My old man is turning 60 today. You wouldn’t know it as Old Johnny can still school his sons in Tennis, is hitting 80’s on the golf course, is making incredible renovations on his house and even goes out for 70 to 100km bike rides here and there. A true jock.
I think I get some of my dilligence and restlessness from that side of the finally.
As you all know I was living with my parents for almost two months this fall. I was planning on only a few weeks but we got along so well (most of the time - a few minor spats) that I stayed until leaving for my new training base here in NZ. What a great set of parents.. they kept me busy once in a while with odd jobs and such but for the most part it was exactly what I needed, a relaxing time away from the racing and training scene.
Thanks to you both and Happy 60th POPS!!

Made it down to Wanaka and my freinds the Ormandy’s were waiting for me. Already been out on some epic sessions and have all my venues set. Have a great pool/gym combo in just north of town and have been out on the endless trails for a few runs already. There is such an active and positive community and the Ormandy’s have things set up so I can train absolutely optimally with the best food and the best conveniences. oh.. check out the pic from my bedroom.. who couldn’t get out training when you wake up to that??

One week in NZ.. beautiful.. warm weather, lots of sun, outdoor pools!!

Finished a week with freinds in Auckland and fly south to Wanaka today! Very excited! Got kiwi-ized this week with season one of Flight of the Concords and the Whale Riders. Both, awesome.

oh.. check out ‘Beached As’ on Youtube for intro to New Zealandish 101.

Training is well on the way.. some big weeks coming now.

more later.. gotta catch this flight.

Well, I think i am ready to really get training. I have been building up and feeling strong but will get’r going when in NZ in another week. I spent the past Sunday in Guelph for a Kids Training day and none other than Simon Whitfield. I got to be his viginlant sidekick and talk with some of the kids about the Pro Triathlon lifestyle and got to tell of some of my adventures as a ‘lesser known character’ .. hahahah. Was really cool to catch up with the master and some of my old training buddies Steffan Timms, and Ryan Polawski as well.
I guess I will be getting my things together and sorting some loose ends (between freezing my axx off.. it snowed here yesterday) before I am back on the road. Can’t wait!
I am trying to post a video, just to see if you can do that on these things.
more soon…

Well.. here they are… the pool results. We did get thrown a bit of a curve ball as Timo was DQd in a bit of a mix up… My sympathies by the way. Timo is one who really pushes the pace in races and in NEVER close to drafting, always leaving an extra buffer. Anyway, it’s neither here nor there with us; we have to go with the official results which did affect the winner. The would be ‘co-champion’ lost two points having picked Timo’s place and dropped to second, leaving a French WOMAN with the outright win at 13 pts.
Here they are: (although, due to the fact that I am only ‘almost’ perfect and not comlpletely, there could be an error, although doubtful. Feel free to double check my calculations and I would be happy to make the corrections)

Zelie Barthod 13
Andrew Farrow 12
Dragstra 10
Peter Van Mol 10
Tomas Tittel 10
Sebastian Kienle 10
Mignon Vatlach 10
Todd Withycombe 10
Tim Seddon 9
Gary Fegan 9
Susanna Buckenlei 9
Erica Csomor 8
Scott Bombard 8
Baumgartner 8
Jaime Vigaray 7
Tom Barker 7
Eric Smith 6
Dano Wells 6
Frank Neuman 6
Terry Lauzon 5

Macca
Stadler
Llanos
VanHoenacker
Alexander
Vernay
Bracht
Potts
Brown
Van Lierde -Luc

Wellington
Csomor
Major
VanVlerken
Granger
Kraft

tough picking .. no matter who you pick, you leave someone out. I am betting on more runners bc I think he weather is going to be kind again.. that is the forecast for now… we will see.
The mens race.. I am thinking Potts will be away with Sanson, possibly McKenzie or Jacobs… Sindballe, Stadler, Lieto will ride through, Sanson will go with, Potts might try for a while too… the main bunch will include the big runners, MACCA, Crowie, Llanos, possibly Vernay and Bracht. It will be a matter of who catches who and who holds on the best… I really want to squeeze Pete Jacobs in but I don’t know if it will happen this year…

Womens. two groups.. Chrissie will break the first one open.. maybe Granger will go with, maybe Kraft too. The second group with Wallenhorst, Bella, Csomor, Van Vlerken will try to catch.. again mish mash in the end but i don’t think Chrissie will be caught…

Alright, This will be interesting because I am doing it on such a small scale but I think there is not enough of this so let’s do it.
The game is simple. You pick your top 10 men and top 6 women in Kona in the order that you think they will finish in. You get 1 pt if they are in the top 10 and an additional point if you got the place right. He with the most points wins… Wins what? Well the prestige and… hmmm.. Ok 100 Canadian dollars … hopefully one of my sponsors will kick that in.

