Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Great News for Triathlon Canada



Triathlon Canada Recruits World-Leading Talent Libby Burrell as New High-Performance Director
—Burrell to refocus organization’s quest for podium from grassroots to elite level—

TORONTO—Weeks removed from the 2012 Olympic Summer Games, Triathlon Canada has made a critical move towards securing its return to the international podium with the hiring of Libby Burrell as its new high-performance director.

With rich experience deeply rooted in the sport – from coaching to sport science - Burrell joins Triathlon Canada in a role she is very familiar with; the South African successfully filled the same role for Triathlon South Africa and United States Triathlonbefore joining the International Triathlon Union as director, sport development in 2006.

“Libby is an extraordinary talent whose athletic background, coaching acumen and leadership skills will be core to Triathlon Canada’s refocused drive to the podium,” said Alan Trivett, executive director, Triathlon Canada, who added Burrell’s experience as a team leader at major multi-sport Games, an educator in sport science and knowledge of working with international media will prove invaluable.


Read the rest of the article here

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Sedona Training Camp

Well it's been quite a while since there has been anything posted on here so how about a little update from camp here in beautiful Sedona, Arizona. 

Under the the amazing organization of RTC-Guelph head coach Craig Taylor; a few of the older MNTC athletes had the opportunity to join the Guelph crew and a few others for a training camp in the Sedona area. Once we had all wrapped up the semester of university we were more then ready to make training the number one priority and get down to work.  A couple hours north of Phoenix and surrounded all around by incredible red rocks, it has so far been a great place to get in some consistent swimming, biking and running.  

Situated around 4,300 feet one of the objectives was to get our first exposure to training at altitude and see how everyone responds. Being located about 50 minutes from Flagstaff which is at a higher altitude the training venues are plentiful and everyday has been an adventure exploring some new roads and trails and learning our way around the area. 


Riley U, Stevie, and Riley M. make up the full-time MNTC contingent that came down here and we were also joined by Miss Sarah-anne Brault straight off her wicked top 20 performance at the San Diego WTS for a little while before she headed off to Spain for the Madrid stop on the WTS series. The hardworking and fun group we have have to train and live with down here has made it all the more enjoyable. The support from coaches Craig and Rossann has been top notch and definitely contribute to the great atmosphere everyone is enjoying here.

We're enjoying a nice day off today to rest up for the next chunk of work to be done over the next days before people head either back home or off to Texas for the Dallas ITU Pan Am Cup taking place the first weekend in June. 

Take a look at some of these pictures from the camp so far, and check back soon for another update or at least some more pictures! (They're the best part anyways)

Unger stretching out after a morning run

Little Elf Drive group shot

Stevie hiking in Flagstaff

Hiking in Flagstaff

Hiking in Flagstaff

Big group shot


Pictures courtesy of Stevie!


Tuesday, March 27, 2012

oh hey Tucson!

So most of the high school aged MNTC athletes made the trip down to Tucson, Arizona yesterday to spend their spring break getting some work done, in a slightly warmer and more interesting training environment.

There are 6 athletes from Manitoba (Ashlyn, Ben, Darian, Janessa, Madison, and Tyler), along with our coach Gary, and they will be working together with a group from Alberta for a number of workouts. Hitting up Mt. Lemmon for the first time tomorrow, which always makes for a "fun" ride :)

Will try to get some more pictures and updates up here as the week goes on so check back!


Saturday, March 3, 2012

Clermont ITU

Sarah, Stevie, and Tyler are down in Clermont, Florida for the ITU Clermont Sprint Continental Cup taking place today! First race of the season for Stevie and Tyler, and Sarah looking to continue her strong start to 2012. Guys race at 2:00 PM (1:00 PM CT) and the girls at 3:30 PM (2:30 PM CT).

Good luck to them and all the other Canadians racing there today!


