Waiting for photos in drobox

The photos ARE coming, and some, only some will be shared. There are many. Some are quite frankly unsuitable for public view. Even private viewing had me covering my eyes. That Ironman Finisher bike jersey is just a bit snug. He said, in an understated sort of way. I should blow up one of them and put it on the fridge.

But first, my coffee moment with Curtis wondering if he wanted to share.

Today was a lovely run up to the South Glenmore boat club. I sang a little ditty to myself as I got there.

There is
a pole
in the aid station,
They call the family jewels
And it's been the ruin of many a guys race
I know
I watched it once.

If you don't know what that is sung to, there is no hope for you. The pole is right in the middle of the bike path, to keep motorized vehicles off the path. It's instantly downstream of where the aid station is. One guy that was trying to open a gel, hold a half full cup, and dodge someone, impaled himself on the pole. Fortunately it's somewhat flexibly mounted, and I think he took the worst of it in his gut, but still. I very carefully ran around it and started towards home.

10 K, 1:10:45, running easy, except for kilometers 6, 7, and 8. I struggled there a bit, falling off the pace. Pulled it together for 9 and 10 though. After all the heat it was lovely running in the sun with a cool breeze. Lots of other runners out. I discovered this graph in iSmoothrun, which I had never seen before. I think it makes things much clearer, though you can't see the altitude part very well, but I'm not sure how much I trust it anyways. It's clear I need to work on maintaining cadence.

My feet felt pretty good throughout, though I think I need to get new shoes. There doesn't seem to be much squish under the ball of my right foot anymore.

After that I sat in the back patio, drinking fruit juice, nibbling a cookie or two (or three) and doing a bit of writing. It's a lovely relaxing way to spend some time.

Michelle and I have been conspiring on photos. Let's see if I can find a couple for you that aren't too bad. These need to be cropped. Here is me desperate to keep up as Michelle pulls away.

Michelle pedaling like mad desperate to pass, me coasting. I am faster downhill, she is faster going up.

Remember the bikes on the fence shot from yesterday? We practiced transitions, so here is the action shot. In a note to self moment, Michelle realized how long it takes to tie shoes, and why triathletes pay for speed laces.

And lastly lunch being a left over bison burger with cheese.

Will I? Or won't I?

The work day went by in a flash today. That's what you get when you have your head buried in xl and Access, playing with data. Turns out a source xl I had been given had been corrupted, so I have to redo a bunch of stuff. And on the second round we've been finding other issues, so maybe it's all just as well.

I was thinking of getting on my bike this evening for another good workout. My legs sort of want to do it, but my lungs are having no part of it. You know that feeling like there is something on your windpipe and it vibrates when you start breathing hard, which tickles, and then you start coughing and things go down hill from there? That's what I'm getting. So I'm thinking about heading down for a good core and stretching session, after supper settles a bit more. Will I or won't I?

The 28 words are coming along. I'm up to 6 now! I am looking for 28 English words. Never mind why, for just now, it's a surprise. Please them in comments, or email, or twitter, or by passenger pigeon if you like, though that might get the cats really excited.

There was this imaginary conversation I was having with myself in the shower the other day. It started from a conversation at work about what I eat for lunch and why it smells so good. The main reason is that Linda is a good cook. The other is that we are trying to be more careful about the food we are buying. Gradually more and more is from the farmer's markets, and is organic.

Their comment was about cost, as in too expensive. I didn't say much to them, though I was thinking it.  If they're working for Penn West, they are almost certainly well paid by Canadian standards, and could be very well paid. The supply of dollars is not likely the problem. It could be they have a large family and only one income, and fair enough.

But I was thinking what could possibly be more important than the quality of food you're eating and feeding to your family? It is a cornerstone of your health and quality of life. Yes you can spend less. But what is a case of e coli, or listeriosis, or salmonella poisoning worth to you, or even the chance of getting it? People can die from bad food, or suffer irreparable organ disease.

And then this song popped into my head. With apologies to Sting.
Every cut of meat
Every veg you reap
Every fruit you eat
Every meal you heat
Sickness lurks for you

Every single day
Every leaf you flay
Every animal you slay
Every snack on way
Sickness lurks for you

Can't you see
Sickness waits for you
On a plate of food with every bite that you eat

I am 40

I nearly fell asleep several times in yoga class. We were doing lots of stuff on our backs, and I was tired. From something she said at the beginning of class, I was singing this to myself.

The knee police, she lives inside of my pose
The knee police, she looks up from my toes
The knee police, she watches during tree

She knows that talk is free, and we'll cheat if we can
And when we do some poses I don't think I'll survive the class, the class

Cause she's waiting for me
Cause she's looking at me
Every single pose all night
Those watchers of my pose

(with apologies to Cheap Trick)

I picked up the swag bag for Chinook. The hard part was getting the ATA card. I found the page all right on my phone, but every time I tried to type something, the keyboard slid down. I've never seen that happen before. It was infuriating. Eventually the volunteers took pity on me and let me borrow the laptop. Here's the stuff.

