A wet workout day

Wet is the word of the day, both inside and outside.

Once again, I was out the door at 4:30 am. Only a light rain this time, and only cool, not cold. I started with a few minutes walk, then into an easy run down the path towards Fish Creek. Right at the top of the hill I turned around. The run was supposed to be 35 to 45 minutes, and turnaround was 20:36. Back the same way in 20:37. Now I call that consistent. My heart rate was a little higher coming back, but it is a long gradual hill all the way. Average heart rate throughout was 119.

Remember that I said it was light rain? That was at home; it rained harder and harder the further south I went. Then on the way back it eased off again. Once home again I hung my wet stuff up to dry and did some stretching. When I came upstairs again it was raining really hard.

This evening IG suggested I do 3x10 min easy, medium, and hard, with 5 minutes easy between them. That translates to upper zone 2, mid zone 3, and whatever I can do for the last. Warmed up gradually, taking about 15 minutes to get to the 85-90 rpm I wanted to maintain. Then dropped a couple gears and started in. The first 10 were good, pedalling smooth, heart rate low 120's. Started a good base layer of sweat.

The next 10 min were a solid workout. I could have maintained that pace for a little while longer, heart rate low to mid 130's for mid zone 3, and maybe a touch higher. That added a good sweat layer, and started dripping off pretty good. Concentrating on going around and around, keeping the upper body steady. Amazing how much the ipod cords sway back and forth.

For the next 10 I made sure some good songs were cued up on the ipod, and it worked out well. Started high 130's and pushed a steady build to 150 bpm. Same gear, just gradually higher rpms ending up at 100 rpm. The last 5 min were above 145 bpm and the last two of that 148 to 150 bpm. For the last minute I could feel the burn begin. 150 is 85% of my max heart rate. I was about as wet as I was after my run this morning, and was happy to dial it back to an easy spin for 20 min to cool down. Did some more stretching.

Since I just figured out (thanks Susi) that there aren't change rooms at Chinook, I tried wearing my bike shorts over my swimsuit. For a short ride it worked out ok, though I'll try to remember to pull the fabric down a bit; it was beginning to guddle up on me. I don't think I'm quite up to 96K on a bike without some sort of padding.

I'm not sure what I did yesterday, but some of my core muscles sure hurt starting with getting out of bed this am. It's the ones just under the ribcage. You use them when you want to stand, or move your office chair around, or when you lean forward and tighten up your guts. Maybe I overdid some of my core stuff in the pool yesterday.