2012 WTS Series is coming soon as well, check out this little video:

Sunday, January 29, 2012

The Adventures of Sarah in South America

It all started with a flight, then another ( longer) flight followed by a short taxi ride to another airport to catch another flight before we finally got settled into the sketchy van for a never ending 3 hour ride. That’s when we saw the “Welcome to La Paz” arch, and knew we had arrived. I was racing the next Sunday (all the travel was on Tuesday/Wednesday) so we had a few days to relax, let the training sink in and see the sights! Well, there aren’t very many sights to see in La Paz, Argentina so we mostly relaxed and trained a bit. The whole town seemed to come alive for the triathlon weekend, which is definitely a once in a lifetime experience. I’d never been to South America before but I adapted rather quickly. Don’t look for stop signs on the roads, you won’t find them. Two o’clock to four o’clock is siesta time, so better make sure you’re not hungry or out of bottled water because no one else is out to help you out! But it’s a great time to ride around the empty streets, if you can withstand the heat. We made friends with the waiters at the hotel restaurant where we ate breakfast and dinner every day, as much friends as you can be without speaking the same language. Luckily, Kathy’s Spanish was good enough to get us through, and we always got the taxi to come back and pick us up at the pool when we were done swimming. Gold star for Kathy! On Friday night we got treated to a wonderful concert complete with singing and multiple drums…at 11:30, right under our hotel window. Luckily, most age groupers were racing the next day so it didn’t last too long and we got some sleep as well.

The race ended up creeping up on us and it was go time. Few highlights: the crazy current in the river that pretty much made you swim on the spot if you didn’t put some effort into it, and quickly go backwards if you ever felt like stopping. The pontoon that wasn’t really facing the race course (dive-in followed by a 90 degree turn). The bumpy roads with the kids standing in the middle to hand out water bottles to the riders. The unforgiving, blazing sun on the run course that made us all glad to be done. The manzana flavored Powerade (really, Argentina? Let’s just stick with the “red” flavor). The rows of fans cheering us on all throughout the race, usually from shady spots on the course (smart people). The massive confetti gun during the awards ceremony while they played “We are the champions”. The random people on the streets wanting pictures, even though they don’t speak a word of English. Here's a link to some results if you don't like my ramblings and would like some hard data.

After a burger and some Dulce de Leche ice cream (Kelowna memories anyone?), it was time to pack up again and get started on the 2nd leg of our journey. Chantelle and I parted ways with some of our Canada and USA-bound friends as we boarded a plane for Chile. It was a late night but we settle into a very nice hotel on the beach in a town that is recognized as the vacation spot for wealthy Chileans and Argentineans. Of course, we picked the high-season to visit, just to make sure we were truly immersed in the culture...and the sea of people. Luckily, we met some friends on the shuttle and became quite inseparable for rest of the week of training. Carlos, Barbara and Martin joined us for training and meals, as we learned some basic Spanish and Martin improved his English. And we both improved our sign language. Training was a bit of a challenge, but since no one else really got up before noon, the streets were ours to play in for a few hours every morning. We practiced the waves a little bit since the race was going to be in the cold ocean, went for rides along the beautiful coast (not very long since we were getting ready for a race) and did a little shopping.

Race day went by much faster this time around; since the race was at 8 AM, I didn’t have all morning to agonize it. The field was similar to La Paz but the race played out a bit differently. Two girls got away on the swim, increased their lead on the bike, and were just too far up the road to be caught on the run. Still a great race and a good learning experience for me. Chile knows how to put on a professional race and Canada just missed out on having 2 on the girls podium (although the time gap was still rather substantial). More results here. We finished the day with a bit of touring, South America style, too much walking and a nice dinner and wine at the ever fancy race hotel with all our new friends (minus Ben who had to run across the neighborhood to make his bus because we got off at the wrong metro station. We all hope you made it back to Colorado Ben). A long airport day on Monday finished off the trip nicely and now it’s back to Barbados for some more training before the adventures begin again!

Here are some pictures from La Paz:







Happy training friends!

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Buses, Planking, Crunchy Pillows....Oh and a Race


This past weekend part of the team went to Ottawa to race the Junior Series race #3/Elite/U15 Ontario Provincials. The group stayed in the Carleton University residence which was one the street from the race course. Madison and Darian were on their first Big Trip Draft Legal Race Triathlon and Ben and Charles were racing the Junior Series Race. Stevie and Sarah got to join the fun and join the juniors as part of Ontario Provincials.