Astonishment is an empty pool this morning!

Imagine my surprise pulling into the FOMC to see about the normal number of cars in the lot. Imagine my further surprise to see one person in each of the pool fast lanes. To say nothing of hardly anyone else in the pool at all. I had expected to be over run with resolutionistas that need to be taught the ways of the pool in general, and in particular who has an inner shark.

"Some people have an inner child
Some people hear an inner voice
Some people have inner calm
Good for them!
But me I've got no choice
Some people have an inner cop
Some people hear an inner clown
But I've got me an Inner Shark
And it's hard to keep that Inner Shark calm!"
(Courtesy Christine Lavin)

Todays swim was still slow by my standards, but I'm feeling stronger, and cruised with my inner shark for a bit. I was trying to lengthen my stroke by reaching ahead, and working all the way to my thigh, and the roll and pull. Oddly enough the lengths that felt good still weren't fast particularly, but felt at home moving through the water in a way I haven't felt for a while. Since I wasn't paying attention to it, my kick was feeble. 1000 m ended up being 21:06, with my arm feeling fairly strong throughout. Time to get back to intervals I guess.

I even did an open turn right handed by accident once, and it didn't actually send shooting stars of pain up my arm through my eyes into my brain. So I carefully tried it several times for turns, when it worked out that way. As long as I'm careful, and don't really pull to tuck my feet, or push to finish the turn, it's ok. Still not strong or comfortable yet, but progression is happening.

Then into the dive tank for core work. This morning's workout is an honest half hour. This was actually the first morning where I could have done more in the pool, so maybe later this week I'll try to ramp up to 45 minutes.

This evening was a beautiful night for a run. Let me paint the picture here. It's dark; the sun went down an hour and a half before my run. There's a mostly clear sky, with about a half moon just bright enough to throw a shadow on the snow. It's warmed up considerably, being only -1 C or so, but that warm air is blowing in on a pretty strong wind, about 30 Kph. It's strong enough to blow the snow around, and there's some new drifts already.

Tonight's run instructions were to warm up, then change speeds every 2-3 min. Have fun in other words. My kind of workout. No looking at the watch, no tracking heart rate ad trying to run slower, no trying to figure out where I am on the run walk cycle. Walked then ran easy for not quite 10 minutes, out to Anderson and the 37th St pathway. Started the stopwatch so I'd know when to turn around, then ran a bunch of different paces. I changed speeds more often than every 2-3 minutes; it was probably more like every 30 seconds to a minute, depending. Ran fast to get my breathing almost to a gasp, ran slow, ran medium, tried different gaits, tried leaning forward to speed up, some longer bits, some shorter bits. About the only thing I didn't do was run hard downhill; the footing isn't that good. The slow recovery portions were just long enough to get my breathing back under control. Turned around at 21 min and some seconds, and got back to my starting place at 42 min and some seconds, then ran hard across 37th and up the hill for 45 min exactly. Walked briskly back to the house. Stripped off my shoes, hat and hoodie, then stretched for 15 min.

I'm really pleased at how it went. There were the faintest of twinges from my left calf; the first in a long while, so I paid calves special attention during the stretching. Once I shower and finish eating I'll stretch more. I'm going to call this a solid 1.25 hr workout.

Susi tried to kill us!! Well, no, not really, tho Jenna thot so for a while

There are several competing titles for this post.

Estella sets a new blog-group speed record. 87.75 Kph down Cochrane hill!
Jenna's face getting the news at the Shell station.
Horse Creek/Lochend road is an awesome ride!
Susi chicked 3 boys, big time.
Jenna has heart out the wazoo.

Firstly, the map of our route. Jenna had no idea at all where we were, and wanted to see the map, WITH elevation, if you please. She and I were convinced Susi had been to coach-land and found a route that was essentially all uphill.




You'll note I start the route at the centre of Cochrane. Susi wants to publish a map to her home that's her business, but I'm not gonna. So add on a few more K. We got going a few minutes after 9am, and after Jenna put herself back together after her adventure on the hill, we got started in earnest. Toon-town, remember? No hills. Keep this firmly in mind.

They're paving just west of town, and the turn off to Horse Creek Rd is right there. It's wonderful to go from busy highway, lots of cars, icky paving smell to no cars, and gorgeous scenery. It was a perfect day for riding, not too much wind, nice and sunny, but not hot. We quickly got strung out a bit, Susi up ahead, me in the middle and Jenna a bit behind figuring out how to cope with hills. Periodically me or Susi (mostly Susi) would ride back to see how she was making out.

The ride up to Bottrel is really quite pretty. The pavement alternates between good and ok with some bits to be careful about. We saw 3 large deer/elk/things that went kaboink when they saw us coming. Lots of predatory birds floating along looking for prey.

