I at least thought about running outside this am. Really! I laid out everything I'd need. Lately I haven't been sleeping that well, so I figured the odds of being up at 4 am were pretty good. As it happened, I slept fairly well, and woke up a few minutes after 5. Clock goes off at 5:15 and the race to get out the door starts. So I didn't run. Outside.
But FOMC has weight room with some cardio equipment. I get there, and there's hardly any cars in the parking lot. I can see a bunch of people in the pool and dive tank. Then I when I get to the weight room there are 6 people there. Three are taking up all the treadmills, one is on the only elliptical machine, one is on the nice recumbent bike, and one is pushing weights. Go figure. Warmed up on a stair climber for a little while. I hate stair climbers even more than treadmills. Way more.
The nice treadmill came free first, oddly enough, just as I was really sick of the stair climber and was thinking about going swimming anyways, in my running shorts, and wondering how that would work out.
Warmed up a little more, then cranked the incline to 6% ran 9/1 nice and easy. For the next 9 I lowered the incline but ran faster, trying to take quick steps. For the last 9 I gradually lowered it and played with different running speeds. Cooled down. I'll call this 45 minutes.
On the way out I was chatting with one of the pool staff. She had just got her order of pool toys, and one of them was a weird sock thing with a bent fin on it out to one side. It turns out to be a training aid for learning breast stroke. I told her my breast stroke only warms up the water and I don't go anywhere. She says it's my kick and a 5 minute session with her would have me screaming down the pool. Uhuh. Yup yup yup, and I've got this really nice bridge for sale.
Ate a little bit too much supper, then tried to find the sweet spot between letting it settle long enough, but not so long that I'd be up late still jazzed from the bike workout. For a while I wondered if I miscalculated, but it was all ok.
Warmed up 20 min.
3 min each hill climb then right into 100+ rpm, then one min easy,
4 min each hill climb then right into 100+ rpm, then one min easy,
5 min each hill climb then right into 100+ rpm, then one min easy,
4 min each hill climb then right into 100+ rpm, then one min easy,
3 min each hill climb then right into 100+ rpm, then one min easy,
Cooled down 15 min or so, for a total of 1.25 hr, with some stretching after.
Nothing special as far as the workout went. Wasn't really in the mood. Drove heart rate into high zone 2 or low zone 3, sweated a bucket, nice recovery during easy pedal. Bike workouts are more fun when there is someone to chat to.
Ironman Canada - DONE! What next?
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Monday, December 29, 2008
Another swim
Slithered into the pool this morning. That seemed the best choice given the weird holiday hours this week. At this pool the kick boards are up at the far end from where I normally start, so I didn't go get one. Too lazy to walk the extra 50 m. Go figure, huh.
Started with a 500 m swim, trying to keep my right arm pull strong. I also thought about my kick, and tried to keep that strong too. I'm still way slower than typical, but there's been big improvement over last week. It was beginning to feel a bit weak at the end. After a bit of a rest I tried a bunch of flip turns. I didn't bash my feet, or get water up the nose, or really get any turns done. I tend to get to where my feet are up, I'm looking up at the surface of the water, and I sink like a stone. I brushed my shoulders against the floor of the pool a bunch of times. I got turned sideways lots. I think I'm going to have to watch those videos again. Trying to do an open turn using my left hand when I'm swimming in a lane counter clockwise (ie, swimming on the right side of the lane) is a royal pain in the butt and about once per swim I try it with my right hand which isn't fun at all.
From there I was into the dive tank for a bunch of core work. This is coming along pretty good. I'm just about back to where I was. For a long time I couldn't hook my just fingers over the edge of the pool for stability; my right elbow wouldn't take it. I had to hook my elbows over. But for most of it I'm back to fingers.
Because it's so close to Christmas, I'm going to be a little generous and call this .75 hr.
Started with a 500 m swim, trying to keep my right arm pull strong. I also thought about my kick, and tried to keep that strong too. I'm still way slower than typical, but there's been big improvement over last week. It was beginning to feel a bit weak at the end. After a bit of a rest I tried a bunch of flip turns. I didn't bash my feet, or get water up the nose, or really get any turns done. I tend to get to where my feet are up, I'm looking up at the surface of the water, and I sink like a stone. I brushed my shoulders against the floor of the pool a bunch of times. I got turned sideways lots. I think I'm going to have to watch those videos again. Trying to do an open turn using my left hand when I'm swimming in a lane counter clockwise (ie, swimming on the right side of the lane) is a royal pain in the butt and about once per swim I try it with my right hand which isn't fun at all.
