For whatever reason, the FOMC pool was full of slow swimmers today. I hopped into a lane with one other lady in it, then realized she swam reaaaalllllllyyyyyyy slowly. When she stopped beside me and exchanged good mornings, I mentioned that I would be swimming a lot faster than her, and she might be more comfortable in another lane. She looked hurt, and said she was a fast swimmer and if I had to, I could go around her. Fine, I decided to show just how not-fast she was. I was still adjusting my googles. She pushed off, and got about half way down the pool when I started. I caught her at the turn. I swam 3 lengths in the time it took her to swim one. I passed her a couple more times. Then I saw her talking to a couple other ladies wanting to join my lane. Next thing I knew, there was 2 other swimmers, and the original was gone. These two swam considerably faster, as in it took me 5 or 6 laps to catch up to them again, and one of them was good about waiting at the end of the pool.
So I did a strong steady swim for 45 min 12 seconds. That's probably 2350 m, but maybe at best 2400 m. Since I can't see the pace clock in this pool I'll have to learn to count, or change my turn so I can click the lap button on my watch. That would probably be easier if I could do flip turns.
Ironman Canada - DONE! What next?
Monday, January 7, 2008
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Sunday spin and run
Watch adventures first. The guy that put the battery in my old watch didn't seal it up properly, and of course, water got into the innards. I took it apart again, cleaned the corrosion off the new battery, carfully put it back together again, and golly gee, it works. Well, the light doesn't come on. And I'm afraid to put it in the water again. So I went shopping for a new watch/heart rate monitor. In a couple years, when this battery dies, I'll try to go to a place where they guarantee that it will still be waterproof after the battery replacement.
MEC has the Timex, a couple of other models I didn't like, and several Garmins. Of course you can't buy just the wrist part, you have to buy the chest part as well. Such is the price of living in a world of planned obsolesence. But I got the next model up from the Timex I had, so I can do laps now. AND BONUS! For the first hour, the seconds are big, so I can read them easily. How about that. It even works with the chest monitor I already had, so I've got an extra now. Maybe my wife might like to wear it during her walks, with my old watch, to see how hard she's working. As for the Garmin, if I really get into the running, or need the extra data to facilitate training, then I'll think about it more. But for now, I think it would be overkill, and there's other things I'd rather spend the money on.
On to the spin workout.
10 min warmup
10 min at 90 rpm usual easy gear for further warmup.
Then up onto the big chainring, smallest gear
8 x 1 min at 100 then 1 min at 85, then go up a gear each 2 minutes. 4 min recovery
5 x 30 sec at 100 rpm in hardest gear, 1.5 min easy gear recovery
6 min at 90 rpm moderate gear, 4 min recovery
10 x 30 sec at 110 rpm or so, 1.5 min recovery
10 min cool down
Total 90 min.
Heart rate peaked at just over 140 during the pyramid of harder gears, but my watch said the average HR for this entire period was 115. The spin at 110 was a bit cautious, but it felt more like a surging than a bounce. I was really concentrating on bike form, engaging my core, and spinning easily.
3 min transition, with some stretches for hams.
Started run off easy,
7:29 1st K avg HR 133
6:16 2nd K avg HR 140
6:23 3rd K avg HR 142
4:34 or so was 25 min avg HR 146, and I stopped running about the 3.75 K mark, though I need to verify exactly where the 3 and 4 Km markers are.
12 min walking cool down to complete 5 K loop.
Further stretches.
Overall it felt great! My calf didn't bother me at all. The bike session felt fairly strong, and I could have gone longer and harder, but I didn't want to over do it. The run was about right for intensity, since the IGP™ called for a 15-20 min run and I essentially started to poop out at 25.
Weekly totals
Swim 2 hrs
Bike 2.83 hrs
Run 2 hrs
Total 6.83 hrs
Puttering around the house, then massage!
Just to confirm, FOMC stands for Fat Old Men Club. There are some non-fat, non-old, non-men, of course, but that seems to be the single biggest group. I of course, am in transition, from fat to non-fat, from young to middle-aged, but decidedly still a men. Not changing that.
MEC has the Timex, a couple of other models I didn't like, and several Garmins. Of course you can't buy just the wrist part, you have to buy the chest part as well. Such is the price of living in a world of planned obsolesence. But I got the next model up from the Timex I had, so I can do laps now. AND BONUS! For the first hour, the seconds are big, so I can read them easily. How about that. It even works with the chest monitor I already had, so I've got an extra now. Maybe my wife might like to wear it during her walks, with my old watch, to see how hard she's working. As for the Garmin, if I really get into the running, or need the extra data to facilitate training, then I'll think about it more. But for now, I think it would be overkill, and there's other things I'd rather spend the money on.
