Nice brisk day for a run

I trust that going for a brick run in that dispels any lingering taint of weenieness from last week. It was snowing, very lightly.

KS, my wonderful massage therapist worked me over for 1.5 hours Saturday. It hurt so good. If I could afford it, and if she'd be willing to put up with the drive across Calgary that often, I'd get one done every week on the run up to race season.

The spin went really well. I warmed with about 10 minutes of light stretching first, then got on the bike. Started with 20 min warmup, with some slow accelerations at the end of the warm up. Some one leg drill 90, 60, 90 seconds each. A bit of easy spin with some more accelerations, trying to slowly go through the rpms where the sympathetic vibrations and resonance normally set in, staying in control of the spin, engaging the core. oof. 6 x 8/2 aerobic. Settled into a nice gear most of the way down the cogs on the small chainring, maintaining 85-90 rpm. Speedometer said about 27 kph, for all that means. Heart rate bottom of zone 3, nice and steady.

What was annoying is that it sounded and felt like the back shifters were changing half a gear on me. Lots of pops, snaps, but no crackles. Not sure what it is. Maybe tomorrow I'll dab in a few drops of chain lube and see what happens. It only did this during the aerobic sets. 1.75 hrs on the bike.

Did a 4 min transition, and out for a 15 min run. My legs are still feeling a bit heavy, and kind of all shook up from the earlier run and massage. Pace was slow, but I had to be careful of my footing anyways. I was thinking about how I was planting my feet, and I'm going to have to watch the right one. I think I might be doing something odd there. More details as it happens.

Weekly totals:
Swim 4 hrs
Bike 4.5 hrs
Run 3.25 hrs
Aerobic snow shoveling 1 hr (told you I was going to count it!)
Total 12.75 hrs.

Strrrrrreeeeeeetttttttttccccccchhhhhhhhhhh! ooooooo

When faithful readers last checked in, I had bailed part way through my spin session and did some stretching and oozing back and forth on the roller. Before bed I took some pain pills, and rubbed Tiger Balm into my hip. Slept like a rock.

Pretty well first thing I shambled downstairs and stretched for an hour. Gently, trying to work on hamstrings, glutes, IT, Hip Flexors. Played a Yoga DVD while doing this, and incorporated some of those moves, if they looked like fun. Felt much better. I had to laugh at the one demonstrator, with the yoga mat well anchored down with rocks all the way round.

The plan calls for a short easy run today. I thought about it for a while, thinking about getting back on my bike instead. Poked my nose outside, and figured it was -15 C or so, with a light wind. Legs feel much better, and I thought that a short easy run could be considered hair of the dog. Plus, I think I get back some of those weenie points I racked up last night. Gotta get something for saying, 'I ran outside for 30 minutes in -15 C, with a stiff wind.'

Ran easy around the neighbourhood, keeping turnover light and quick. One advantage to it being this cold is that you know everything is ice all the way through. No worries about breaking through and getting feet wet. And oddly enough, lots of the ice offers fairly good footing. Just toward the end my legs were getting a little tired. Stretched more afterward.

So there's the workouts for today done. Yahoo!

Results of a nearly sleepless night

One of the hangovers from shiftwork is poor sleep every now and then. It doesn't happen as much since I started working out, but it still happens every once in a while. Last night was it.

Getting up was groggy and slow. Once I got to the pool I found I had done something to my left arm overnight. I could barely get it above my head. I found this out pushing off the side of the pool. Good thing my mouth was underwater so the other patrons didn't hear my scream. Warmed up really carefully and for longer than normal. Did some drill. Tired arms, the left much more so. Tried a golf and was appalled by the number. Started doing the many 150 m intervals the plan called for. The first was nearly 3 minutes!! The second was only slightly quicker, and the third about the same. The fourth was brutal, and I stopped. Did a bit more drill, and tried one more golf. I don't even want to talk about it. No feel for the water at all today. Cooled down. Half an hour tops. Did some core and careful stretching in the dive tank for 15 min. Did more stretching in the hot tub, trying to get various bits into the good jet.

Came home, and had a bit of quiet time. It's not the day I'd have chosen to clean out the recyclables in the garage, but it's that or start parking the car outside. It wasn't cold particularly, but the wind and bit of snow was brutal. I'm ready for spring, just in case anyone was wondering.

Couldn't face going out into the cold again for spin class, along with all the packing, unpacking, repacking, and driving. Call me a weenie if you feel you should. I got the work out from Greg, and set up a bit early to get'er done.