From there I was into the dive tank for a bunch of core work. This is coming along pretty good. I'm just about back to where I was. For a long time I couldn't hook my just fingers over the edge of the pool for stability; my right elbow wouldn't take it. I had to hook my elbows over. But for most of it I'm back to fingers.
Because it's so close to Christmas, I'm going to be a little generous and call this .75 hr.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Julie's new bike, run, eat, swim visit
Julie bought a new bike! (ooooooohhhhhhh, aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh) A Cervelo P2C. It's beautiful. Since you all know what a P2C looks like, I thought I'd show you what her's looked like within a few minutes of finishing the first ride.
You'll have to go to her blog to get the whole story. So the deal was that she'd drop by Saturday afternoon, we'd do a bike workout, run, go for dinner, snooze for a few minutes, go for a swim, do breakfast, then she'd head home. Then I'd collapse. Gawd does that girl have energy!
We got set up in the basement, and did one of her workouts. Warmup, then a hard gear for 5 min, then the next harder gear for another 5, do that twice more, some easy pedal, then do that whole thing twice more. Then some accelerations, then cooldown. It was good. Julie looks totally at home on the new bike. We watched the last part of the Real Roads IMC course, up Yellow Lakes and back to town. With the sound off, listening to what's on my ipod. 1 hr 50 min. Here's us, hard at it.
It was warm, about zero or so. She brought some yak traks to put on our shoes, and we headed out for a quick run around the block. This is my 3 K route, and we did in almost exactly 20 min. Her bounding along, bouncing over packed down snow ridges from the plow, taking it easy. Me shuffling along, puffing like a steam engine. I'd have to go back through my posts, but I think that's the fastest I've ever done 3K. We walked past her car during the cooldown. I'm pretty sure I heard Madge crying quietly to herself about having some parts stripped off, being taken apart, and left in the cold trunk, knowing she's been replaced. Remember that IKEA commercial about the lamp? Yeah, sort of like that.
Back in, shared stretching tips, and stretched out. Cleaned up. We made total pigs of ourselves at Parthenon. I think that's the best Greek restaurant in Calgary. mmmmmmm. Back to our place where we chatted up a storm till zzzzzzzz.
Over to the pool. She's a better swimmer than her blog would have you believe. I managed to thrash my way through 1000 m freestyle. Kick, 550 m, rest, kick, 200 m doing 50 m intervals on 1:15, rest, kick, 150 free, rest, 100 m hard, rest, kick. There were a few smooth lengths, and a few semi-fast lengths. But it's coming together.
Oh, and the number. 231. Up a bit, but I've been pigging out on sweets the last couple weeks. Time to get serious about eating good again. After a huge breakfast at Belmont, we got her all packed up and sent off in a flurry of snow. Hope it's not like that all the way home.
Weekly totals
Swim 1.5 hr
Bike 5.3
Run .3 hr
Total 7 hrs.
You'll have to go to her blog to get the whole story. So the deal was that she'd drop by Saturday afternoon, we'd do a bike workout, run, go for dinner, snooze for a few minutes, go for a swim, do breakfast, then she'd head home. Then I'd collapse. Gawd does that girl have energy!
We got set up in the basement, and did one of her workouts. Warmup, then a hard gear for 5 min, then the next harder gear for another 5, do that twice more, some easy pedal, then do that whole thing twice more. Then some accelerations, then cooldown. It was good. Julie looks totally at home on the new bike. We watched the last part of the Real Roads IMC course, up Yellow Lakes and back to town. With the sound off, listening to what's on my ipod. 1 hr 50 min. Here's us, hard at it.
It was warm, about zero or so. She brought some yak traks to put on our shoes, and we headed out for a quick run around the block. This is my 3 K route, and we did in almost exactly 20 min. Her bounding along, bouncing over packed down snow ridges from the plow, taking it easy. Me shuffling along, puffing like a steam engine. I'd have to go back through my posts, but I think that's the fastest I've ever done 3K. We walked past her car during the cooldown. I'm pretty sure I heard Madge crying quietly to herself about having some parts stripped off, being taken apart, and left in the cold trunk, knowing she's been replaced. Remember that IKEA commercial about the lamp? Yeah, sort of like that.
