Found this commercial thought it was cool...

Lance Armstrong Nike Commercial

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays to all!

Christmas was awesome; I managed to get spoiled by Santa and the parents once again this year! Thanks to the family for a great one! All the best to everyone on a happy 2009.

Before Christmas we had a solid training camp, picking up the swim and bike volume for me. In one week I tripled my normal swim volume. Threw in a bunch of 7km swims followed with hard bikes and runs and the ultimate 10km swim! By the time we reached the 10km there were only a select few left who finished the whole thing. Here Is a pick from the 100x100 group without a-russle who did the whole thing but had to leave early. Props to the people who did it!




The rest of the camp went well, and got a little time off during the holidays. I managed to hurt myself in a snow-skimming injury during the holidays but hope to be better asap! Couple more days of recovery should make it all good.

A couple training camp pictures....

Time to get back into good habits.

It has been so long since I posted my last post that I don't even remember what it is about! I think it has officially been 3 months..haha. What has gone in since? So much it is insane! We have had a 3rd annual run/walk for the homeless which was well attended raising just under $10,000 for the homeless community of Victoria. I have been continuing on my own run focus which has been going really well! Running lot's and enjoying it, which is great! I am also starting to plan for a trip over seas to France! Hopefully I will be going there to race in the grand prix circuit all across of France! Last season seems ages ago, and I am glad, and looking forward to an awesome season this year! That is a quick and brief catch up of everything, now for right now.

Andy and I just started going for tready runs at PISE. The new center is unreal, tready with TV's and iPod hookups, no lineups and no max time! We have been really enjoying doing our runs in there instead of in our new found snow! We also just started a new training camp today, which I am looking forward to! We started the day with some killer draft pack work, reaching about 6.5km by the end of the swim. The boys were cranking it and ended up going solid on the last few! Finish that and upstairs for a solid windtrainer ride with some solid tempo and steady state worked in. Then home, quick snack and off to work until 9:30, sleep and then similar thing again tomorrow. I am stoked for it! Should be a really good training camp.

Plus a random picture from zona!!

Wrap it up...

It is finally that time, I have put off thinking about last season for as long as possible, but now it is time to reflect. There were a lot of pro's last season when you come to think of it. I managed to be more focused on training then I have ever been. I had an amazing training camp in Arizona which I came out of the most fit I have ever been. I even managed to get to go to some cool places that I have never been before, including Arizona and mazatlan, Mexico. I learned lots of new things from my awesome teammates, my very wise coaches, my super generous parents, and most of all myself. However I also managed to have a lot of con's as well, maybe even more con's then pro's. This is actually not a bad thing as long as you learn from them. I still have not figured out if I have or not. I can not honestly say that I had a good race last year. Lot's of races that had good parts, but not a full race that I was stocked about. Back to the drawing board? Well it has actually been pretty good this year most years I would have mopped around for a few weeks then realized I should start training, and the slowly get back into it. This year I managed to get back into it quickly and just ready for a new year of racing. I know something has to change this year though, the last three years I have ended off the year without being excited about the previous season. It is not as much fun when the results you expect don't happen. The last three years I have thought I would do better then I have. For a while I thought my goals were to high, but I know now that I am just not doing something right. Once I found that something it is go time. For now I am looking for what I need to change.

Some kelowna Pictures...

Me in a pack??

soloing it. That is more like how my race went!

If you are going to race poor then you mine as well look good while doing it. Loving the headband.

Kelowna T minus 6 days!

Over the last couple day I have noticed my body ready to just shut down. Standing hurts, getting out of bed in the moring hurts, and heck even laughing hurts these days. This is awsome! It means I am finally ready to race Kelwona next weekend! I feel like ever since Mexico my training has gone down and has not came back up again, until the last few weeks. I am ready to go again. I am finally convinced that I have put in the time and ready for a great result. There has also been a few things bugging me about what to do next year with schooling, triathlon, work, and everything else. I am finally able to put all of that aside and focus on the race. I will figure it all out after nationals, but for now it is go time. Just going to have a great race which I have waited long enough for. Very excited for some tapering in a big way!!