You can find a start list at: http://ironman.com/assets/files/races/worldchampionship/2008bib.htm

I will be postig some useful informataion shortly and will let you know where to find. Process is simple though. Email me your top and top 6 in order and I will log it and post the results of the pool on Monday. Cheers!!

I am just finishing off the longest break I have ever taken since …. je ne sais pas… a long time.. many many yrs. I am feeling great.. have excessive energy, springy legs, and am getting very moody and anse to get’r going.
I haven’t wasted toooo much time though during break and have refurbished some other skills that I haven’t used for a long time. You see in the Dragstra household, after a few days visitation one is no longer a guest. So there has been a few hrs of work to do most days around the place as my pops is doing some renovating in the basement, touching up the drive and so on. I have realized that the less the thought that has to go into the work, the better I am at it. Ripping stuff down, I think, is my specialty. My dad is more concerned with details and is, i believe, frustrated once in a while with my destructive or ‘just gett’r done’ working style. But it has worked out pretty good, I think as he has left the simple and dirtier jobs to me and he does the more finesse type work.

It has been good because it has kept me busy some days and some of the work required some strength and my back and hands have toughened up some. One can develope weaknesses even when training 3 sports at a time, i have found and will be starting up with some better core strength than I have had for the past few years.

Check the pix of this hard workin’ man!!
L8R

Well I am back in ‘The Cage’ on my first compete stretch of time off in years.. proper time off. I have managed to visit old freinds and relatives who I have not seen in years, gone out to the bars, played tennis and golf with my old man (I’ve been killing him in Tennis), backgammon and cribbage with both my parents (been killing them BOTH… ahaahha), and just really getting all the crap out of my system. It feels good to be away from the sport completely and I will be able to come back with a renewed outlook, some new goals and most of all, fresh legs and head.
By the way, the title of this Blog is not so much my state of being the past two weeks - though it is not sooooo far off - as it is the Title of an incredible piece of literature written by none other than best-selling author, master chef, electrician, musician, poet??.. I will cut it off there.. none other than my little brother. You will want to check this out.

Here are some words from ‘the critics’

‘It’s kinda good’ - Some guy on the street
‘It is mildly more entertaining than reading the back of a shampoo bottle… well a non-organic shampoo bottle at least.’ - His buddy

So, if that doesn’t have you interested, the fact that as you flip through the book, a pint of beer will empty before your eyes. If you are intersted to purchase a copy of Booze Infused, please, do not hesitate to contact me, and i will take care of business for you.

Well, what do I say. Everything was in place for a great race. training was great, i had recovered well from Challenge Roth, had a solid training block, was feeling fantastic in all 3 disciplines and even this morning I thought I would really nail it. I got off to a great start and led out the swim through about 1000m and felt good through about half way.. I started to drop back and feel the same bizarre fatigue I had felt in roth earlier this year. The pace was slow and I could almost do catch-up strokes and stay with but I just started to feel so bad I had to turn over and do some back stroke. I thought just get this over with, you are biking like a demon, when you get your rhythm you will catch up no problem. So I got out on the bike feeling ok but I had very little power, and instead of catching up I was being caught by even more guys. I tried to stay relaxed because it didn’t feel that bad and I thought I could build it, but every time I tried to turn it on, the body wouldn’t respond. I put it in the big gear for the last 50km and it seemed to work a little better. I stopped losing time and even caught a few guys. Then the same happenned with the run.. I felt good, smooth, rhythmic the first 15 to 18km running well within my capacity planning to build and then I went from feeling ez to feeling so fatigued that I had to stop and walk. My nutrition was perfect, I didn’t make any mistakes of note as far as tactics… It was like my body shut down for no reason and I couldn’t push the intesity I can. One more dissappointing result and what do I do. What positives to I take from this race? I don’t know, I am at a loss. That is Ironman number 15 and I really think I should have the race and my body figured out but it seems each time I went for it this year, I had new unforeseen problems…
Anyway, I plan to take a break and not race anymore this year and then do everything possible to make next year a breakthrough year and figure out how to perform on raceday to my capacity.

till then,
DRAGS