The IMC in 60 min says it all. Plus a bit of warm up and cool down. Got some commentary on the course from big Mark and Greg. Looking forward to riding it during May training camp. 1.5 hrs.
Somehow, when I get toward the end of the day without doing a workout, I don't want to do one. It was a bit of a struggle to get going. Mainly I wanted to nap with my cat a little, have some wine, and relax. But I was good.
Ironman Canada - DONE! What next?
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
So what was important today?
I MADE COOKIES!!!
For some reason it has been some time since I made cookies. Linda has been on a real tear lately, so I haven't been able to get my spoon in, so to speak. These are pretty good, an 8.5 to 9 on Keith's cookie scale. And as some can tell you, I'm a hard marker when it comes to cookies. There isn't quite enough mint in these, and I didn't get the shapes right on all of them. I put in just a hint too much flour.
So what else? Oh yeah, workouts.
FOMC was almost empty today. I had a lane to myself. 500 m warmup, with no complaints from my left shoulder. Good. Did some drill. Golf scores are better, very low 80's. I'm swimming the 50 m faster, but taking more strokes. Did some front crawl to relax, and discourage a slow one from jumping into my lane. More drill and golf. Cool down. Stroke is feeling pretty good. All in all .75 hr.
Did some yoga and stretching. Went out for an easy .75 hr run down the path toward Fish Creek. With strides. An interesting thing happened here. Interesting to me anyway, since it's the first time. Maybe it's old hat to you fast runners. Just so you know, I'm a really slow runner. Considering that I'm overcoming the sloth of 30 years of not running, and my first priority is not to hurt myself, I'm pretty pleased with my progress so far. I think that if I put it together just right, I could do 10 K in an hour. I think. But there'd better be a bucket at the finish line.
Anyways. For the very first time when running faster, I could actually feel some of the muscle interplay in my legs. I could feel my calves, hams, and glutes working together to pull me along. There was even some sympathetic vibrations and resonance in some of the flabby bits at the top of my butt. This is just below where I jiggled when trying to pedal faster on the bike a while ago. I think one session of the strides is just about as fast as I can run just now. And it felt good. During one of the easy periods between strides, I suddenly noticed I was actually running quite fast, certainly no longer at an easy pace. Fast by my standards.
I stretched for about 15 or 20 minutes after, paying particular attention to my achilles tendon, top and bottom on my right leg. That's a bit sore these days. Weather was nice, sunny and cool, just above zero, so the path was wet.
I was reading about the 'Strong like Bull' camp in Spain next Feb. It sounded very attractive. Till I saw the hill climbs. I somehow think that even with another year of conditioning, I'd still be the designated coming in last rider. On the FAQ they have 'How fit do I have to be to enjoy the camp?' but they don't have an answer yet. Uhuh. That tells me what I need to know. You know the phrase, if you have to ask how much, you can't afford it. Yeah.
For some reason it has been some time since I made cookies. Linda has been on a real tear lately, so I haven't been able to get my spoon in, so to speak. These are pretty good, an 8.5 to 9 on Keith's cookie scale. And as some can tell you, I'm a hard marker when it comes to cookies. There isn't quite enough mint in these, and I didn't get the shapes right on all of them. I put in just a hint too much flour.
So what else? Oh yeah, workouts.
FOMC was almost empty today. I had a lane to myself. 500 m warmup, with no complaints from my left shoulder. Good. Did some drill. Golf scores are better, very low 80's. I'm swimming the 50 m faster, but taking more strokes. Did some front crawl to relax, and discourage a slow one from jumping into my lane. More drill and golf. Cool down. Stroke is feeling pretty good. All in all .75 hr.
Did some yoga and stretching. Went out for an easy .75 hr run down the path toward Fish Creek. With strides. An interesting thing happened here. Interesting to me anyway, since it's the first time. Maybe it's old hat to you fast runners. Just so you know, I'm a really slow runner. Considering that I'm overcoming the sloth of 30 years of not running, and my first priority is not to hurt myself, I'm pretty pleased with my progress so far. I think that if I put it together just right, I could do 10 K in an hour. I think. But there'd better be a bucket at the finish line.