Also last weekend was the sri triathlon which is always really well put on and always alot of fun. Here are some pictures.. photos by Mark Creery.




P.S. The headband is making a comeback in a big way. And Special thanks to Andy McCartney for the beuty aero helmet!

2008 Crit Season

For the last few years, I have been lucky enough to race in some of the local criteriums. The races are awesome for a few things, firstly they are always a good workout. If you need to work harder just go up front and take a longer pull. They are also really good for bike handling and good conering practice. Lastly you always can get a wicked hill workout out of them cause there is always a decent hil in it. Here is some photos from this year.

Quick Thought, and Random Pen Pictures

What is the first thought that enters your head in the morning? Have you ever took the time to listen to it? Does it bring you joy, or stress you out. I awoke this morning to a thought of Prince George and Kelowna last year. I was forunate enogh to coach a small kids of steel camp in Prince George before Kelowna Triathlon last year. Just being around younger people learning about triathlons and sharing my stories remeinded me of how lucky I really was and still am. Kelowna was also my first race after my "short retirement" from the sport. I was so happy to be back racing everything about triathlon was getting me fired up even the silly little things like the race breifing or trying to eat food early race morning (everything always tastes a little different race morning for some reason)! I had not felt this happy about triathlon to many times this year. I have worried too much about this and that, and now I am ready to enjoy it! Take advantage of the fact that I am able to do something like this. No more worrying and more enjoying. Looking forward to the SRI this weekend. The summer is almost over and summer being my favourite season of the year I am not going to waste it. Time to take advantage of summer and racing!


On a lighter note some random pictures from my travels to Penticton that I have not posted yet.

I've got an idea lets stop and take a swim in the river to cool off.

Its too cold stevo, you will never

get me to put my legs in that water.

Home sweet home. (well at least for the weekend)

P.S. You may have noticed on our trips shirts are always optional. haha

The Pen,

So Last weekend Stevo and I were lucky enough to travel up to Penticton for the peach classic triathlon. We decided that we would be going on Friday morning after the swim at about 10:00 went home packed and was in the ferry lineup at 12:35 waiting to get on the 1:00 ferry boat. We new the trip was off to a good start when we got on to the ferry after showing up only 10 minutes before it starts to load. The trip up was awesome! We took the scenic way, on the old highway which took about the same amount of time as the kokahala. When we arrived there We were both stoked to be back in pen where we had enjoyed watching the Ironman last year. We stayed with the Symmonds which was awesome. Thanks to them for there awesome hospitality. We had all day Saturday to swim in the lake and hit the bike barn where we had an experience with mounting tubular tires. A solid Pre-race day nice and laid back and finished it up with a nice little hair buzzing. Yes I did buzz my hair, it is... different not good not bad just different. The race was early Sunday morning where is was hoping to beat the heat, but no such like. The race itself was a little bit ruff and a pretty stressful morning overall between forgetting my goggles, my race suit would not do up, and did not get to warm up for even 30 seconds in the swim. So shoes off 1500m a hard bike that I did not drink enough or eat on and then a run that started uphill for 4km and was on the hot pavement. O did I mention it was about 30 degrees at 8:00 in the morning. It seems like it has been a while since I have been able to say that is was a good race, but what can you do. The good news is that we learned a few new tricks to stay cool in the heat. After Kelowna which are nationals I will be able to say that I had a great race though. haha. Being that we were in Penticton I was not ready for this to bug me, at least not till I got back to Vic. So I enjoyed being in Penticton for the 24 hours even though we did not do much because we were so drained. Then time to head back.

Awesome trip back too! We saw coyotes, swam in the river to cool off, and showed up at the ferry at 6:54 and made it on the 7:00 ferry. Overall a really fun trip! Thanks to Stevo my partner in crime for driving up and making it fun.