On to the spin workout.
10 min warmup
10 min at 90 rpm usual easy gear for further warmup.
Then up onto the big chainring, smallest gear
8 x 1 min at 100 then 1 min at 85, then go up a gear each 2 minutes. 4 min recovery
5 x 30 sec at 100 rpm in hardest gear, 1.5 min easy gear recovery
6 min at 90 rpm moderate gear, 4 min recovery
10 x 30 sec at 110 rpm or so, 1.5 min recovery
10 min cool down
Total 90 min.
Heart rate peaked at just over 140 during the pyramid of harder gears, but my watch said the average HR for this entire period was 115. The spin at 110 was a bit cautious, but it felt more like a surging than a bounce. I was really concentrating on bike form, engaging my core, and spinning easily.
3 min transition, with some stretches for hams.
Started run off easy,
7:29 1st K avg HR 133
6:16 2nd K avg HR 140
6:23 3rd K avg HR 142
4:34 or so was 25 min avg HR 146, and I stopped running about the 3.75 K mark, though I need to verify exactly where the 3 and 4 Km markers are.
12 min walking cool down to complete 5 K loop.
Further stretches.
Overall it felt great! My calf didn't bother me at all. The bike session felt fairly strong, and I could have gone longer and harder, but I didn't want to over do it. The run was about right for intensity, since the IGP™ called for a 15-20 min run and I essentially started to poop out at 25.
Weekly totals
Swim 2 hrs
Bike 2.83 hrs
Run 2 hrs
Total 6.83 hrs
Puttering around the house, then massage!
Just to confirm, FOMC stands for Fat Old Men Club. There are some non-fat, non-old, non-men, of course, but that seems to be the single biggest group. I of course, am in transition, from fat to non-fat, from young to middle-aged, but decidedly still a men. Not changing that.
Friday, January 4, 2008
Sounds like a bleat, but it's not, really
It's not even 8am and it's an interesting day already. I'm glad I was on a bit of a different schedule today, and hadn't planned on swimming at The Fast Pool. But we did stop there on the way to work for my appointment with the scale of truth. More on that later. But they had closed the lane pool and dive tank, till the samples came back from the Calgary Health Region labs. I guess there was "an incident" last night or first thing this morning. Off to FOMC per the original plan. More on that later too.
Something that helps you understand this next bit is that I've put lots of thought into getting dressed in the morning. That's so I don't have to think about it in the morning. All my shirts go with all my pants. If it's in the closet it's pressed and clean. There are two kinds of socks, white and black, and I can tell the difference with my eyes closed. And have. Many times the gym bag is already packed the previous night. If I'm running or swimming in the morning I don't even shower. These days, getting dressed is something I don't pay much attention to. So imagine my surprise when I'm taking off my shirt at the pool, and my forearms are this mottled red rash looking stuff. No itch, no pain, no idea how this came about.
You also need to know I had a new battery put in my watch. Life was good. Started my swim, and 19 minutes later I tried to stop the stopwatch. I can tell you it's been 1 hour 31 minutes, and 49 seconds since I started the swim. I can't make it stop. Neither can I change to another function, or even turn on the light. I guess it didn't get sealed up quite right. Or something.
19 minutes on the nose, 1 Km
Some unknown time in the dive tank doing pool pilates.
There's a million people in FOMC this morning. And they were all lined up to get into the hot tub. Think of it, all you single girls. If you want to marry an elderly overweight guy so you can inherit all his money in a few years, this is the place to be. I kid you not. Thus the nickname.
And the fateful number that I went out of my way to get this morning? 246. I admit to a bit of disappointment, since I'd been feeling lighter, but as I think about it, I pigged out on New Year's Day at a party, and there was a chocolate ice cream dessert at the book club meeting the other day, AND I've been working out more lightly to give my legs a bit of a rest. All things considered though, to not go up at this time of year is an achievement. And looking more long term, 9 pounds in 9 weeks is a very reasonable pace to be shedding weight.
Something that helps you understand this next bit is that I've put lots of thought into getting dressed in the morning. That's so I don't have to think about it in the morning. All my shirts go with all my pants. If it's in the closet it's pressed and clean. There are two kinds of socks, white and black, and I can tell the difference with my eyes closed. And have. Many times the gym bag is already packed the previous night. If I'm running or swimming in the morning I don't even shower. These days, getting dressed is something I don't pay much attention to. So imagine my surprise when I'm taking off my shirt at the pool, and my forearms are this mottled red rash looking stuff. No itch, no pain, no idea how this came about.