Back in, shared stretching tips, and stretched out. Cleaned up. We made total pigs of ourselves at Parthenon. I think that's the best Greek restaurant in Calgary. mmmmmmm. Back to our place where we chatted up a storm till zzzzzzzz.
Over to the pool. She's a better swimmer than her blog would have you believe. I managed to thrash my way through 1000 m freestyle. Kick, 550 m, rest, kick, 200 m doing 50 m intervals on 1:15, rest, kick, 150 free, rest, 100 m hard, rest, kick. There were a few smooth lengths, and a few semi-fast lengths. But it's coming together.
Oh, and the number. 231. Up a bit, but I've been pigging out on sweets the last couple weeks. Time to get serious about eating good again. After a huge breakfast at Belmont, we got her all packed up and sent off in a flurry of snow. Hope it's not like that all the way home.
Weekly totals
Swim 1.5 hr
Bike 5.3
Run .3 hr
Total 7 hrs.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
IG's avatar was watching
Once upon a time, someone asked an author how to learn to write. His answer "You have a million words of bad writing in you, and the sooner you start writing, the sooner you'll write it out of your system."
Someone asked IG how to get better on the bike. His answer, "Ride more!"
Today was a good day for a workout. Everything felt strong, including my arm, so I pushed for a good workout. Keep in mind that during the easy pedal I'm working the range of motion on my arm.
Started with some gentle stretching, then warmed up on the bike for 15 minutes. Did some slow accelerations during that time. Then started with 3 sets of one leg drill, each with accelerations after.
Then started the first main set he had given us. 3 min @100 rpm, 4 min hill, 3 min @ 100 rpm, 3 min easy pedal.
Then 2 min TT, 5 min 15/15, 2 min TT, 3 min hill, 3 min easy pedal
Then 3 min hill, 3 min 15/15, 3 min hill, 3 min 15/15, 3 min hill, followed by a few minutes easy pedal, and assessing how I felt. Still wanted to do more.
10 x 4/2, with the 4 min at 100 to 110 rpm, driving heart rate up into aerobic zone. Concentrating on keeping pedal strokes even and round, light and fast. Then some slow accelerations and 15 min easy pedal and cool down. Then a long stretching session. I tried, and can do plank position, which is new. Pushups are still right out.
Throughout this, IG was watching the stop watch, the heart rate monitor, and the rpm. There was lots of encouragement to get in the last few seconds of each segment, and to keep it smooth and fast. The 2.5 hours on the bike went by fast. I could have gone longer, and thought of doing so, but we've got Christmas dinner at friends, and didn't want to be totally wiped out.
I'm really pleased with how it went. This is the strongest bike session since the build to my last half IM race. My watch says I burned over 2100 calories, and I'm probably going to eat that all back again at dinner in a couple of hours. Burp.
Someone asked IG how to get better on the bike. His answer, "Ride more!"
Today was a good day for a workout. Everything felt strong, including my arm, so I pushed for a good workout. Keep in mind that during the easy pedal I'm working the range of motion on my arm.
Started with some gentle stretching, then warmed up on the bike for 15 minutes. Did some slow accelerations during that time. Then started with 3 sets of one leg drill, each with accelerations after.
Then started the first main set he had given us. 3 min @100 rpm, 4 min hill, 3 min @ 100 rpm, 3 min easy pedal.
Then 2 min TT, 5 min 15/15, 2 min TT, 3 min hill, 3 min easy pedal
Then 3 min hill, 3 min 15/15, 3 min hill, 3 min 15/15, 3 min hill, followed by a few minutes easy pedal, and assessing how I felt. Still wanted to do more.
10 x 4/2, with the 4 min at 100 to 110 rpm, driving heart rate up into aerobic zone. Concentrating on keeping pedal strokes even and round, light and fast. Then some slow accelerations and 15 min easy pedal and cool down. Then a long stretching session. I tried, and can do plank position, which is new. Pushups are still right out.
Throughout this, IG was watching the stop watch, the heart rate monitor, and the rpm. There was lots of encouragement to get in the last few seconds of each segment, and to keep it smooth and fast. The 2.5 hours on the bike went by fast. I could have gone longer, and thought of doing so, but we've got Christmas dinner at friends, and didn't want to be totally wiped out.