After a few unexpected travelling delays, the team made it to Carleton on Wednesday but waited for Sarah on Thursday to go explore the university grounds (AKA go planking).

This one got an A+ grade.



Our new friend. He informed us Carleton is a No Planking Zone. Especially for people wearing too much spandex.

After a full day of pre-race training which included a trip to the pool to avoid the ecoli infestation in the lake and some confusion trying to follow course maps we bused our way to the pre-race meeting. Darian’s dad gave us step by step instruction which didn’t seem to be enough since we had to ask every 2nd person we saw for extra help. And we still missed our transfer. Luckily, we forgot all our troubles when the bus had an accordion centre we could play on. East Side Mario’s provided us with a lovely dinner after the short and sweet meeting. We splurged on the way back home and taxied back to Carleton. We informed our driver that a triathlon consist of swim-bike-run and NOT Swim-bike-run-swim. The pillows created quite a conundrum with the Team. Some of them were crunchier than others

Charles with the “pillows” to the front desk lady: Can I exchange these for pillows?
Front Last Lady: These are pillows.


Race morning came too quickly. A 7AM start for the boys meant 4:50 wake up time. Ben’s mother donated a toaster for our pre-race breakfast which greatly improved its quality. We biked our way to the course and everyone warmed up together. Before we knew it, the boys were herded into the water with no respect for pre-race rankings for their deep water start. The girls followed 3 whole minutes later and the Minis went at 7:30 and 7:33 respectively.

The deep water start on the boy’s side was really rough and everyone was fighting for positions even before the horn went off. With all the U23 athletes in the race, the field was big. Charles and Ben were in the middle but eventually kept getting pushed back. With about 20 seconds until the start Charles decided to move all the way to the end to have a clear start which really helped. Our turn around was a kayak which was…different. Coming out of the water Charles just missed the lead pack and ended up in a group of five that were very close to lead pack and chased hard. Ben had a strong swim and came out a bit further back than Charles. The bike went without any trouble and with all the U23s pulling hard in lead no one caught them and Charles’s pack got caught by a bigger pack. All the other packs stayed fairly stable throughout the 20km. Charles and Ben had a strong run on a rather hot course with no water being given out and finished 8th and 23rd junior respectively.

The swim start was the same for the girls. There were only five Elites entered in the Junior race, but it still increased the quality and depth of race. Sarah and Stevie came out of the water together just a few seconds behind the lead group of swimmers. They also caught a few of the Junior guys at the end of the swim. The bike was very challenging with all the guys on the course. Sarah nearly crashed going around the first 180 turn because of a huge pack of boys that we going around the cone at the same time. Sarah, Stevie and four other girls formed the lead pack and all worked strong together and battled with the other gender to keep there own lines. The run course was hot and was very challenging, but in the end Sarah ended up with the win for the day and Stevie ended up third.

In the U15 race Darian and Madison represented very well! Darian missed out on the lead pack because of a sighting error that made him swim wide. He soloed the bike and ran himself in to 2nd place! Madison had a swim that was expected for only starting swimming four months ago. She biked strong with one other girl and they ended up with a pack of four after catching two other girls. Coming in to T2 she had trouble locating her spot, which resulted in a slower transition. Fierce competitor that she is, she chased down the girls ahead of her and placed 2nd!

The team is now very split up across the country. Good luck to our WCG teams heading out to Kamloops next week. The athletes racing are Riley, Unger and Tyler for the guys; Ashlyn, Janessa and Jane on the girls’ side. We’re sure they’ll do a great job! Ben is at his Grandma’s cottage in the middle of nowhere with no running water. Hope you catch lots of fish Ben! The Brault’s are heading to their home province and decided to bring Stevie along for a solid week of training with the Quebec team. Hopefully her french will improve a bit... Darian and Madison are back home for a solid block of training before Kelowna. Enjoy everyone!












here is a link to Bramwell's photos
https://picasaweb.google.com/102356770393916246846/TeckJuniorNationalSeries3OttawaON?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Friday, July 15, 2011

Sorry Forgot to mention Ben was at Folk Fest last weekend!

Hope he had a good time!
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According to worldweb.com it is one of the top 10 festivals in Canada!