Anyways. For the very first time when running faster, I could actually feel some of the muscle interplay in my legs. I could feel my calves, hams, and glutes working together to pull me along. There was even some sympathetic vibrations and resonance in some of the flabby bits at the top of my butt. This is just below where I jiggled when trying to pedal faster on the bike a while ago. I think one session of the strides is just about as fast as I can run just now. And it felt good. During one of the easy periods between strides, I suddenly noticed I was actually running quite fast, certainly no longer at an easy pace. Fast by my standards.
I stretched for about 15 or 20 minutes after, paying particular attention to my achilles tendon, top and bottom on my right leg. That's a bit sore these days. Weather was nice, sunny and cool, just above zero, so the path was wet.
I was reading about the 'Strong like Bull' camp in Spain next Feb. It sounded very attractive. Till I saw the hill climbs. I somehow think that even with another year of conditioning, I'd still be the designated coming in last rider. On the FAQ they have 'How fit do I have to be to enjoy the camp?' but they don't have an answer yet. Uhuh. That tells me what I need to know. You know the phrase, if you have to ask how much, you can't afford it. Yeah.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
I could have rode all night, I could have rode all night...
Fans of Hollywood musicals might already know where this is coming from. We were at a party the other night, and got to talking about how people always hang out in the kitchen, or the doorway to the kitchen. I was telling them how that was happening once at a party at our place many years ago. Then I told them how I got people out. I fired up the (for that time) big plasma screen, and put on My Fair Lady. People dragged beer and munchies into the media room, and that's where the party was. People sang along, one person got up and did the Get me to the Church dance. We had a great time.
At the party the other day, as I was telling this story, only a couple of the people in hearing distance had seen the movie. You could have knocked me over with a feather. I told them to waste no time and rent it. Today, as I was setting up for my trainer ride (still much too much guck on the roads for me) I saw it in the DVD collection, it was the right length, and it's been a while since I've seen it.
I did some stretching and yoga poses to the opening credits. Got on the bike and warmed up for 15 minutes. I was supposed to do aerobic sets, 10/5, which is easy for me to keep track of. The first one was a continuation of the warm up, getting into time trial gear minus one. Then got dialed into one gear harder and rode for 2.5 hours. I could have gone on, but the schedule said 2.5 hours and the movie was coming to a close. I've never had a trainer ride go so fast. Even the 10 minute work sets went fast.
And I was good, maintaining 90 rpm or so for almost all of the work sets, dialed right into my aerobic working heart rate. I only wish the computer sound system was a little better, since the whir of the gears and trainer drowned out some of the quieter dialogue. I'm still in a happy place, waltzing away. If Hollywood still made movies like this, I might watch a lot more new movies. As it is, the superhero movie seems to be the latest rage, and they bore me to tears.
Did my quickest transition in ages, since all I had to do was change shoes, put on a light jacket and head out. Ran 30 minutes, starting slow, and ending up at a fairly good pace. Feet and legs felt good. Streets and sidewalks are pretty wet, and I did a bit of puddle jumping.
Ate a spoonful of Nutella and peanut butter, with milk after the run, then stretched for about a half hour. The roller. Can you say oooooooooohhhhhhh???? From the heart? I thought you could. All in all, a really good workout today.
Weekly totals
swim 1.5 hrs
bike 6 hrs
run 3 hrs
Total 10.5 hrs.
Attentive readers will notice there isn't a workout mentioned for Friday. Shhhh! I slept in both Fri and Sat. Both days I asked myself, what do I need more, a swim or sleep? No brainer. I've been reading some blogs that talk about the Master's swim workouts. My goodness; I don't even belong in the same pool as them. But then, I only need to get out of the water in a decent time, ready for a long ride.
At the party the other day, as I was telling this story, only a couple of the people in hearing distance had seen the movie. You could have knocked me over with a feather. I told them to waste no time and rent it. Today, as I was setting up for my trainer ride (still much too much guck on the roads for me) I saw it in the DVD collection, it was the right length, and it's been a while since I've seen it.
I did some stretching and yoga poses to the opening credits. Got on the bike and warmed up for 15 minutes. I was supposed to do aerobic sets, 10/5, which is easy for me to keep track of. The first one was a continuation of the warm up, getting into time trial gear minus one. Then got dialed into one gear harder and rode for 2.5 hours. I could have gone on, but the schedule said 2.5 hours and the movie was coming to a close. I've never had a trainer ride go so fast. Even the 10 minute work sets went fast.