It's always good to be back home and get back into training hard though, which is exactly what this week was. Stevo and I have figured we have raced 4 time now in the last 3 weeks so we are starting to get a little tired. That ok The Sri Triathlon next weekend and then two more weeks before having a great race at nationals in Kelowna!

Lastly a solid swim this morning at the HTO open water swim at Thetis. The goal time was just to be under 36:00 for the 3km as I went into it pretty soar from a wicked bike workout yesterday. Crushed a 35:59, good enough, especially considering that I probably did an extra 150m by picking poor lines to the buoys. Congratulations to that fundraiser for raising over $40,000 to the MS Society. I was taking some serious notes for the Run/Walk this year! It will be soon time to start organizing again.

P.S Props to the younger Dagnall who won the 800m in age 16-18 nationals in Calgary with a gutsy swim just off his 8:33 PB.


Quote for the Day:

Nobody who ever gave his best regretted it.
- George Halas

"A lot of people run a race to see who's the fastest. I run to see who has the most guts." - Steve Prefontaine

Wow, Leading from start to finish and opening in a 59 and closing in a 53!! I think That shows alot of guts, leading to big glory. Possibly the new prefontane???

If bad luck is luck, I have been super lucky lately.

After the last few races I have been thinking about the idea of "luck". I figure, is it really just bad luck that I have had to make my bike fall apart in Mazatlan, Missing the lead pack in a local race and just not overall been happy with a race performance in quite some time? I don't think that you can have all that happen plus some, and beleive that it is just bad luck. After a while you realize that the phrase "bad luck" is just a scapegoat for poor performance. A roman Philosopher once said that "Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." I have been fortunate enough to have theses amazing opportunities such as travelling to Mexico and training in Arizona, but has the preparation been enough? The true question, "What is preparation??" Is it what you eat for breakfast the morning of a race? Is it your level of excitement when you enter a race, or is it just the state of mind that you are in? It could be as easy as you knowing that all is good before you take that first stroke in the water. Your bike is race ready,or your body is ready for anything that can be thrown your way. What I have really noticed lately, are you mentally ready to race? I have realized that all of my little peices of bad fortune may just be me not being fully prepared. Maybe all I needed was a little more TLC (Tender Love and Care) with Crush (my bike) the night before a race, or maybe even the week leading up. Maybe a little more work on taking of my wetsuit after practice or learning a little more about nutrition. I was asked the other day what I do as a job. My response was, "Well I am training to be a triathlete,"(followed by some cheesy pick up line, after all she was cute). That lead me to think if this is my job then I need to start doing my homework. Homework being the things that you do between the workouts to make you that much better then the rest.

For now I go back to sleep and try to fight of whatever it is my body is fighting. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz


Scotty

Home For A Little While...

Wow another post that starts with, "So it has been a while." Well it has and as I sit here at work I am realizing that in that little time alot has gone on. I have settled back in at home, got back into the swing of things, we even have been swimming in thtis lake! Yeah that is correct swimming at Thetis Lake. It was currently 13 degrees as we put our triple layered sock covered feet into the almost icy lake. Insane! Other then that training has been going well. Slowly getting over a small quad injury which has held my run back a little, but at the same time I am really fired up to run hard asap. I am very happily settled back in at home. The feeling of being back home again is amazing, the small things that you forget about are key. However just as I am happy to be back home again, it seems that I am leaving again. A quick training camp over in UBC for this long weekend. Then we are going to finish off the weekend with the local, North Shore Triathlon. It is just a small and fun triathlon, but still one ofmy favourite races. It may be because I have done it for what seems to be forever, or that there is a little price purse which I ussually get to dip my finbngers into. Maybe a little of everything, but either way it should be lots of fun. Overal it should be a awsome and solid weekend of training and I am looking forward to it.

"You let your body realize that is was in pain."

Quote of the day, brought to you by coach Neil Harvey after a rough swim workout that did not go as planned. (May not be the exact words but along the same lines)

O and Good Luck to the training brothers, Stevo and A-russ In Ixtapa who are going to kill it the weekend In the Ixtapa Continental Cup.

the first race report of the year.