I'm really pleased with how it went. This is the strongest bike session since the build to my last half IM race. My watch says I burned over 2100 calories, and I'm probably going to eat that all back again at dinner in a couple of hours. Burp.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
The butt on fire reference workout
As you may have noticed, I didn't swim yesterday. The main reason is that my arm was still aching, but mainly I was hoping to miss some traffic on the way to work. What everyone else was doing getting on Deerfoot at 6am I don't know.
I wanted to get one more swim in before the pools close before Christmas, so today was the day. At least it wasn't as cold out as it has been. Shared a lane with another guy and the mental pain was almost as bad as the physical pain. He swam quick enough, but he was sloppy. I burned to show him how to swim smooth and fast. Sigh.
What's interesting is that I could pull fairly hard, and get a reasonably long stroke in, and feel reasonably smooth about it at first. I'm still not fast, not by any means. Still, the arm didn't last all that long. I gave it a rest, then started doing 100 m sets with a rest. And when I couldn't do those I did 50 m. I worked it pretty hard, but it feels good, in a painful sort of way. The shoulder, elbow, forearm and wrist all hurt in what I hope is a good way. They're tired. I think I'm getting close to the natural limits of motion, so I need to start working on building strength through the entire range. Did some core work in the dive tank.
Me and another co-worker cleaned out the fridge of what was remaining from the Friday office party, and generally tidied. Then bailed out shortly after lunch with no guilt. Five days off, then 2.5 on, then another 4.5 off. Yeehaw!
Got home and hung out for a while, enjoying the novelty of being home while the sun was still up. Still I couldn't forget the regular Tues spin workouts. I would feel so much guilt if I didn't do something, and I know IG would be sadly disappointed. So I hope he likes this one. I didn't want to keep track of intervals, so many minutes at this, so many at that, and changing gears, and all that. Too complicated for my simple brain today.
Warmed up 15 min, even doing some one leg drill (the audience goes wild!) and slow accelerations. Then settled in. Found the 5th gear down from the biggest cog, on the small chainring, and dialed in 95 rpm. I started about mid 120's for heart rate, and slowly drifted up to 128 to 130 or so for most of the workout. The last 5-7 minutes it started drifting up to the mid 130's. Total time doing this was 30 min, just pedaling, trying not to move much, trying to make my feet light and smooth, imagining myself on a long flat straightaway with a headwind. I wanted see how long I could sit and spin. Toward the end things were getting a bit jerky, but my legs felt fine. I even found myself up over 100 rpm at one point. My butt was on fire about the 25 min mark. My left hand was going to sleep, so I think was was leaning on it more. Stood up right on the 30 min mark, and made sure the saddle hadn't become permanently attached, and was tempted to pour some water down the back hatch. Did a few minutes of slow accelerations and cooled down. Then did a little bit of stretching, might do more later tonight.
This was an interesting workout; mentally very tough to just sit there, maintain the same rpm, and try to keep the heart rate under control. I was never even close to being out of breath, but I was sure sweating up a storm. IG sent around some spin workouts for us to try over the break. I'm looking to get those in, and hopefully some nice long spin sessions.
I wanted to get one more swim in before the pools close before Christmas, so today was the day. At least it wasn't as cold out as it has been. Shared a lane with another guy and the mental pain was almost as bad as the physical pain. He swam quick enough, but he was sloppy. I burned to show him how to swim smooth and fast. Sigh.
What's interesting is that I could pull fairly hard, and get a reasonably long stroke in, and feel reasonably smooth about it at first. I'm still not fast, not by any means. Still, the arm didn't last all that long. I gave it a rest, then started doing 100 m sets with a rest. And when I couldn't do those I did 50 m. I worked it pretty hard, but it feels good, in a painful sort of way. The shoulder, elbow, forearm and wrist all hurt in what I hope is a good way. They're tired. I think I'm getting close to the natural limits of motion, so I need to start working on building strength through the entire range. Did some core work in the dive tank.
Me and another co-worker cleaned out the fridge of what was remaining from the Friday office party, and generally tidied. Then bailed out shortly after lunch with no guilt. Five days off, then 2.5 on, then another 4.5 off. Yeehaw!
Got home and hung out for a while, enjoying the novelty of being home while the sun was still up. Still I couldn't forget the regular Tues spin workouts. I would feel so much guilt if I didn't do something, and I know IG would be sadly disappointed. So I hope he likes this one. I didn't want to keep track of intervals, so many minutes at this, so many at that, and changing gears, and all that. Too complicated for my simple brain today.