Started warming up, and found more pain. Right hip now, some weird twinges in my left knee, and my left shoulder isn't liking the bike position. I hopped off the bike to do some stretching and rollering. Ouch. Back on for the one leg drill. That wasn't so bad. Greg had laid out a three times 15 min course. We can tell his brain is still on vacation because there was actually some flats and downhill in it. First one was ok. Just barely. Got part way through the second one, and stalled on the hill. My legs didn't mind moderate spinning, but they weren't happy about hills. Shambled through the remainder of that lap. Sat up, assessed, then did some easy spin to try to flush out the legs. Did more stretching and rollering after. My massage therapist comes on Sat, and I think I could die happy if she was here now.

Linda is thinking that the scittering and near fall yesterday may have strained things a bit more than I thought. Or the run was harder than I thought and I didn't stretch enough after. Or what little sleep I got was in some weird contorted position. Or, just being thorough here, maybe I was kidnapped by aliens last night and they did all sorts of weird things to my poor bod.

Needless to say, I'm hoping for a much better sleep tonight.

map, photos, pool zoo, run!

With yesterday being crappy weather, I think all the people that missed their swim showed up this morning. It was a total zoo. I didn't even try to get into a lane. There was 3 lanes, with 3 people in each, with a perfectly imperfect mix of fast, medium and slow. It begs for organization. I went into the dive tank, and kept an eye on the pool. Normally, shortly after 7, things calm down. Not today.

After a bit, I slipped into a lane with another girl that swims about the same speed, and life was good with just the two of us. Then this ditz plopped into the lane. Didn't even look, just started swimming. Very slowly. Very, very slowly. I chatted to same speed girl during the interval breaks. Both of us are touching her toes and lapping her, quickly, and she didn't get the message that maybe, just maybe, she was in the wrong lane. Eventually, when we were almost done, she moved into the next lane. With a girl that was swimming the same speed as us. The other guy noticed we were leaving when done, and slid into our lane. He caught our eyes, gestured at the slow one, and rolled his eyes.

The actual workout was a warm up, and a short session of drill. Then 5 x 250 m, essentially on the 5 min. Took 30 seconds rest each time. Cooled down. 45 min. Did core work and stretching in the dive tank before and after the swim for another 15 min at least, and probably more.

The run today was really good. I was planning to redo the route I did last week, and take some photos. Well, there was a hitch there, but I still got photos. Here's the map of where I went.


Walked out to where the pathway starts at Anderson and 37. This is what it looks like. The first one is a view of the mountains, and the second shows the traffic lights where I started my run.



My thought today was to run easy, being careful of footing. There's some icy patches on the paths. I remember Kelly saying she wanted to follow the path I showed in a photo a while ago. That goes south. I'll get pics of them when the ice on the path melts. This is going north. Here's a series of photos showing the path.


The space off to the left is a huge off-leash dog run area.




This is just one of the puddles. I think I get extra points for the run, having to leap over the smaller puddles, run on snow and ice drifts, and stride carefully on ice.




I was surprised to find the path I wanted to go on to get to Glenmore closed. They were doing something with Osprey nests. I thought it was a really pretty helicopter.



I took an alternative route to get to the pathway around the reservoir. Here's some views of the reservoir, and across it, you can see some of the taller buildings downtown.




From the map you can see where there is a point of land jutting into the reservoir. From there, you get a great view of the mountains across the reservoir.




This is where I turned around last week. You can see I'm a bit slower here. In the background is Heritage Park.


Rather than go back the way I came, I followed the bike path through a semi-ritzy neighbourhood to get back to 90th Ave. This is one of the roads that Calgary never plows. The ice on this street is at least 6 inches thick.

Ran back to 24th St and headed south to get home most directly. I have photos of this, but it's just sidewalks on a busy street. This last photo shows how Calgary is at least consistently inconsistent. Just like they don't plow all the road, they don't plow all the bike paths either. This is a small park not far from my home. Can you see the paved path starting where the road stops? No, I thought not.



Aside from a few scitters on icy bits, it was a good run. Mapmyrun says 10.25 K in 80 minutes. There was starting about the hour mark where I couldn't find a stride. My right foot was hurting a bit, feeling tender, so I was wanting to limp on it a bit. After a while I found another stride, clumping along like one of those big horses that pull the beer wagon. Couldn't ask for a nicer day to run! Stretched after a 10 min walk home, and stretched a bit more throughout the rest of the afternoon.