It's a shame that the first race report of the year couldn't be a bit better, but it all works out as the next one will be great. This was my first pan amaericain championships not as a junior. Boy is it a different ball game, not only was I racing against some of the top u 23 athletes there were also some big names in the elite category which we raced against. One including the like of a soon to be olympian, Jarrod Shoemaker, who did not even win the whole thing. It was deffinetley a pretty cool expereince to be in the same bike pack as some of these guys. Before the race even started I was probably the most nervous I have ever been. There were a few things helping with this, one of the biggest factors was probably the fact that I was hoping to get my U23 worlds spot at this race. Which meant I was suppose to be top 10 against all these big names. On top of this I was looking at the waves which had scared me a little the day before. The waves were probably about 7 feet above the water and crashing down hard, and they expected us to swim past these waves and then continue with the swim. I have never in my whole triathlon career been nervouse about a swim. I knew that for me to have any hope at getting my spot I would need to be in the first pack out of the water. I had joked around that I would be first out of the water, which would be a tough feet, but maybe not impossible. As we were marched down by ranking I started looking around at the guys, they are soo much older and more experienced and..no time to syke yourself out, "number 52, Scott Dagnall," Ok so you probably couldnt tell that he was talking about me as it was one of the funniest pronunciations of my last name I have ever heard, Standing on the line as far right as possible I looked to my left and saw over 70 standing beside me getting ready to attack these 7 foot waves. I turned around to spit one last time before we strated. "Takeyourmarksgo" they slured the words together and before I could even turn back around the race was started. I managed to rush the water and get ahead of a lot of people by the time we hit the First wave.Kaaaaboooom!! The first wave came crashing down right on top of me, time to hold my breath until it passes then pop up. Nope that didnt work, I am now about 15 meters closer to the shore then when that wave hit. I had a rough time with a few more huge waves and managed to get past where the waves were breaking. I hit the first boy the furthest back I have ever been before in triathlon swim. O well now it was go time. I had a really solid swim from there out and managed to swim through most of the pack and all the way up to 4th and still making up ime on the leaders. I finished the swim in 4th place right behind the first 3. sprinted up to transition and a quick transition to catch the lead pack. As I jumped on my bike I felt my seatpost slide right down. I looked down to see that I was basically riding on my frame. As I pedalled away I was careful not to hit my elbows with my knees. Not a good situation to be In. I kept pedaling away and managed to stay with the leaders for the first 3 laps. "Hey I might actually be able to stay in this lead pack this whole thing even with my seat like this," I said to myself. Maybe not, As I came out of the u-turn on the 3rd lap I stood up to accelerate and pop up came my back wheel and I came to a holt, I sat back down and did my best to push the pedals, tried standing again and same thing. As I slowly started loosing thepack I noticed my quick release on my back wheel had come undone. My heart sank as I knew I had to stop to fix this. Before the next turn around I stope and tried to tighten it up which seemed to take forever and I tried to adjust the seat. One swift hit to the seat and yank it up. I hoped back on and the seat slid back down. Eff it, I wanted to try and catch back up to this lead pack, but one vs. 10 not going to happen. O well next pack, I could still run fast off the bike and have a decent race. Nope, my quick release came undone 2 more times and I had to stop both times, my back wheel also eventually started rubbing and everything fell apart. I ended up pullingout of the race at lap 6 after doing everything I could to try to get to the run. Positives, Top 4 out of the water even after getting crushed by the waves, Staying in the lead pack even with my seat being messed and having no power. Also lasty I am very fired up for my next race, and I am ready to kill it. For now I am going back home and giving crush (The specialized) a bunch of tlc.

Coming back into shore..

Heading out past the break..