And I was good, maintaining 90 rpm or so for almost all of the work sets, dialed right into my aerobic working heart rate. I only wish the computer sound system was a little better, since the whir of the gears and trainer drowned out some of the quieter dialogue. I'm still in a happy place, waltzing away. If Hollywood still made movies like this, I might watch a lot more new movies. As it is, the superhero movie seems to be the latest rage, and they bore me to tears.
Did my quickest transition in ages, since all I had to do was change shoes, put on a light jacket and head out. Ran 30 minutes, starting slow, and ending up at a fairly good pace. Feet and legs felt good. Streets and sidewalks are pretty wet, and I did a bit of puddle jumping.
Ate a spoonful of Nutella and peanut butter, with milk after the run, then stretched for about a half hour. The roller. Can you say oooooooooohhhhhhh???? From the heart? I thought you could. All in all, a really good workout today.
Weekly totals
swim 1.5 hrs
bike 6 hrs
run 3 hrs
Total 10.5 hrs.
Attentive readers will notice there isn't a workout mentioned for Friday. Shhhh! I slept in both Fri and Sat. Both days I asked myself, what do I need more, a swim or sleep? No brainer. I've been reading some blogs that talk about the Master's swim workouts. My goodness; I don't even belong in the same pool as them. But then, I only need to get out of the water in a decent time, ready for a long ride.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Elbow crunchiness revisted long after a warm -13 C dawn run.
Wed night I worshipped the foam roller some more. Where has this been all my (short) triathlon life? Oddly enough, and I checked the schedule twice, I had a run for this morning. Given that I promised myself I was going to follow schedule to the letter this week, I saddled up.
But first, I did about a half hour of yoga and stretches. It's almost warm out, but I still wanted to be well prepared for the cold. It was only -13 C or so, with a brisk west wind. Dressed about the same as yesterday. This was supposed to be an easy run with strides. In my rule book, strides only happen on shoveled sidewalks. Ran easy the first K, then started adding strides whenever I could. That lasted till about the 35 min mark, where my legs started complaining. I did a long run yesterday, remember? So for the last 10 min, I settled for a nice easy pace, trying for excellent posture, and nice smooth leg motion. Total .75 hr.
Walked a little for cool down. Needless to say it doesn't take long. I untied my hoodie, and pushed it back. There was a brief explosion of vapour as all the sweat and hot air was freed. Even though I had a hat on, it didn't take long before my head was getting cold, but I was only a minute from the house. Stretched another half hour.
All this happened shortly after dawn. The sun was just up, and the rush of commuters and school kids was done. It was very quiet and peaceful.
The afternoon was so nice. Water, actual liquid water started running down the street. Our front windows face south, for a while I basked in the sun. My legs liked the warmth. If I'd been a little more organized, I'd have set up the spin trainer in the driveway, and done my session in the fresh air. My neighbours already think I'm crazy, so there's no downside.
Oh, and during my internet wanderings today, I took this screen shot. A cookie for the first person who recognizes it.
And whatever I'd have done on my own would have been easier than what Greg gave us. Another 3 lap course, 20 min each, with bigger hills. Oof. Grunt. Splat. I had noticed on Tuesday that my right elbow doesn't rotate the same as the left when hanging on to the handlebars. Nowhere near the same range of motion, and what there is, is crunchy. I've been working on that a bit. Maybe a bit too much. Recently it hasn't bothered me much at all, well, maybe a little during hard swims. But during the spin session my elbow started feeling weak and sore in a way it hasn't been for a long time now. I bailed on the last 20 min set during the first hill climb. I had no stability anymore. Sat up and did an easy spin to cool down. It's still 1.75 hrs.
I hear the Tylenol and Ibuprofen calling me.
But first, I did about a half hour of yoga and stretches. It's almost warm out, but I still wanted to be well prepared for the cold. It was only -13 C or so, with a brisk west wind. Dressed about the same as yesterday. This was supposed to be an easy run with strides. In my rule book, strides only happen on shoveled sidewalks. Ran easy the first K, then started adding strides whenever I could. That lasted till about the 35 min mark, where my legs started complaining. I did a long run yesterday, remember? So for the last 10 min, I settled for a nice easy pace, trying for excellent posture, and nice smooth leg motion. Total .75 hr.
Walked a little for cool down. Needless to say it doesn't take long. I untied my hoodie, and pushed it back. There was a brief explosion of vapour as all the sweat and hot air was freed. Even though I had a hat on, it didn't take long before my head was getting cold, but I was only a minute from the house. Stretched another half hour.