Warmed up 15 min, even doing some one leg drill (the audience goes wild!) and slow accelerations. Then settled in. Found the 5th gear down from the biggest cog, on the small chainring, and dialed in 95 rpm. I started about mid 120's for heart rate, and slowly drifted up to 128 to 130 or so for most of the workout. The last 5-7 minutes it started drifting up to the mid 130's. Total time doing this was 30 min, just pedaling, trying not to move much, trying to make my feet light and smooth, imagining myself on a long flat straightaway with a headwind. I wanted see how long I could sit and spin. Toward the end things were getting a bit jerky, but my legs felt fine. I even found myself up over 100 rpm at one point. My butt was on fire about the 25 min mark. My left hand was going to sleep, so I think was was leaning on it more. Stood up right on the 30 min mark, and made sure the saddle hadn't become permanently attached, and was tempted to pour some water down the back hatch. Did a few minutes of slow accelerations and cooled down. Then did a little bit of stretching, might do more later tonight.
This was an interesting workout; mentally very tough to just sit there, maintain the same rpm, and try to keep the heart rate under control. I was never even close to being out of breath, but I was sure sweating up a storm. IG sent around some spin workouts for us to try over the break. I'm looking to get those in, and hopefully some nice long spin sessions.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
There is 25 cm of snow outside
At least it's fairly warm by recent standards, being only -20 C with a wind leading to a windchill of -30 C. Tonight and tomorrow are colder. With more snow on the way. Sunrise was at 8:36, and sunset was at 4:31.
After a crappy night's sleep, I got all prepped to ride. My arm is still sore. It was a nice solid workout, but not a stellar one like I was hoping for. Only a 20 min warmup, then 10 x 4/2, and a 10 minute cool down, with some stretching afterward. The 4 min sets were all at 100 rpm, at the high end of zone 2 or into the bottom of zone 3. This is a comfortable place to be working out. I was fine riding with two feet, but trying the one leg drill wasn't good for my arm at all. Even the end of the 1.5 hr it was getting tired, so I decided not to push it. I'll have lots of time for long rides over the coming two weeks.
I watched disc 3 of the Real Roads IMC course during my ride, with the sound off. That section sure looks boring. Oh, and look for the changes to my blog site. I spent some time last night playing with it.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
/grumpiness
Things are better now. Took it easy the last couple days as far as workouts are concerned, unless you count shoveling snow as a workout. That's still happening. The arm rehabilitation has been going well, painfully well. Still trying to push range of motion.
I was up early today, and looked outside about 6:30. It's still dark, and looked cold. The weather channel said it was about -29 outside, with a windchill about -39. I thought about running outside, for about 2 seconds. It isn't the cold, you can dress for that. It's the thought of slipping, and there is nowhere to run without the ice. The roads are polished hard pack in between small patches of black ice. Most, but not all my neighbours are pretty good about shoveling, but at the least you still have to cross roads.
Can you say treadmill? There, I thought you could. I read a hint on another blog about increasing the inclination so I tried that. I set the machine to 5%, and did some 9/1 sets. Six of them, after a warmup walk. This treadmill was set to the SI system, so it took a bit of doing the first set to get into the groove, but I found a pace to keep my heart rate about the bottom of zone 3. The last set was fun. I ran the inclination back to 0, and upped the speed. I hadn't thought changing the inclination would make that much difference. For a while the 'mill said I was running faster than 10 Kph, which is really fast for me. Then I dialed it back down a bit, and eased into a cooldown.
Once home again, I left my half full water bottle outside while I shoveled the driveway again, and got the morning papers. It was outside for about 20 minutes or so, and you could see it getting slushy. Maybe another 5 minutes and it would have been frozen solid.
(Brace yourself Kelly.) Once inside I poured the first cup of coffee for the day, and settled in to read the papers. No cat, she preferred to meow at the door where the other human was snoozing. It's a beautiful sunny day out there. If I owned cross country skis I'd be out in the big open area across the road, or down in Fish Creek.
We had a low key office Christmas party Friday. Lots of really good munchies, and an exchange of Secret Santa gifts. I ended up with a Best Buy gift card and a very full tummy. Somehow, with the workouts, I don't feel as much guilt about pigging out on goodies. (More on this later.)