Must say, I'm not thrilled with how blogger behaves when you want to add lots of photos. Grrr.

Extra workout shoveling snow.

Back to the plan again today. Went in hoping I'd be able to get to do drill.
Warmed up. Did a bunch of drill. Shared lane with a fairly fast breast stroker so this all worked out.
3 x 500 m, with one minute rest. Did them in 9:28, 9:32, and 9:33. Just as I was starting the breast stroker went away, and my buddy Deb joined me. She normally swims ever so slightly slower than my regular pace, and I was pushing a bit today. Still, only passed her once in the 1500 m. Drafted her to cool down so I wouldn't swim too fast. Sort of a cool feeling, but I'm still not convinced that swimmers can draft each other. Yes, I know many of you say so; I've never experienced it. To me, it seems that you'd swim best in non-turbulent water. Following someone, you're going through their turbulence. If anything the lead person is pushing water back, and at least some of it is pushing against you harder than still water would. So maybe some of you more experienced swimmers can explain where I've got this wrong.
So after the cool down, we chatted and got caught up. I think she said she's doing Chinook again, and will be doing IMC this year. She gave me some great volunteer tips. So an hours swim, then into the dive tank for core work for 15 minutes.

This morning when I woke up it was raining. Shortly after it turned to snow. Lots of snow. Thick, heavy, wet snow. I got home to between and inch and 2 inches of this on the driveway and sidewalks. I shoveled it. It took an hour. I'm counting this as aerobic workout. People that don't think that's fair can write to me at keith@bitemybutt.ca.

One thing you can say about Katie's bike workouts is that you know you're going to work. She mixes it up and keeps it moving. And except for one particular song, the music totally rocked tonight. Not pumping bike music, but it made me feel young again. Warmed up, did some one leg drill, some cadence drill, then into the 3 x 12 min main sets. She broke these up into smaller 2 or 3 minute bits, always changing things. There was even a little bit of downhill!!! This was 1.75 hr altogether. Great workout!

A fun visualization

And no, I'm not talking about Jenna's new suit that didn't quite work out as she had expected.

I'm plan free at the moment, so technically, I could swim anything I wanted. I really was thinking about doing drills. But my lane-mates were stupid this morning. I hate it when slow people swim in the fast lane. And yes, I realize in some company I'm a very slow swimmer, and you can be assured I'll be in the correct lane. Compared to some of my buddies, I don't even get a lane, I go straight to the kiddie pool. Neither of these people clued in when I lapped them several times. As I was warming up. I wanted the swim lane Nazi to yank them out and shake some sense into them. Alas, I was disappointed, and didn't feel like pulling a Shannon to impose some order. I was there to swim. Eventually I moved over one lane since that girl is considerate and swims about the speed I do. We cruised back and forth happily.

So by now, I was in no mood to do drill. My inner shark had come out, and I wanted to be fast, at least for today. I'd been thinking about this whole swimming from the core thing, and other technical bits of stroke. So kept on going, pushing fairly hard, projecting a 'I will eat you if you get in my way' aura. But mainly I was watching my stroke. Tinkering with the roll, since I don't roll enough. Using my core to get my arm forward and into the water and catch and pull all in one smooth motion. Trying to keep my hands moving smoothly to the appropriate hip, with no waggle or squoogilyness. Trying to keep my head down, and my push offs strong. And what do you know, 1500 m in 29:30. Did some pretty cool down stroke, trying to get my elbows high out of the water on recovery. Throughout, I visualized the water flowing around me smoothly, constantly. Did another 15 minutes core work in the dive tank.

My arms were a bit tired after that, but not the big pulling muscles. What I think of as the stabalizing muscles, that prevent squoogilyness were tired. This was a moderately hard push for effort, still breathing well, and not gasping.

Right at the nicest part of the day I went for a run along the 37th St path. Lots of dogs out again. Footing was great, though the sidewalks between here and where the path starts were wet and slushy. Lots of water running. I was out in shorts and a tech shirt, and felt a bit over dressed, it was that warm.

I'd thought about what to do, and decided think about running smoothly, with light feet. My visualization for this was to imagine a little cart being driven along the path ahead of me with a big bungee cord connected to my navel. For some reason I'd been thinking of ballroom dance. Linda and I were teaching assistants for many years, and got to interact with some amazing instructors. Some of these people have an amazing grasp of how the body works, and unbelievable muscle control. One of the exercises is to always be on top of your feet as you go through the dance steps. It's harder than it sounds. The other is to move from your core. If you do that, it becomes very difficult to step on your partner's feet.