You also need to know I had a new battery put in my watch. Life was good. Started my swim, and 19 minutes later I tried to stop the stopwatch. I can tell you it's been 1 hour 31 minutes, and 49 seconds since I started the swim. I can't make it stop. Neither can I change to another function, or even turn on the light. I guess it didn't get sealed up quite right. Or something.
19 minutes on the nose, 1 Km
Some unknown time in the dive tank doing pool pilates.
There's a million people in FOMC this morning. And they were all lined up to get into the hot tub. Think of it, all you single girls. If you want to marry an elderly overweight guy so you can inherit all his money in a few years, this is the place to be. I kid you not. Thus the nickname.
And the fateful number that I went out of my way to get this morning? 246. I admit to a bit of disappointment, since I'd been feeling lighter, but as I think about it, I pigged out on New Year's Day at a party, and there was a chocolate ice cream dessert at the book club meeting the other day, AND I've been working out more lightly to give my legs a bit of a rest. All things considered though, to not go up at this time of year is an achievement. And looking more long term, 9 pounds in 9 weeks is a very reasonable pace to be shedding weight.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
The horror of shopping
I did it. I'm proud of myself. The trip to the mall to buy pants is harder and much less nice than any of my workouts so far. But it turns out pants that fit have a 6 inch smaller waist than the pants I wore most of the time. Two pair of jeans; that will have to hold me till I figure out where my weight stabalizes. I'm still totally choked that I had to try on 3 pairs to find the size and style that was comfey. Oh, and a belt too.
The spin session was a lot of fun.
10 min warm up
7 min at 90 rpm then 3 min rest
7 min at 100 rpm then 3 min rest, both in my usual starting gear.
20 min at 90 rpm in a harder gear, heart rate was around 125 then entire time, then 3 min rest.
10 x 30 seconds on, 1.5 min off. The on portion was in the hardest gear doing at least 100 rpm.
10 min cool down
Total 80 min. This felt like a good solid workout.
The spin session was a lot of fun.
10 min warm up
7 min at 90 rpm then 3 min rest
7 min at 100 rpm then 3 min rest, both in my usual starting gear.
20 min at 90 rpm in a harder gear, heart rate was around 125 then entire time, then 3 min rest.
10 x 30 seconds on, 1.5 min off. The on portion was in the hardest gear doing at least 100 rpm.
10 min cool down
Total 80 min. This felt like a good solid workout.
A run by the dying watch battery
The parking lot was full at the FOMC this morning, but that was ok. The run plan was for 50 min r4 w1.5.
With warm up and cool down I worked out 51:26, running from FOMC (rhythms with bombk for those that care) to the bike path, down to almost Memorial Dr and back. I did this at a steady aerobic pace except for back up the hill, but always had my breathing under control. No problems with calves, though they're still the most tired part of my bod. So far so good.
The problem is that the light on my watch doesn't work well anymore, and along the path it's dark. Very dark. Sure, there's lots of light around, and mostly you can see the path quite well, but very little of it is enough to let me read my watch. The watch light used to stay bright for several seconds, but now lasts only a fraction of a second, goes to "too dim to read", then goes back to normal. I'm fairly good at timing without a watch, and I'm reasonably certain I ran more and walked less than the plan.
My next watch has got to have bigger seconds numbers, or I've got to start using the stopwatch on my ipod. I can read that. Gee, I wonder if I can persuade Steve Jobs to include a heart rate monitor function in an iPod?
I've decided to bite the bullet and do something tonight I hate doing. HATE!! That is shopping for pants. No matter the new ones will be several sizes smaller. I just hate the whole experience, and I don't much like current pants styles. Still, I'm enough smaller that a belt is the most important part of my wardrobe. And yes, I need a new belt too, no more holes in this one. I came to this realization that the last pair of pants that I bought, a few months ago, are now so big that they won't even stay on momentarily without a belt. Very amusing for my wife. But the scrunched up look around the waist isn't terribly attractive, and all my pants are doing that.
What just kills me about all this is that I've still got a bit of a roll, and in a few months these new pants will probably be too big as well. Sigh. The trials of getting fit. Still, I suppose this is a good problem to have.
With warm up and cool down I worked out 51:26, running from FOMC (rhythms with bombk for those that care) to the bike path, down to almost Memorial Dr and back. I did this at a steady aerobic pace except for back up the hill, but always had my breathing under control. No problems with calves, though they're still the most tired part of my bod. So far so good.
