Homage to Ben Kanute - the Coteau experience

Race report!
-Coteau, the worlds qualifier, came third! gahgrrrr ufff. In order to make the team you had to be the first or second man through. I was the first man after the swim? I was the 2nd man after the bike? but placed behind 2 great athlete's by the name of Matt Sharpe and Alexander Hinton in the end: see results. where did i lack the winning edge? the run! what contributed to the dulling of that edge? the ride. What a ride it was. Within a race there are always unexpected variables that play into the flow of a race. This time it was finding myself lacking my expected comrades on the bike and with one other guy by the name of Ben Kanute from the U-S-of-A. He set the pace and set it fast heading out of the water. We gapped the chase pack by 40 secs at one point, not without a significant amount of work though. Lots of respect to his riding.

I ran after him out of T2 and by the end of the run was chasing Matt and Alex, but to no avail. With a 32 second gap on my roomate/teamate Marc Christin in fourth I cruised in without any chance of running the leaders down after working 3 times harder on the bike than i ever had. At least it felt like that at the time haha
So now it's onto saskatoon on the 11th. Should be a good race and this time with a better result and a faster run time. Looking forward to showing I'm the guy for the 3rd spot at worlds.
peace out
Cole

The last few weeks

The gap between now and my previous post is pretty substantial. Much happened and it was an extremely hectic time so I'm going to give a rough outline because i don't quite feel like writing a novel
So..
Prep for Ixtapa was going great everything was shaping up how it should have, a few bumpy patches here and there but overall it was a great windup to the race. The bumpy bits included moving from UVic to an amazing new pad with Marc-Antoine Christin and Alison Hooper, simply because the move turned out to be quite the stressful affair with a lot to do.  Then there was Ixtapa, a great opportunity to show ones standing in triathlon turned into quite the contrary. The race was flipped into a Duathlon and thus was an exhibition race so to speak, this was largely due to the race "organizers" lacking organization woot! Responsibilities like that of water safety where left up to 3 lifeguards.. in an extremely rough surf. PATCO in Mazatlan 2008 had waves much larger but the nature of the waves as quite different with them cresting in deeper water, the fact that 50 lifeguards were present helped a bit too. So with the swim canceled the race was a dirty mess full of crashes, fast running and heat stress. Race was good until the later part of the second run. I was the last person on the tail end of the front pack after the first run, rode through a few bodies and got 800m in to see Sharpie go down. This put the defence mode crit style cycling tactics p to the front focus so I pulled going into the next corner and made sure I was no more than 15 people deep in the pack, always yelling and watching the erratic movements of the south american riders. The Americans were strong and so were most of the Canucks. "Do Work" was the motto for the ride as the race would favour strong runners that sat in with and easy riding pace so i tried to keep the tempo high and get them out of their comfort zone. The run wasn't what i had hoped for with severe abdominal cramps hitting me part way in. All in all it was a good learning experience but a very frustrating one as well because of all the energy that went into preparing for a race that meant nothing.

WASA lake

My first Olympic distance race ever wasn't as hard as i had been led to believe. The swim was a surprise and poor timing made it so i didn't have a swim warmup. The 13hr drive up didn't help with the "feel" in the water either. Came out of the water first with Aaron Thomas on my feet from the first buoy and the favourite to win John Bird on his hip, this was a big surprise as i didn't expect anyone to be of our swimming caliber. The  time trial style ride was where i realized how important aerodynamics really are! John Bird gapped Aaron and I by 2mins 15sec approx. in the 40km flat out and back. It was a hot day and i had an alarming sore back going onto the run because my back flexibility not being used to that style of riding. Going into the 10km run I had been told of the importance of building into it, so as Aaron  pulled away out of T2 I thought I might be doing something wrong. As soon as i hit about the 5500m mark i started feeling really comfortable and natural so i kicked it up and ran a 34.30 passing Bird and Thomas with 2 km to go. Cruised into the shoot with a pleasantly surprising win.

Coteau!