Last night I found out Google Earth will show me a movie of the IMC bike course and watched that. Then watched some IMC video, marveling at the fitness of those pros. There was one cut directly from a running pro ( I think it was Lisa Bently), to some running age groupers. What a difference! I've spent some time thinking about how far my fitness has come in the last year or so. A year ago now I'd still be called pudgy at best. Susi was kind enough to say my six-pack was 'insulated'. Polar bear class insulation, I say, and there's still lots of it around. I admire Jenna's bravery in posting before and after shots. I'm not sure I'd do that. In fact, I'm sure I wouldn't, unless the the muffin top fans out there convince me otherwise.
But all that goes into musing about fitness goals, and less directly, life goals. I know that sooner or later during a training session or a race, my body parts are going to start asking 'why are you doing this to us? or, We can stop sometime Real Soon Now, RIGHT?' Two years ago, I'd barely heard of triathlon, and certainly never dreamed to actually doing one myself. So things change. I'm still thinking I'll only do the one Ironman. The 'brag the rest of your life' is having a strong effect on me right now. But really, Ironman is only one step in a bigger goal. I feel better about myself these days. I'm sharper and more with it mentally, most of the time. Physically, arm aside, I'm in better shape than any time since my teen years, and I'm loving it. I don't want that to go away.
This is going to sound odd, but I mostly really enjoy the training sessions. Times like earlier this week where I simply don't want to are very rare. They are balanced by times like this morning where I was looking forward to getting onto the treadmill. (Brace yourself Susi.) I can't wait till I can run outside, since a treadmill just isn't the same. I like how things feel as I'm running, both mentally and physically, even if there's still more jiggle than I'd like. I'm loving the bike sessions. Just hanging around people that have done Ironman is a learning experience. I see how far there is for me to go. I've always liked swimming, and just now I'm really missing my inner shark. But he'll be back.
Working out alone, (I train alone, thumpthump, thumpthump) mostly without distraction, gives me the time to think about who and what I am. Mostly I'm liking what I find, and I'm starting to work on the things I don't like. What's interesting is that the more I work out, and the more I hang around positive outgoing people, the parts I don't like are getting smaller.
Part of the time is thinking about training technique, but part of it my imagination is off the leash. I try not to think about races or preparation for races because that tends to drive up my heart rate. But I've thought about some of the documentation for the various software projects I'm working on, the logistical implications of flying cars, resolving the political situation here, wondering why anyone would want to push weights, a warm beach where scantily clad women bring fruity drinks with the little umbrellas in them, trying to make up new songs to go with existing music, and all kinds of other stuff.
Reading about the changes in Jenna's life has been really interesting, trying to get a grip on food issues in particular. My wife is a really good cook, and I eat really well, sometimes too well. That's one of the reasons I was so big. I've been wondering if I really want to go through a period where I write down everything I put in my mouth, and how much of it. I fear just how horrifying the results could be, and how shocked you'd all be. "You ate *HOW* many cookies???" There's a ton of advice about fitness on the web. I think I've got the workout and activities piece under control and in progress (thanks Greg!) The next big step would appear to getting better control of what I eat. Too many sweet things, and probably too much processed food. My problem is that nutrition is like accounting. It probably makes sense in some abstract way, but doesn't have any relevance to the real world. I speak as a guy that is incapable of balancing a cheque book. Proteins? Carbs? Sugars? Fats? Olioglithic triglicerides? It's all Greek to me. Yet somehow I'm going to have to get a grip on this. I can't go on forever using the "lotsa different stuff" model. Can I?
I was up early today, and looked outside about 6:30. It's still dark, and looked cold. The weather channel said it was about -29 outside, with a windchill about -39. I thought about running outside, for about 2 seconds. It isn't the cold, you can dress for that. It's the thought of slipping, and there is nowhere to run without the ice. The roads are polished hard pack in between small patches of black ice. Most, but not all my neighbours are pretty good about shoveling, but at the least you still have to cross roads.
Can you say treadmill? There, I thought you could. I read a hint on another blog about increasing the inclination so I tried that. I set the machine to 5%, and did some 9/1 sets. Six of them, after a warmup walk. This treadmill was set to the SI system, so it took a bit of doing the first set to get into the groove, but I found a pace to keep my heart rate about the bottom of zone 3. The last set was fun. I ran the inclination back to 0, and upped the speed. I hadn't thought changing the inclination would make that much difference. For a while the 'mill said I was running faster than 10 Kph, which is really fast for me. Then I dialed it back down a bit, and eased into a cooldown.
