Mathieu O'Halloran's Blog

Hey last friday we had an appointement with the local run club which are mostly kids!

They have been seeing the triathletes training here in the summer for many years and have had several get-togethers but this one was a bit special, because the mayor of the mountain was present!

The goal was to basicaly solicitate some funds for the kids, to help their running endevors!

We signed many autograph’s, t-shirts, hats, ect. and all the kids where supper exited to show off the medals they had won this year! They ranged from cross country running to track events to field events and also some road races!

We also did a short lap of the “forest loop” with the kids! But after a hard swim and a long hilly ride, we where are a little tired, and when the kids took off, well they REALLY took off! I can still remember being that young and energetic!

But as expected, they slowed down on the up hill

After a fast loop, they where a little tired…

But after a quick re-group we showed them some top secret TBB streches and drills! YEAH RIGHT! I know Brendon was hurting during those!

Afterwards the kids went running back and fort over a 200m track, that was specially made for a very famous bod-sleeder who lives or lived here?

And we also got fed =)

Anyway, like always, the goal of these meetings, if not to force or convince the youth to become proffessional athletes, but more to teach them to utilize sport, as a vessel to teach them the principals of hard work, consistency and self belief and the while learning about fair competition, how to accept defeat and to be humble during victory.

Especially with these kids, who live in such a safe and wonderfull country, where sport can allow them to travel to foreing destinations, see and taste the world, hear and meet different people, who might come from un-priviledge back grounds, who they would have never meet, or been to, without the journey of sport.

With the ultimate goal of them growing into gratefull, honest and competitive humans.

Bon soir.

Et bonne nuit

Hey I have been here in Leysin for 1 week now and its gone by so freaking fast as I have been having a great time training, eating great food and catching up with my teamates!

A typical Swiss morning start with a cup of coffee with Scotty and a baggette!

This is a pic from outside our appartement, can you guess which one we are? Im not sure which flag I should put up there? Canadian flag? Quebec flag? Or Philippines flag?

The great thing about this little mountain top village, is that the swim pool is about in the middle so its a close walk from everywhere! Its about 4-5 min walk from our place so me, Scotty and James walk together!

James doesn’t only run fast, he walks fast as well!

Another great thing about Switzerland is all the water fountains everywhere flowing with cold fresh mountain water =)

After our swim, and more coffee and bagettes, we meet at the Subaru garage before starting our descent!

WARNING about this ole man around the hill, hes a DANGER to all cyclist!

This is a cool shot I got out of our balcony, its a helicopter hauling a little Swiss chalet!

Scotty is getting ready to fly to Nice for Ironman France next sunday! Hes been in great spirits and fitter than ever!

This is a very ugly site, I know some tri geeks are going to cringe from this traumatic and graphic photo, but atleast James walk away only with a few bumps and scratches…Thank godness for the vignette =)

Whats that saying, shaken but not stirred!

Anyway, from all the exitement in this new week, I got a little sick and been feeling pretty cold very often because well, I have been living in Asia for a while! The swimming as been challenging because of the altitude and I have to get used to those things called warm ups and warm downs.

I dont practice those on my own…We must be doing these because of the cooler weather and to sneak in extra miles!

The ridding has been spectacular, I love ridding in Europe, well not when its cold and wet, but the rest of the time, the terrain is souper challenging and theres always other cyclist on the road THe roads a pretty smooth and I dont have to have to buy water EVER!!

The run, we have been doing quite a bit of intensity, which will do me good, down the road, thats for sure! Im the slowest runner of my group, which means I dont have anything to lose and all to gain! I have some very experienced and sucessfull training mates who keep me in my place

Heres a pretty Swiss sunset!

Oh and of course, I miss my little Joyette soooooo MUCH and I even mist her birth day…

Hey I now spent the last 6 weeks living in Manila, which is 6 weeks more than I wanted to stay here, but because of circumstance, appointements and finances, this 6 weeks was a wise but difficult sacrifice.

I dont like the city, and being from Canada, I love open spaces. Heres not the case…

THe majority of my swimming was done at the pool at the bottom of the appartement building. The rest of the time, me and Joyette would go for a “thrilla on EDSA” to some of the local 50m pools. Some of which, are closed, or just opened. Systematicaly, all the puplic pools in the city are closed on monday for cleaning…Those that mean they dont clean on a daily basis?