Reflect

Here we are leaving tucson after beeing here for a month. What I used to see as a small pink house in arizona turned into a place that I have called home for the last month or so. A place that I once was unsure whether or not I would be able to stay turned into a place that I did not want to leave. Looking back now it has been one of the best months of my life. Tuscon was amazing to us, the people are awsome, the weather was great and the memories are priceless. I am Already starting to look forward to the possibility to going back next year. There is no point in me typing forever especially when a picture is worth a thousand words. Here are some of the pictures from our adventures. Special thanks to the partners in crime who made it a trip to remember.(stevo, a-russ,and JP).

The U of A pool that we were fortunite enought to swim at.

The boys in fron of the lemmon tree house.

A little carbo loading, 18 inch pizza with 2 inch deep crust split 2 ways? MMM good

The Boys at our favurite ice cream place!! The cookies and cream was key!!

Tucson!!

So I have not posted in forever so i figure now would be a good time. I have been here in Tucson Arizona for the last month or so. I is probably one of the coolest places that I have ever been. The weather is nice, the riding is amazing and the lemmon house crew is wicked. While we have been down here, my training has certainly stepped up a level. It is awsome to get away from some of the destrations back home and get down to training. We have also stepped up or volume quite alot while we have been down here. We leave here in a couple days and now I am starting to reflect on some of the key workouts for each spect.

Swim:

The swimming down here has been a treat! We have been fortunite enough to be swnimming at the U of A aquatic centre. It has been switching back and forth between short course yards and long course meteres. Short course meters has to be one of my favourite things. One of my favourite workouts for swimming has to be when we do 16by 100 fast 50 ez, the 100;s on 1:10. Being short course yards I was able to crush this set, averaging 56 seconds for the100's.Pretty solid.

Bike:

The biking is one of the things that i have loved down her. We have been without a car, so we have had to bike everywhere while down here. Our bike volume while down here has been huge. My favourite wourkouts while down here was when we rode from the house to mt lemmon crushed the lemmon climb and then rode home. It ussually takes just under an hour to get to lemmon or back and then lemmon is just under 2 hours up and 45 minutes down, you do the math. The best part was that was after a swim in the morning, and we did this more then once.

Running:

our running has been pretty simular to home, excpt it is after all these other huge workouts. My favourie run whiledown here was just the other day when we went to the University track and did our 1km repeats. Not only was the track the nicest i have ever seen, but I also crushed 4 of them averaging 3:02's.

Everthing has been amazing down here, I hope we are lucky enough to come here again. Thanks to the mom and dad for helping me get down here!!! I will post pics soon, but my battery is about to die, but here is one for now.

.

The boys at the U of A track

Boooyaaa

We started off the next 2 a half hard weeks with a bang today!! The morning we started our day at 5:45 on deck because of the western champs swim meet going on at the pool. Since it was short course it was optimal time for an eye opener set. 75 smooth on 1:10 followed by 100 on 1:10 and 10 times through that. I don't know if it was the water or the cereal that I ate this morning but something clicked. I crushed the set holding 1:02's and 1:03's for the 100's. I havent swam super fast in a little while and this was a good "eye opener." Had a long warm up and a fun warm down for 5.3 km. Good swim, I followed that up with a bike ride by myself. Bike riding by yourself can always be interesting, you get to listen to how quite it can be when it is just you and the road. Such a kool thing to actually be able to hear your tire rolling along the slightly rough pavment. It sounds as if it is whispering secrets to the damp pavement. SOOO wicked! Follow that with some eating sleeping and then hammer down to oak bay for a track workout. We stepped it up on the track today adding another 1km repeat. The workout, 3by 1km followed by 2 by 300m 2 times through that whole thing. 7.5km of hard work, almost at 10km can't wait! Not going as strong as I normally do on the tracck, but pushed through and got through it. Bike ride tommorow and a swim after. More shortcourse!!! Should be good, but time for bed...

Here is a picture of where we may be staying in tuscons, we call it the lemmon tree house....

Whistler!!

So it has been awhile since the last post, and I have just got in from vancouver and winning my second premiers award. However I am tired and going to bed, so i will post pics for now and do a write up and catching up tommorow. Here are Pictures from our training camp in whistler.


Skiing at lost lake, still standing for now....




