the class was 2 hours, which made my day to see their eyes get big when I told them the actual duration of the class. It’s kind of sadistic, but seeing this look of horror on others and then running them through a great workout, brings me a lot of pleasure. In my opinion, the class went great. This was the longest ride in 3 weeks with my achilles and it held up beautifully. A little athletic tape for some support, keep the cadence and watts stable and minimal standing and 3 hours passed with no pain…YES!
The dynamics of a 3 hour ride indoors are fascinating and over the years I studied them with great interest. When the class starts at 9am, the coach has to pump a lot of energy into the group to get people awake. Then, conversations need to be generated during warm up to keep people spinning and keep their energy exertion in check. This also helps the initial 30-45mins pass by in a blink of an eye. Once I’ve pumped energy in for about 45mins, the athletes start giving it back 10 fold. As they start to sweat, work hard and enjoy the experience of the music, friends and exercise, this is now my time to recharge. I take in the energy they are giving and keep the class at a stable hum. Once you pass that 2 hour, barrier, the athletes start to fade. Fatigue, hunger, boredom and saddles sores set in, which challenge peoples desire to continues. This doesn’t necessarily mean they are bonking, but I need to feed energy back to them. This means good music, encouragement as well as keeping my energy and pep high. This is the only way that most athletes will push themselves for the full 3 hours. When all the work is done and the minutes have sweated themselves away, everyone is in a state of fatigue, hunger, varying levels of pain, but has a sense of accomplishment. “Today, I did something that will make me better tomorrow”.
Welcome back Saturdays!
Grant
Welcome Back
Welcome back to grantburwash.com. Happy new year to everyone.
I am back to blogging now after a hiatus to focus on other areas of my life. After my season last year, I had a desire to pull away from blogging for a while as I dealt with a frustrating end to the season and an achilles injury. My community of friends and supporters are fabulous, but occasionally I have a tendency to live through the highs and lows of life with only those that come into contact with me on a daily basis. For this, I apologize to those of you that live for blogs. Don’t worry though, I’m back and I’ll be keeping you updated on my life.
This week I have started back coaching the Talisman Centre Triathlon Club. It’s always great to see returning friends and to meet new athletes ripe with potential.
2012 has begun and I have a feeling it’s going to be a year to remember.
Grant
Season is officially over
That’s a wrap for the 2011 season. It has been a year of highs and lows, but now the race season has come to a close. After racing in Georgia, I found my body and mind very tired. With little juice to hurt through 2 more half ironmans, I decided to call my race season quits. It is sometimes tough as an athlete to know when to pull the plug on a season, but I had many telling signs. First off, I wasn’t excited to race anymore. I was not motivated to hurt through the workouts, let alone suffer the way I needed to in order to have a good result at the races. My main motivation during the days was to sleep, eat and not think about triathlon. My body had some issues, like bruised hip and a vertebrae out of place, that needed to get fixed. One of my main motivations though, was the desire to take time off quickly, so I could start full training again in mid October. This would allow me more time to work over the winter and race earlier.
After looking at these signs and talking it over with my coach Jack and my family, my race season ended. In one of my next posts, I’ll analyze my year, but today is not that day. I’m now getting back into the swing of things at Talisman Centre and slowly finding a rhythm with coaching again. The past couple weeks of minimal training and a lot of good food has been food for my mind and soul. I now am looking outside and feel an urge to run, bike and swim. Let’s let the off season training begin.
Grant
Augusta 70.3 Race report
It’s official…I’m back in Calgary, back to colder weather and back to work. It’s nice seeing some familiar faces again after 12 days alone on the road.
Augusta went much better than Cancun. I felt a little sluggish on race morning, but had a good warm up, a nice long stretch before I embarked on another race. Before the start I met a wonderful gentleman who lived near Georgia who was wearing number 911 and was a SWAT team member. Needless to say this brought some interesting conversation and jokes while I stretched. The day was warm, got just above 30C and very humid. For the most part though, the day was overcast with the sun only really coming out on the run.