So this is the pool I did most of my swimming in, its got a funny shape, but if I swim it the right angle, I can get about 27m or so Im guessing anyway.

I had to be very carefull about when I go to the pool, because even one other person in the pool can make my session well, irritating…Add in a few more and its a nightmare..But luckly Philippinos are very predictable, so I had the pool to myself when I did go! Thank you sun!!!

The pool even has a little water fall!

I had to nail my flip turns on a very ackward surface, it was very slippery and kinda oval shapped! Close to the bridge where I often had spectators!

Most of my cycling is done at the Mall of Asia where a suprising amount of locals ride up and down a 1.8km strech of road on a daily basis very early in the morning! So me and Joyette where pretty lucky, we could ride to the “loop” and then ride away from there, back and fort over and over!

On a good day, pushing a big gear, I can go from start to finish on about 2 minutes and change! Theres often, well every day large groups ridding, but you know, white rice power dont allow them to ride very fast or for very long, so I would blow by them pretty swiftly!

As you can imagine, I stand out quite a bit when I ride there, especilly while ridding Pedro Quatro. So that gave me an invisible X on my butt.

At first, the free wheelers would annoy me, but after a while I got immude to it, unless they made a sad attempt to overtake me or come beside me to try to chat me up. At that point, I was very un-friendly and vulgar if they would start to be foolish.

The other bit of my cycling was done on the indoor trainer. YAWWWN!

Running was done mostly on the track at the Rizal memorial center and at fitness first at MOA. My run did benefit from that, I know.

I also spent a bit to get Pedro Quatro ready for the Alpes, because I am not a great bike handler and will hopefully be jumping into some draft legal races, sooner than later…

I also got myself some nice new brakes that are specially made for wet weather, because well, if you ever ridden a P4, you would understand! Better be safer than less in the mountains…

So in 24 hours, I will be heading to the airport with my life packed in 20 kilos and make a return to the first world. Its been a while…I remember when I was a kid in school, my one teacher use to tell us, that Canada was the second best country in the world, and that Switzerland was the first!

She also told us, that USSR aka Russia had just split into a dozen countries and that Haitie was the poorest country in the world…

Im very exited to join Doc and my teamates, well they are a but more than just teamates, there my cooworkers and peers. They people who share the same passion and simular objectives as me, regardless of what country we hale from.

Every time I go to camp, I learn new things, about people, life, myself, ect. Things that I would have never ever learned in a class room. Thats a guaranty.

I will miss the Philippines, I will my little girl friend Joyette, I will miss the tropical fruits, I will miss being called SIR and all the smilles and I will even miss all the attention I get from the badings. AHAHAHA HELL NO!

Attention la Suisse, Mathieu arrive bientot!!

Hey I recently took some down time from my training to travel down south to Mindano and visit the Batang Sports Institute in Cagayan De Oro. My role as a mentor is to have a look at them in action, do some sessions with them and over see their training plan!

Its also good time to catch up with my TBB team mate Neil and chat with coach Joshua about the kids upcomming events and the start of the shcool year!

Sir Al, who is the master mind behind the whole opperation had plans for training trip to the beautifull Camiguin Island, which started with an 85km bike ride down the coast! With a stop mid way for a swim!

The kids showing young enthusiam, jumped in first!

After that, we got back on our bikes and rode off, and well, then kids once again, showed their true class with yet another swift transition!!

After that, we split up, with a smaller group to head to the ferry towards Camiguin, and to put a long story short, the bike ride was more enjoyable than the boat ride…

The next day we went for some swimming and scuba diving!

After check in we jumped on a boat!

And then go to our destination!

A crash course on how to use my equipement

I was under water seeing a world I had never seen before! So quiet and serene, un-touched and pure! Its like nothing else matters, weightless and oblivious to everything, exept to what I see in that moment, I was down there for maybe 1 hour, which felt like 1 min, just like going through a time warp…

After my first dive, we went for some food and exploring this small island!

LETS EAT!

Desert, Philipinno style!!

And then some hanging out time with the great view of Camiguin island!

So after one last dive, we got back on our boat and headed for the bigger island!

Uh I guess this is the local way to keep your cell phone on your body?

Anyway, this was a great experience, that I am sharing to all the readers!

The locals say, the CAMIGUIN really means COMEAGAIN!

I have no problem believing that…