Once home again, I left my half full water bottle outside while I shoveled the driveway again, and got the morning papers. It was outside for about 20 minutes or so, and you could see it getting slushy. Maybe another 5 minutes and it would have been frozen solid.
(Brace yourself Kelly.) Once inside I poured the first cup of coffee for the day, and settled in to read the papers. No cat, she preferred to meow at the door where the other human was snoozing. It's a beautiful sunny day out there. If I owned cross country skis I'd be out in the big open area across the road, or down in Fish Creek.
We had a low key office Christmas party Friday. Lots of really good munchies, and an exchange of Secret Santa gifts. I ended up with a Best Buy gift card and a very full tummy. Somehow, with the workouts, I don't feel as much guilt about pigging out on goodies. (More on this later.)
Last night I found out Google Earth will show me a movie of the IMC bike course and watched that. Then watched some IMC video, marveling at the fitness of those pros. There was one cut directly from a running pro ( I think it was Lisa Bently), to some running age groupers. What a difference! I've spent some time thinking about how far my fitness has come in the last year or so. A year ago now I'd still be called pudgy at best. Susi was kind enough to say my six-pack was 'insulated'. Polar bear class insulation, I say, and there's still lots of it around. I admire Jenna's bravery in posting before and after shots. I'm not sure I'd do that. In fact, I'm sure I wouldn't, unless the the muffin top fans out there convince me otherwise.
But all that goes into musing about fitness goals, and less directly, life goals. I know that sooner or later during a training session or a race, my body parts are going to start asking 'why are you doing this to us? or, We can stop sometime Real Soon Now, RIGHT?' Two years ago, I'd barely heard of triathlon, and certainly never dreamed to actually doing one myself. So things change. I'm still thinking I'll only do the one Ironman. The 'brag the rest of your life' is having a strong effect on me right now. But really, Ironman is only one step in a bigger goal. I feel better about myself these days. I'm sharper and more with it mentally, most of the time. Physically, arm aside, I'm in better shape than any time since my teen years, and I'm loving it. I don't want that to go away.
This is going to sound odd, but I mostly really enjoy the training sessions. Times like earlier this week where I simply don't want to are very rare. They are balanced by times like this morning where I was looking forward to getting onto the treadmill. (Brace yourself Susi.) I can't wait till I can run outside, since a treadmill just isn't the same. I like how things feel as I'm running, both mentally and physically, even if there's still more jiggle than I'd like. I'm loving the bike sessions. Just hanging around people that have done Ironman is a learning experience. I see how far there is for me to go. I've always liked swimming, and just now I'm really missing my inner shark. But he'll be back.
Working out alone, (I train alone, thumpthump, thumpthump) mostly without distraction, gives me the time to think about who and what I am. Mostly I'm liking what I find, and I'm starting to work on the things I don't like. What's interesting is that the more I work out, and the more I hang around positive outgoing people, the parts I don't like are getting smaller.
Part of the time is thinking about training technique, but part of it my imagination is off the leash. I try not to think about races or preparation for races because that tends to drive up my heart rate. But I've thought about some of the documentation for the various software projects I'm working on, the logistical implications of flying cars, resolving the political situation here, wondering why anyone would want to push weights, a warm beach where scantily clad women bring fruity drinks with the little umbrellas in them, trying to make up new songs to go with existing music, and all kinds of other stuff.
Reading about the changes in Jenna's life has been really interesting, trying to get a grip on food issues in particular. My wife is a really good cook, and I eat really well, sometimes too well. That's one of the reasons I was so big. I've been wondering if I really want to go through a period where I write down everything I put in my mouth, and how much of it. I fear just how horrifying the results could be, and how shocked you'd all be. "You ate *HOW* many cookies???" There's a ton of advice about fitness on the web. I think I've got the workout and activities piece under control and in progress (thanks Greg!) The next big step would appear to getting better control of what I eat. Too many sweet things, and probably too much processed food. My problem is that nutrition is like accounting. It probably makes sense in some abstract way, but doesn't have any relevance to the real world. I speak as a guy that is incapable of balancing a cheque book. Proteins? Carbs? Sugars? Fats? Olioglithic triglicerides? It's all Greek to me. Yet somehow I'm going to have to get a grip on this. I can't go on forever using the "lotsa different stuff" model. Can I?
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