This race on the 26th is just outside of Montreal and is now our Worlds qualifier due to poor circumstances in Ixtapa. I find a lot of people make excuses going into races when they feel a void in confidence. Then there are a lot of excuses coming out of races for performances that don't reach what the goal or expected output is. This has been a silent motivator for me in the preparation for this race with a renewed significance; to clear any room for excuses. I was wished good luck today when talking to the friendly guys at Trek Pro City. This reminded me of lacking the excuses. Luck does not exist, there is only opportunity, and preparation without these excuses.  Be prepared to seize the opportunity. I've put in the work and feel the way I should heading into this race. So when confronted with the race ahead of me I don't feel the nerves from pressure, only excitement. I look forward to seizing the opportunity.
Look up here after the race for a race follow up, I promise this time it won't be such a lengthly period of time between posts haha

peace
C.

On route to Ixtapa

Though I'd through down a quick post regarding training, racing, recovery and other things that concerning my life.
Training - both good and bad in this department. I've had a longstanding bout of soreness and fatigue it seems like since the week following the Tucson training camp. It occurred to me that this coincided with no longer using protein power in my daily regime. The decision to stop using it was an attempt to drop weight in the upper body that would hopefully result in faster running. After this and a rather painful attempt at the "sacred heart diet" which was of no avail in the long run, I came to the realization that my morphology is what it is. So my new approach to running fast is to.. uuuhhh, run! Training since going back to the old practice is picking back up and i'm putting a lot more focus on the recovery..
Recovery - consists of the reintroduction of massage, chiro and stretching, which with the lifestyle changes of moving over to victoria had been thrown out the window with my previous routine. Keep It Simple Stupid, gonna stick with what works, workin hard, working smart and lots of pampering the machine.
School - wrapping up with my last exam on the 24th, will be glad to put that behind me and have nothing else to worry about besides training.
Moving - I will be moving on the 29th from the university (and all it's frustrating life lessons) to an awesome new 3 brdm place with Alison Hooper and Marc-ie marc Christin. Only 400m or so from the pool and with all the summery goodness fast approaching I truly can't wait to get going on what the future has in store.
Racing - 30days till Ixtapa, just thinking it gets me all fired up while my stomach churns at the same time. So stoked to lay down the hammer and start an awesome season. Ready to ride my new chariot (Cyfac) along with my team-mates/friends and show some real Canadian dominance.



a good friend of mine once said..
Let the past go but don't forget,
Make the future, don't wait for it,
and make choices now,
Because the present is you only option..

Peace

Awesome "Austin" Horn

Due to recent discussion about an incidence regarding a 1500m TT, I am prompted to silence some discrepancies that arose in accordance to a blog post made by the one and only Austin Horn...

The time was a 17.35.9

Austin Horn, a highly esteemed swim run bicyclist (also known as a triath-A-lonist) in the greater victoria region made allegations that i went a 17.36, and "i actually just read your whole post now and now im actaully a little bit upset.." (lol). I must admit that austin ensues within me numerous forms of envy. Hence why I feel obligated to rebel against his lies, which are many, and often used to simply impress me or others around me, but mostly me. This envy conjured up is due to a few things that I feel everyone can agree on.. The amount of awesome that seems to be bottled into his being doesn't seem natural, and it kinda is resembled in part by this game unicorn robot game (both things you can't quite understand but because of this are awe inspiring). I think the point of all this is that i think we should pay him a little more attention and learn from his ways. Like have you seen that picture with the rad aviators, who wouldn't want to know how to emulate that in some way, or run as fast as he does, or crush pavement like its just another day at the office. From the extravagant brain that directs his actions to the chiseled marble body the acts as a conduit for all things of worth in this universe, Austin is the shit, like legit. Y'all should be jealous if you don't know him.. in all seriousness though.
Watch for Austin in Monterey MEX and around the globe, he's this fast!

MY NEW BIKE!!!!!! just the frame right now

Hey so I have an announcement to make... LKJBVASDCLGVDSLUFCVALUVEBIKEBIKE EXCITEMENT AHBLSJHVCLABIKEFASTZOOMSPEEDPOWERFAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!    okay i think i i got a little bit of the excitement out but there's more to come i'm sure!   I want to send out a  HUUUUGGGEEEE THANK UOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to my amazing supporters Leonard Hill and Anthony King. They're help has been a big piece in the puzzle for what gets me to the top of my game (sport).
the frame is now in the mail coming from Hommes, France and I'm so pumped to crush the pavement when it gets all set up.
more updates to come

pics!!!