All this happened shortly after dawn. The sun was just up, and the rush of commuters and school kids was done. It was very quiet and peaceful.
The afternoon was so nice. Water, actual liquid water started running down the street. Our front windows face south, for a while I basked in the sun. My legs liked the warmth. If I'd been a little more organized, I'd have set up the spin trainer in the driveway, and done my session in the fresh air. My neighbours already think I'm crazy, so there's no downside.
Oh, and during my internet wanderings today, I took this screen shot. A cookie for the first person who recognizes it.
And whatever I'd have done on my own would have been easier than what Greg gave us. Another 3 lap course, 20 min each, with bigger hills. Oof. Grunt. Splat. I had noticed on Tuesday that my right elbow doesn't rotate the same as the left when hanging on to the handlebars. Nowhere near the same range of motion, and what there is, is crunchy. I've been working on that a bit. Maybe a bit too much. Recently it hasn't bothered me much at all, well, maybe a little during hard swims. But during the spin session my elbow started feeling weak and sore in a way it hasn't been for a long time now. I bailed on the last 20 min set during the first hill climb. I had no stability anymore. Sat up and did an easy spin to cool down. It's still 1.75 hrs.
I hear the Tylenol and Ibuprofen calling me.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Still cold. Ran anyway.
The swim lane Nazi was there today. I could feel the remnants of her presence. There were two girls in the fast lane, swimming fast. The other fast lane had two slow swimmers that were doing something resembling front crawl. The medium lanes had people pretending to breast stroke. The slow lanes had the senator's meeting. Organization. I love it. Keep in mind that when I say fast, I'm talking community pool standards. I know some of you probably couldn't swim that slow if you tried.
I joined the fast girls and settled in to a nice swim. I was afraid to do anything else but swim for fear of upsetting the precarious cosmic balance. We swam, round and round. It was great! Both of them swim smooth and almost exactly the same speed I was, so I hardly noticed them at all.
Swam 1000 m in 19:45 nice and easy. We'll call this warm up, but really, I felt like some big ole piece of waterlogged wood that's been stuck at the bottom of the river all winter. My arms felt like overdone pasta noodles. I've been working on roll, and trying to pull from my core and using my back muscles, and I think I've messed up my stroke.
Did some drill. Golf scores still suck. Did some intervals, but not many. It felt like I was wearing football shoulder pads in the pool today. Did some nice laps during cool down. .75 hours altogether.
Got home and ate. More. Did some yoga and stretching for about a half hour. Dressed for a cold run. Tights, heart rate monitor, what I call my man bra (tight short sleeveless vest that shows lots of tummy), a tech shirt, heavy hoodie, wind breaker, hat, gloves. I didn't look at the weather page for a screen shot, but I think it had warmed up to about -20 C, with a light wind. Turned out to be a nice morning for a run. Clear and sunny.
Went down through Fish Creek along the cleared path. There's even pavement showing in places. Was planning to run 8 x 12/1, so 104 minutes altogether. JN, you know when you run west in Fish Creek, and come to the place where you can keep going straight and go up to Woodlands, or turn left to go down a small hill and across a bridge? That's the bridge I turned around at. According to mapmyride those bridges are still under construction. I'd forgotten what a nice run this is, through the trees, with lots of little up and downs.
Ran nice and easy, trying to land softly and move forward from the core. And yes girls and you know who you are, that means what you think it means. But I didn't drool. The fourth interval was kind of clunky and I thought I was getting tired, but the next three were great! I found a nice gait, stretched out a bit, while keeping my turnover the same. I got back to within about 70 m of the house, so my pace out and back was pretty consistent. Keep in mind the out is almost entirely downhill, and mostly downwind today.
Stretched for about 15 min after, showered, and stretched some more. The foam roller is great on the calves. I think I'll go down later and roller some more.
I've been having some adventures with the stupid blogger word verification that some of you are using on your blog pages. That's your choice, but lately my browsers have been barfing on it. Which means you could be losing out on my witty, thoughtful, ever so trenchant comments. I'm just saying.
I joined the fast girls and settled in to a nice swim. I was afraid to do anything else but swim for fear of upsetting the precarious cosmic balance. We swam, round and round. It was great! Both of them swim smooth and almost exactly the same speed I was, so I hardly noticed them at all.