Stopped at Bottrel General Store for water and chatted with other cyclists. This is a cool store. Then up the hill and over to 22, then over to the golf course. You have to know where it is, because there sure aren't many signs. Lots of golfers, and several other cyclists as well. Chatted with some of them. We left a little before them, but they caught us as we were stopped at the top of Lochend road taking pictures. Jenna took a ton of pictures, and some of them will almost certainly show up on blogs. She is sorry to disappoint people, but there are none of Susi or me with our pants down showing off our pasty white butts. Well, mine is, shouldn't presume to talk of Susi's.

Going south Susi and I were going along pretty good, gradually gaining on the boys that had passed us. Then she got that glint in the eye I know so well. "Let's catch them" she said, and was off. I can only keep up with her on the flats by driving my heart rate up to the top of zone 3 or so, and that isn't something I can keep up for long. Off she went, and chicked them all! Way to go Susi! I came to realize there are certain difficulties in a guy well over 6 feet tall on a road bike trying to draft someone 5'2, in aero, on a bike with 650 tires.

We met up again, and coached Jenna on how to go down Cochrane hill. There's brand new pavement on the road, but the shoulders are pretty icky. I coasted down, deciding to scope it out, knowing I'd get another run at. Which Jenna didn't know. (hehehe). We met up again at the Shell station at the bottom of the hill. Then Susi told Jenna we were going to ride back up the hill. Jenna's face was priceless!

If I could have thought of a reasonable excuse to have her camera in my hands, we could have documented it for posterity. But here's where she showed the heart that is going to get her through IMC. Here she's been on a long hilly ride, without much hill experience, and at least one good scare. She's tired, her legs are about done, her butt is killing her, and she's still game. Up the hill. In the granniest gear and wishing there was a great-grannier gear, but up the hill. No walking, no puking. Awesome! At the top, where Susi and I were waiting, Susi gave her the little devil horn sign. Perfect! Priceless moment.

We swooped back down the hill through the Glen Eagles golf course. I don't know what it is, but Estela LIVES to go down hill fast. There's Susi in aero, pedaling like mad, I'm up and relaxed, and swoosh. Under the bridge and back onto the main road. No cars, onto the good pavement, a pedal up to about 130 rmp, and hope there isn't a cop there with a radar gun. Though if I got a speeding ticket on the bike, I'd copy and frame it. Whoosh! Yeehaaawwww! What a great finish to a long ride. Through town, back to Susi's, change, and out for 30 minute run. Slow run, though trying to keep up with them put my heart rate way up.

We gradually got ourselves showered and cleaned up, Jenna still muttering about how she couldn't believe what Susi had done to her. Then sushi. We ate about a million pieces. burp. Susi showed me some transition stuff, then I packed up and Linda drove me home. I slept like a rock, and feel great today. Maybe that's the coffee talking, but my waking heart rate was only slightly higher than normal, and other than my elbow that got a bloody owie, I feel great today. Not great enough to join them on the Highwood ride today but I've got a good excuse. The lawn simply MUST get cut today, or I'm going to have to call in a local farmer to cut and bale it. Plus we've got friends coming for a BBQ this afternoon.

Even though our total ride time was 7 hours, the time wasn't the point. We weren't racing. We had a nice stop at the store and the golf course. We stopped periodically to regroup. I thoroughly enjoyed the ride. It almost wasn't like a workout, though my watch says I burned over 6,000 calories. I don't have the formal numbers because my bike computer reset itself a couple of times.

In honour of the occasion, my wife came up with this little ditty, sung to the tune "Lord of the Dance".

Let me tell you a story 'bout a girl named Jenn
Little prairie chick training for an Ironman
She swam and she ran and she rode her bike with pride
Till her good friend Susi said "Let's take a little ride!"

Jenn, Jenn, tell me what you see
A big bad hill instead of bald prairie
A little trick played by your pal Susi
So what on earth's a prairie gal supposed to do?

Poor Jenn did not know what to do at first
But she told her pal Susi "oh do your worst!"
So Jenna, Susi, and Keith began their climb
3 kilometers of hard hilling time

Jenn, Jenn, tell me what you see
A big bad hill instead of bald prairie
A little trick played by your pal Susi
So what on earth's a prairie gal supposed to do?

The time has come to bring this story to an end
Jenna climbed the big bad hill
and IronSusi's still her friend
So the moral of the story is plain for all to see
Whatever else you do, stick to your IGP!

In honour of Susi, since she loves George

My name's Iron Susi,
I train on big hills,
That give my pal Jenna
The shakes the chills.

I like my pal Jenna,
She stays at my home,
But she should have remembered
That I'm bad to the bone,

(chorus)

I rode a thousand hills,
Before I met you,
I'll ride a thousand more baby,
Before I am through,
You should have remembered
That I'm the devil's own

I'm telling you Jenna,
That I'm bad to the bone

(chorus)


Weekly total
swim 1.5 hr
Bike 9 hr (not sure I should count the ride as 7 because of the breaks)
Run 2.45 hr
Total 12.9