Soul for the soul?

blurry vision

Thought i'd post something besides an intro and talk a lil about how training and how my body is reacting to it.  While listening to some chill tunes that sync with the general body ache that comes with a long run on what think could be a young and formidable sickness woot! lets keep the fingers crossed on it being a bloom in pollen (breaking news from Kyla Coates) yes! and my first successful link. Already in the hang of this blogging jazz.
The workout seemed pretty simple (80min run 15' warmup 30-45 build to tempo) but I was able to appreciate a rather complex result derived from it. This included an adventurous route of exploring which started with a chip trail loop out through random golf course trails I didn't know existed to a flower infested elementary school field down to the Uplands (funny enough it's downhill and on the coast, not very up if you ask me) back to cordova bay where i then took a road i didn't know existed (yay! for run on sentences with no grammatical confines!) As i crested a  hill 25' into my tempo build my HR spiked to 190 at what i though was a reasonable pace.  Any explanations all you educated readers?!?  After this my cough gave me watery eyes and a good reminder of the day before that seemed like one continuous day of training yet again. I think i was approx. 60 mins in at this point due to a long drawn out warm up. I reminded myself that it's okay to have those shitty days of training and went on exploring further. Found myself on a single lane road riddled with fallen branches the reminded me of "quiet neighbourhood" where young adolescence seem to "disappear"haha. Aaaannnnnndddd song insert that came in on shuffle that helped me zone out to get back on the one of the main roads. Got into a groove and my lungs let me breath for a few, got back to campus, drank some melon mango juice that tasted o so good... Moral of the story isss don't get sick.. it sucks

First Real Post - My life.. and hello, kinda

So after a short bout of contemplation I decided to join the masses and become a blogger. This decision was spurred mostly by my curiosity of knowing whether people ( besides my mother <3 ) would like to hear about the life and times of Cole Stewart. So if you do know me then feel free to follow what ensues, live a little vicariously, enjoy my banter (if I feel obligated enough to post it) and know all of what I'm liberal enough to relinquish. If you don't happen to know me then read on and hopefully it will serve as a close second.

I've never had to give a synopsis of any kind on my life but since I'm feeling like I should, given the blog does pertain to me... here goes nothing ( no judgment of quality or quantity okay! )

-Born in Richmond BC on February 24th, 1991. I was a fat baby apparently and belonged (still do) to one Trish Griffith-Stewart and one Wes Stewart
- Grew up in Langley BC. Solid place to do it. Had a rather awesome childhood i could say. Lived in a good neighbourhood, with a lot at my disposal.
- My parents were gracious enough to introduce me to a variety a sports ( frowned upon the one by brother and I did a fair bit of (fighting) which oddly enough he does a fair bit of (competitively of course)). The competitive nature was either bred into us or a learned behaviour, not to sure but it's something I can say is a part of me
- At a young age of 12, I was confronted with the decision of whether to play rep soccer or swim with the swim in the National group (gold group i think it was called at the time) of the Langley Olympians Swim Club. After being well immersed in both of these ( don't quite remember how all that was juggled together, it was a good thing my bro played up a year on the same team that father coached or else our busy schedule could have altered the space time continuum, but i digress) I chose to SWIM!. just keep swimming just keep swimming.
- Many trials and tribulations took place after that but i'll jump to the next bit. TRIATHLON! it all started when.. um.. don't remember what race it was exactly but, pretty much my parents had gotten into the great sport of triathlon through a family friend (and adopted grandparent, phenom triathlete and enthusiastic philanthropist so to speak) Brian Parkinson. I had always done the kids races and I ended up going to BC summer games, after that i could say it was my official switch to triathlon. A book could be filled with bits and bites relevant to me becoming a triathlete but along with the help and support of many, i made the transition (get it!) into triathlon.
- Went through high school (Walnut Grove Secondary School) and kept up with the cross country (Sparks your amazing) and track (you too Lutes). Dabbled in the Science and Art programs at WGSS.
- Then I moved on and moved out to Victoria (UVIC precisely) to try and earn some credits and figure out a few things about life all while training with the National Triathlon Centre (NTC)..

So that's that and feel free to follow and find out what's going on regarding the last point from the eyes of Cole.

Cheers
Cole Stewart
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