Swam 1000 m in 19:45 nice and easy. We'll call this warm up, but really, I felt like some big ole piece of waterlogged wood that's been stuck at the bottom of the river all winter. My arms felt like overdone pasta noodles. I've been working on roll, and trying to pull from my core and using my back muscles, and I think I've messed up my stroke.
Did some drill. Golf scores still suck. Did some intervals, but not many. It felt like I was wearing football shoulder pads in the pool today. Did some nice laps during cool down. .75 hours altogether.
Got home and ate. More. Did some yoga and stretching for about a half hour. Dressed for a cold run. Tights, heart rate monitor, what I call my man bra (tight short sleeveless vest that shows lots of tummy), a tech shirt, heavy hoodie, wind breaker, hat, gloves. I didn't look at the weather page for a screen shot, but I think it had warmed up to about -20 C, with a light wind. Turned out to be a nice morning for a run. Clear and sunny.
Went down through Fish Creek along the cleared path. There's even pavement showing in places. Was planning to run 8 x 12/1, so 104 minutes altogether. JN, you know when you run west in Fish Creek, and come to the place where you can keep going straight and go up to Woodlands, or turn left to go down a small hill and across a bridge? That's the bridge I turned around at. According to mapmyride those bridges are still under construction. I'd forgotten what a nice run this is, through the trees, with lots of little up and downs.
Ran nice and easy, trying to land softly and move forward from the core. And yes girls and you know who you are, that means what you think it means. But I didn't drool. The fourth interval was kind of clunky and I thought I was getting tired, but the next three were great! I found a nice gait, stretched out a bit, while keeping my turnover the same. I got back to within about 70 m of the house, so my pace out and back was pretty consistent. Keep in mind the out is almost entirely downhill, and mostly downwind today.
Stretched for about 15 min after, showered, and stretched some more. The foam roller is great on the calves. I think I'll go down later and roller some more.
I've been having some adventures with the stupid blogger word verification that some of you are using on your blog pages. That's your choice, but lately my browsers have been barfing on it. Which means you could be losing out on my witty, thoughtful, ever so trenchant comments. I'm just saying.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Greg worked us hard
It's still frigging cold out. It took a real effort to get myself and bike gear into the car for spin class.
Warmed up lots. One leg drill. Then a 3 lap course with all sorts of stuff in it. Each lap was supposed to be higher intensities. Since he wasn't riding, Greg came around, looking at heart rates and gears. 'Go one more harder' he said, a lot. It was a really good workout. 1.75 hrs.
I've noticed an interesting thing with my elbows, as I'm riding. The left one rotates nicely, as is to be expected. The right one, well, it has some difficulties when my hand isn't moving. Played with that a bit during the ride. Feeling the tendons and bits of bone, or whatever else is in there, rubbing against each other during the rotation is very interesting. I think I'm going to have to work this into my bike rides.
Warmed up lots. One leg drill. Then a 3 lap course with all sorts of stuff in it. Each lap was supposed to be higher intensities. Since he wasn't riding, Greg came around, looking at heart rates and gears. 'Go one more harder' he said, a lot. It was a really good workout. 1.75 hrs.
I've noticed an interesting thing with my elbows, as I'm riding. The left one rotates nicely, as is to be expected. The right one, well, it has some difficulties when my hand isn't moving. Played with that a bit during the ride. Feeling the tendons and bits of bone, or whatever else is in there, rubbing against each other during the rotation is very interesting. I think I'm going to have to work this into my bike rides.
Monday, March 9, 2009
A swim is just a swim
Especially today. Not many people in the pool today so I had a lane to myself till I was almost done. Warmed up. Left shoulder still hurting. Drill. Terrible golf scores. 3 x 500 m with 1 min rest. First one was ok, second was a bit slower, and the third was rescued from total slugitude only because I was trying to keep up with the girl in the next lane. I turn faster than she does, but she can swim a little faster. The last 200 m were pushing quite hard, but it was still the slowest of the three. The really slow swimmer joined my lane just as I was starting my cool down. I swam slow and easy for 6 or 700 m, trying for a nice stroke. Toward the end I started getting the feel of the water again.
Mega cold out there today. Didn't even think of doing a run. Did a bit of stretching, but I'm still sore and creaky.
Mega cold out there today. Didn't even think of doing a run. Did a bit of stretching, but I'm still sore and creaky.
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