The 2014 Support Team

It’s the start of a new year and along with that come some new exciting things.  First off I’d like to say what a privilege it has been to work with Dave at North Shore Road Bike, the shop played a big role in supporting me last year and I’m looking forward to having them in my corner again this year to support all of my cycling needs.

Hanging out with Dave after ripping it up at the Mahon CX race on my Felt F65X

I’ll be riding Felt bikes through the shop this year, my weapon of choice on the tri course will be the new Felt IA.  I’m really looking forward to getting my hands on it once it arrives at the shop and I hope to fly the North Shore Road Bike banner well aboard the new rig with some mind blowing bike splits this year.

Sean and Tara-Lee at Canwi Multisport have also been immensely supportive over the last year.  I recently looked over the goal list I originally wrote for Sean when we first met to talk about coaching, it’s pretty crazy to see how quickly we surpassed those goals and I’m looking forward to working with them this year to accomplish my new ones.

As I learned pretty quickly, triathlon is by no means an inexpensive sport. Main Street Automotive played a big role in getting me to the start line of some of my races last year and is continuing to into 2014 which is huge.  I also can’t thank my parents and my wife’s parents enough for their massive support, I’m hoping this continues through 2014, I’m not sure that they have much of a choice!

New to my support team this year is North Shore Athletics.  I’m very excited to have them on board to help me out with all of my running and triathlon needs.  A clinic at the shop three years ago is what originally got me into triathlon so I’m really looking forward to helping represent them out on the race course this year.  When it comes to running shoes, apparel and wetsuits, they always have the premier products I’m looking for.

Another individual that’s played a big role in helping me out over the last couple of years is Dr Nina Lange from Pacifica Naturopathic in West Vancouver.  As some of you know, a couple years back I had to stop training altogether as I caught the mono virus.  It was depressing being stuck on the couch to say the least, being told that I had to just rest and wait it out.  I decided to visit Nina after six weeks of no progress to see if she could help.   She certainly did as within three weeks I was back training again.  

Since then she’s helped me out with making smarter choices in my diet, vitamin injections before big races and during big training blocks as well as helping me better understand steps I can take to help my body recover better and get the most out of my training.  Nina will be helping support me this year and judging by the increase in training load we’re planning I’m really going to need it!

Water temperature check in my Helix at Cougar Bay in Coeur d’Alene

In the water this year I’ll be swimming in a blueseventy wetsuit again.  After you try one of their Helix’s, there’s no going back to whatever you were swimming in before.  I set some personal bests swimming in the Helix last year at Ironman Coeur d’Alene (59:05), and the Calgary Ironman 70.3 (27:36).  Considering I didn’t begin swimming until a little over two years prior, I was very pleased with those PB’s last year and I know the wetsuit made a big difference.

There’s a few more things in the works, but I’m ecstatic to say the least about the increased support I have this season.  It will play a huge role in helping me focus on my training so that I can accomplish some of the big goals that we’ve set out for myself this year.  I hope to have some more exciting news in the next few weeks.