Bailing at lost lake....



The team at the olympic course...They said something about us skiing faster then the olympians..well me at least..haha



I guess I tired out the nordic skiiing pro..sorry stevo

Amazing weekend all together!! good work done on the ski corse and loads of fun was had...

Sleeeep!!!

I woke up this morning after going to bed early last night hoping to take advantage of my morning off of swimming. I awoke to see my clock saying 12:30, so much for my morning. I am not ussually a huge fan of sleeping in as I feel like I am sleeping away the best part of the day. However I think I may have been in desperate need of this sleep. I always loved the quote "I will sleep when I'm dead" Warren Zevon. I mean Its obviously a little far fetched, but it is an interesting outlook on life. Something to think about..

Training is going well, Couple more days left in the third build week of three including a TT in the swim tommorow, a bike ride including some hill repeats on the observatory, and the all and mighty track workout in the afternoon. Add a little money making at work to the mix and it should be a good but big day.

Also I have just confirmed that I will be travellling up to Whistler for a training camp this weekend. Some awsome cross country skiing on the olympic course and a nice change of scenery. I have never been to whistler in the winter before but I have heard it is a great atmosphere in the village up there! Pretty Excited. Thanks to the parents who are going to help me out financial wise it should be a great finish to this three weeks of killer training!

A picture from our last team trip up to Mt Washington. The snow is alays fun, especially when your with a good group.

It's Go Time!!

Yesterday marked the start of the year for me, as it was the first race of the season. It was the pioneer 8km at the saanich fair grounds. In my opinion you can train as hard as you want and treat as many training sessions like a race as you would like, however to me it is not the same. There is something about the air on race morning, the food tastes different and your body just is more ready to go. All winter we train and work as hard as we can but sometimes it is easy to forget why we go through all this pain. 6 months without racing it is hard to stay focused! However after just one running race yesterday I am more then ready to go. It puts everything into perspective and to me it means that race season is soon upon us! I am very enthused about this! Quick race report....The rface was alright, we just did a 5km hard to get some early season times and then I just finished off the race just under steady state pace. 5km split 16:44, so nothing crazy solid, however not bad either. I would have been happy with under 16:30 but I will take it considering the time of the year. Props go out to stevo with an insane split of 15:44 at the 5km and a little sprint off with one of the stronger local runners.

Training for the week, is another build week before recovery next week. some good training to come this week! Back on the track on Friday I am excited! Anyways for now I head to work at Romeo's.

Scotty

Fall Down 7 Times, Pick Yourself Up 8 Times.

Yesterday at the bike workout this quote was written up on the board(Fall down 7 times pick yourself up 8 times) which lead me to thinking. I always enjoy thinking about how the quote relates to me and what it makes me think. This particular quote just reminded me that no matter how many times you fall down as long as you pick yourself up you are going to be further ahead than before. Well as long as you figure out why you fell down and then try not to make the same mistake again. This quote came at the right time as we are heading into a few big training blocks. I had been a little nervous about how this year was going to pan out. I have had a couple years in the past that have not been, “up to par.” However I have been able to realise that as long as I finish the year thinking that I have done all I can who cares what the outcome is? I have not had a year when I have been able to say I have given it everything I have had, hopefully this year! I am excited and ready to go as the new race season slowly creeps up on us. The running series starts Sunday and just over 9 weeks until our training camp in Arizona. We are looking into Rv’s To take down with us to keep the cost as low as possible and it is going to be a fun way to travel and live down there!

As for training after our time off during the holidays I am fired up and ready to go again. Heading into the holidays I was having a hard time dealing with the fatigue physically and mentally. A little bit of easy OYO training and I am ready to go again. Since we have been back at it workouts have been great, first Track workout was Tuesday just an intro into track with a few 800’s descending. Other than that it has basically been swim, bike, run and work every day. Swims have been solid and working on some technique and getting closer to that perfect technique. Run’s have been smooth and bikes have been fast. All is good, but now to take advantage of my easy day.