That's what I was trying to do today, move my navel forward, imagining the little cart pulling me along with the bungee cord, and have my feet and legs just being the instrument to hold me up. Well, that got very interesting. I was running at whatever pace my legs and lungs could agree on. I didn't want to get winded, or puke, but I did want to push myself a bit.

I was really pleased with how it turned out. It's still slow compared to lots of you, but I went a lot further, well, at least some further in an hours run than I've ever done before. And could have kept going. Breathing and heart rate were under control, but my feet were getting tired. And the little guy in the cart was thinking I was stalking him for some perverted purpose.

Walked before and after. Stretched 15 minutes after, and will do more this evening before bed. Things feel pretty good.

I have to say this, but in the nicest way. Several of my blogger buddies (and you'll know who you are in a minute) are being teases. No audio track of the singing heart; I'm dying of curiosity here. Talk of peanut butter and dark chocolate, together, but without a pic of the label or describing the mail order procedures. Talk of a peekaboo swim suit, but no evidentiary photos. They don't have have to be 'naughty'. And discussion of mystical 'muscles at the top of thigh' exercises that would make us faster runners while hardly breathing at all. No Canmore cross country skiing photos. Telling us about a ride called Fruit Loops, but without a map or photos; I mean, how could you??! Talk of how beautiful Fish Creek park is, but no photo. I guess this being provocative, hoping to increase readership through mystery, and leaving a bit to the imagination.

But, in fairness, I have to say we did get a photo of pink compression socks. Life is good.

Only the bike

Yesterday as a rest day was so nice. We drove down to Turner Valley, checking out the roads. There's still lots of gravel and crap on the shoulders. It will be a while before they are ready to be ridden on. Had a big breakfast at the Chuckwagon. Their food is so good, and you need to be hungry going in there. I was. Over to do some shopping/browsing in Black Diamond, then down in High River where we visited our favourite pottery shop. Hit Okotoks on the way back, but the stores we wanted to visit were closed. Cruised up Deerfoot to check out where Linda will have to be going to yoga, now that the studio is moving. Hung out at home, went to bed early. Slept like a rock, in spite of all the coffee during the day.

Today is a bit more active. Puttering about the house has happened, and is happening. Skype has been installed. Laundry is being done. Cookies are being made. (Linda snuck them into the oven before I got a chance to QC them, so I have no idea what kind.) Tidying is in progress.

And the bike workout. Warmed up for about 20 minutes, at variable gears and rpm. Then, settled into 90 rpm, at a pace where I wasn't panting, but was needing to breath deeply, regularly. I was thinking of it as a race pace. Stayed there for 30 minutes, just pedaling, focusing on keeping an even stroke. Barely paused to wipe away sweat, and I was sweating like a stuck pig. Did a few minutes easy to dry off a bit, and get more fluids into me. Settled into the Tuesday workout I missed. TT plus a gear, 90 rpm + gears, hill climbing seated and standing, MAP's, 15/15, a bit of everything. Cooled down. 2 hours altogether.

Stretched 30 minutes after. This stretching thing is good. I'm going to try to keep up with it. There's a book taking up residence there, called Yoga Anatomy. It shows a bunch of different poses, and shows the muscles affected, tells you what the pose is good for, what the challenges are, and how to mitigate them. Some are easy, some are very hard.

Oh, and I have to tell you about lunch. Remember the lamb that was roasted on Friday? It's from Grazing Acres, at the Farmer's Market, and it's totally to die for. Tender, not fatty, and just fully of lamby goodness taste. While at the market we got some Grizzly Gouda from Sylvan Star Cheese. These guys have won prizes for their cheese. With a roasted red pepper mustard, on gourmet bread from Cob's Bakery. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now THAT'S a sandwich! I won't need to eat again today. But I just did. Had to test the cookies. Chocolate chip. More MMMMMMMM!!!!

Weekly totals
Swim 4 hr
Bike 3.5 hr
Run 1.5 hr
Total 9.0 hr.
Before a couple weeks ago, this would have been a huge week for me. Now, after the last couple weeks, it seems like a relaxing easy week. Now I'm ready (I hope) to gidyup and go for next week.