The problem is that the light on my watch doesn't work well anymore, and along the path it's dark. Very dark. Sure, there's lots of light around, and mostly you can see the path quite well, but very little of it is enough to let me read my watch. The watch light used to stay bright for several seconds, but now lasts only a fraction of a second, goes to "too dim to read", then goes back to normal. I'm fairly good at timing without a watch, and I'm reasonably certain I ran more and walked less than the plan.
My next watch has got to have bigger seconds numbers, or I've got to start using the stopwatch on my ipod. I can read that. Gee, I wonder if I can persuade Steve Jobs to include a heart rate monitor function in an iPod?
I've decided to bite the bullet and do something tonight I hate doing. HATE!! That is shopping for pants. No matter the new ones will be several sizes smaller. I just hate the whole experience, and I don't much like current pants styles. Still, I'm enough smaller that a belt is the most important part of my wardrobe. And yes, I need a new belt too, no more holes in this one. I came to this realization that the last pair of pants that I bought, a few months ago, are now so big that they won't even stay on momentarily without a belt. Very amusing for my wife. But the scrunched up look around the waist isn't terribly attractive, and all my pants are doing that.
What just kills me about all this is that I've still got a bit of a roll, and in a few months these new pants will probably be too big as well. Sigh. The trials of getting fit. Still, I suppose this is a good problem to have.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Name contest
Before starting at IMS, I swam at Canyon Meadows pool (The Fast Pool). After starting I swam at Bob Bahan pool (The Geezer Pool). Then I realized that Renfrew was a bit more convenient and tried it. That's worked out pretty well, so I'm swimming there 2 times out of three in a week. However, till now, I didn't have a nickname for it. Well, now I do. It's the FOMC pool. You get a chance to guess what that stands for.
It being the first day that New Years fitness resolutions begin to crash and burn, the facility was full today. Oddly enough, the pool itself had about the usual number of people in it. However, it was really warm today. Hot. Swimming was slow. Well, one girl was doing butterfly, 25 m at a time. Better her than me.
250 m warmup 4:45
10 x 50 m in 50 seconds, on 1:15 start. (and had to work to keep this pace!)
250 m cooldown (nominally anyway) 4:40.
20 min pool pilates, fighting for space in the dive tank. I goofed and didn't do my spin workout, and have a book club meeting tonight, so I guess I'll do a longer spin on Thurs.
It being the first day that New Years fitness resolutions begin to crash and burn, the facility was full today. Oddly enough, the pool itself had about the usual number of people in it. However, it was really warm today. Hot. Swimming was slow. Well, one girl was doing butterfly, 25 m at a time. Better her than me.
250 m warmup 4:45
10 x 50 m in 50 seconds, on 1:15 start. (and had to work to keep this pace!)
250 m cooldown (nominally anyway) 4:40.
20 min pool pilates, fighting for space in the dive tank. I goofed and didn't do my spin workout, and have a book club meeting tonight, so I guess I'll do a longer spin on Thurs.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
New Year's Day run
I'm still minded to be careful about my legs. It was about -15 C outside this morning, so I warmed up with some stretches inside first.
5 minute brisk walk to warm up.
7 x 4r/1w over a 5K course, trying to keep heart rate no higher than mid 130's.
5 min walk to cool down, then a few more gentle stretches.
The 5K actually took not quite 40 minutes, but I didn't start another run cycle on 35 minutes. This works out to an 8 min per K pace over all. The actual run walk segments worked out to 7:30 per K. The first couple run cycles were quite easy, with a short stride to continue warm up.
Overall it felt pretty good. I did get over 140 HR briefly as it felt natural to run a bit faster, and slowed down again, but while slowing down I had a bit of a cramp in my calf again, but not as bad. Once I slowed down it went away again, and it's been fine the rest of the day.
5 minute brisk walk to warm up.
7 x 4r/1w over a 5K course, trying to keep heart rate no higher than mid 130's.
5 min walk to cool down, then a few more gentle stretches.
The 5K actually took not quite 40 minutes, but I didn't start another run cycle on 35 minutes. This works out to an 8 min per K pace over all. The actual run walk segments worked out to 7:30 per K. The first couple run cycles were quite easy, with a short stride to continue warm up.
Overall it felt pretty good. I did get over 140 HR briefly as it felt natural to run a bit faster, and slowed down again, but while slowing down I had a bit of a cramp in my calf again, but not as bad. Once I slowed down it went away again, and it's been fine the rest of the day.
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