The swim was fast, with the current and the wetsuit. I settled into a groove right away and found myself just off the feet of the lead pack. Nobody could swim in a straight line that day, including me. Usually I’m pretty good at going straight, but for some reason everyone wanted to slalom the course instead of straight shoot it. Getting out of the water I was already warm (water temp was 2F below wetsuit cut off), so I didn’t have much problem transitioning and settling in on the bike. Right away I knew my legs felt better than the week before.
I started the ride in 11th place and found myself passing a few guys within the first 10miles. Chris Legh went by me and I tried to hold his wheel for a while, but this was always going to be a lost cause with one of the strongest cyclists in the sport. I rode very well and the kms seemed to keep ticking away. There were even points where I totally zoned out and found myself just listening to my breathing as I watched the pavement whizz by. This is very hard to achieve in a race, but is a great experience to just enjoy the pain and excitement of racing. Nutrition wise, the bike went quite well and I got off the bike excited to run and still feeling pretty strong. Thankfully I didn’t have any flats, but did see a fairly large snake in the middle of the road (dead).
As always, the first km of the run felt terrible. My legs were shaky, I was running awkwardly, but slowly settled into a rhythm. A wonderful gentlemen kept giving me my placing, so I knew I came off the bike in 9th place. Quickly I found myself settled into a pace that should have been sustainable, but was not blistering by any stretch of the imagination. My first 10km was around 36:30. I had worked myself into 6th place, was closing in on 5th and was still feeling ok. Then, with about 5 miles to go I totally hit the wall. Within a kilometer I went from competing and looking ahead, to just trying to survive and not get passed. I lost about 10mins in the last 8km and faded to 8th. The finish line couldn’t come soon enough and I started throwing up every couple hundred meters. It really hurts to watch guys go by you that you have already passed, but I did finish. That finish line looked so sweet when I got there…always a reward. I finished in 8th place in 4:02:41.
Once I crossed the finish line, they immediately took me to the med tent and gave me an IV along with a long lecture about why I shouldn’t race after I’ve been sick during the week. After some time with the docs, a nice massage and a large amount of fluids I was feeling much better and rode my bike home while cheering on the back half of the field.
I’m quite happy with my swim and bike on the race and just need to figure out the back half of the run. Thanks to everyone for the support and if you want to check out some pics from the weekend, you can do so here
http://finisherpix.com/search.html
Now it’s back to training before Rev3 half in Anderson SC Oct 9.
Till next post,
Grant
Augusta 70.3 tomorrow
Well, even though this week has been light training wise, my body feels exhausted from the illness. This is evident in the fact that the past 2 nights I have got a solid 10hours of sleep. This is far above my average, so it’s great to be sleeping so well leading into a race.
My training went much better today. I actually felt a little spark on the run and swim and the body seemed to loosen out a bit. I got my 4th flat in 3 days on the ride today, which doubles my yearly total. I felt like an idiot this morning when I went for my swim. I planned to do my ride, then jump in the lake and head to package pick up. This plan worked flawlessly by taking my swim trunks and everything I’d need for the training, except I forgot my goggles. My faith in humanity was restored when the first person I asked generously leant me his goggles… lovely chap. I didn’t want to mention that I was a pro, but he asked, which was a little embarrassing, but gave us a good laugh.
I quickly zipped through the expo, picked up some pit stop for tomorrow, and now I’m killing some time before my race meeting at 4. I’m looking forward to a relaxing evening tonight and having a good race tomorrow. I have no idea what my body or the weather will do tomorrow, so I’m going to race my heart out. Results never come unless you put yourself in a position of greatness and see what happens. Thanks for all the support and emails while I’ve been gone. If you want to follow the race tomorrow, you can at.
http://ironmanaugusta.com/results/
Grant
-
Grant's Photos
More Photos -
- Theme: Neo-Sapien by WP Designer.
- Blog at WordPress.com.
