running outside in freaking cold

Yesterday's run was pretty good, though it was outside in -10 weather, with a wind that dropped the wind chill to -20 or so. This was the nice route on top of the hill south of the Canoe club. The view is worth the chill.

7 min warm up
4 x 5r/3w
8 cool down

Running on snow is a bit different, and I think I strained my right Achillies tendon a bit, or landed on my right heel more than I should have. It was a bit sore at the end of the workout, and is a bit sore even now.

No workout Thursday evening; I think I was in bed by 8:30.

The swim in the fast pool this morning was great! There were at least 4 people swimming faster than me, and a couple of others about the same speed. You have no idea how nice that feels. Especially when you can keep up for a little bit.

500 m easy warm up. Really easy.
50 m back stroke (gack what a mess)
10 x 50 m in 50 seconds, on 1:15 start.
50 m kick
3 x 100 m done "pretty" then 100 m flat out, which is 95 seconds. 45 s/ 50 s split.
50 m breast
250 m cool down
Total 2000 m.
Then some pool pilates.

Oh, and that number? 248.

Tonight's plan calls for a 60 min spin session. We'll see. The weather is supposed to be so crappy I might do it on Sat instead.

another no drill swim

Today was a quickie; in the pool and powered through 1000 m in 18:58. My split was 500 m in 564 seconds (9:24), so I didn't slow down too much in the second half.

No geezers! This is a personal best for me though not much of an improvement. I was sort of hoping for a bit of a breakthrough to get down to about 18:30. I felt strong, but not as smooth as I would like. Maybe next time.

Then 15 min in the dive tank doing pool pilates. I'm sure looking forward to my massage tonight.

Shite spin session

I did wimp out and go to the Talisman Centre to run indoors. $11 for one time adult admission!!! Eek! Won't be doing that too often. But it is a nice facility. The run went fine, aside from forgetting how my stop watch works, and buggering up my time near the beginning. So I warmed up for a short while, ran for a while, then got stopwatch going again and settled into 4 min run, 2 min walk, done 5 times, and a short-ish cool down session. I've not a clue in the world how far I went. It felt ok.

Running on a track is sure boring. Well, for brief seconds it wasn't, but we won't get into that.

Weather and traffic here is horrible today, so I got the spin plan for tonight and decided to ride it at home. So much for good intentions. I got on the bike and felt comfortable enough, but could not maintain a cadence at all. Any cadence, any gear. Normally I settle down and can maintain 85 and not even look at the computer. Tonight I'd check, thinking I was ok, and it would be 80, or 90, or something. And certainly not steady. Then I was looking at my heart rate monitor, and noticing I was breathing WAY harder than usual for a given heartrate. Then I noticed I was back to pedalling up and down rather than around and around, and the more I tried to fix it, the worse it got. Then I noticed my bike making a funny noise. It's done that before, every once in a while and I didn't worry about it. Tonight I couldn't stop worrying about it, and was trying to figure out what it was. Of course that made the cadence issue even worse. I got through the one legged drill ok, but bailed out shortly after. I need to practice doing better to get better; practicing doing worse isn't going to do me any good at all.

Drills?! We don't need no steenkin drills!

Back to the geezer pool, and I couldn't face keeping count to do drills. I just wanted to swim. So I did.
2000 m 39:10.
The first few laps were ok, then it all fell apart and I struggled for another 10 or 15 laps having to work to keep on a 50 m in a minute pace. Somehow I managed to get my groove back, and I settled into a nice strong and even stroke, reaching forward, then rolling and pulling. My 1000 m time was probably about 19:50, so the second 1000 m was way faster than the first.

That went great till the attack of the geezers. My empty lane started filling up with a few laps to go. One chick had the nerve to push off in my lane just where I was turning. She was keeping up for a few strokes, then I squeezed her into the ropes and she moved into another lane. Then the idiot who likes swimming against traffic showed up, but I didn't get a chance to line him up and take a run at him. Still, it was a good swim.

Yoga in the evening had some balance poses. Tree pose (standing straight on one leg, the other sole flat against the straight leg as high as it goes) only works for trees because they have roots, dammit! I can't describe the other pose, but I was better at it.

It's Fricking cold out there tonight, and who knows what the temperature will be at 6:30 am tomorrow when I start my run. Maybe I'll wimp out, pay the big bucks, and run inside at the Talisman Centre. I've been meaning to check it out because my city facility pass expires the first week of December. I have to keep in mind that at the Talisman Center I'm likely to be the geezer!

First Brick, if I've got the slang right

Today was the first day I looked at the IGP™ with a bit of trepidation. It called for 60 min spin and a 15 min run. This after a good night's sleep that came after a yoga class that was advertised as a "Stress-Buster". NOT! Some of it was, I have to admit I nearly fell asleep twice. The only thing keeping me awake was the gentle snores of someone who beat me to it. But some of it was nearly brutal.

So I puttered around getting everything ready, and did a bit of stretching before the ride. Then I started, and it went like this.
10 min: easy warm up
10 min: one leg drills, 30 seconds alt left and right with a minute in between, and cheating at the end to sneak in another left
10 min: shift into 1 harder gear
1 min at 85, then 1 min at 100
shift into 1 harder gear again
1 min at 85, then 1 min at 100
shift into 1 harder gear again
1 min at 85, then 1 min at 100 then back down 2 gears and spin at 85
10 min repeat the one legged drill as before
10 min progressive drill again, only this time after the hard one, go up one gear, 1 min 85, then 1 min 100, then up another gear and do another 1 min at 85 then 1 min at 100. This got me up to 50 minutes with a minimum of moving around on the bike, and the last 10 min were tough, even though it was an easy spin, concentrating on smoothness. My hands were pretty good, and my butt mostly pretty good, but the back of my arms was the sore part of the ride. The yoga downward dog really takes it out of me.

Off the bike, change, and out the door in 2 min 30 seconds.
Ran 15 minutes, then walked another 8 to cool down. It just so happens, completely by accident, that the loop I ran walked is nearly exactly 3 Km. The 15 min run took me 2.3 Km. If you do the math, just as a baseline, you end up with 9.2 Km/hr, or 6:30/Km pace. Considering that a few weeks ago anything more than running for the bus would do me in, I'm really pleased. My heartrate was high 130's, low 140's for the run, and breathing felt good. Quads felt fine, calves are a bit heavy.

Totals for the week
Swim 2.5 hr
Bike 3 hr
Run 1.75
Total 7.25, plus if you care to count it, 3 hrs yoga.

A great start today!

I was a little tired after my spin session last night, didn't go to sleep right away, and actually had to be woken by the alarm clock this morning.

The swim at the fast pool was great!
500 m warmup 10 min
10 x 50 m aiming for 50 seconds, never slower than 53, on 1:15 start. (25 min)
100 m junk laps, kick or breast stroke
250 m swimming with one arm alternating every 25 m, with no pansy floats or aids.
250 m cool down
2100 m in 50 min altogether, then 10 min in dive tank for pool pilates.

The intervals went really well, concentrating on smooth strong strokes. The last interval was 45 seconds, which is just about top speed for me. On the cool down I tried swimming by force of mind, pretending that my arms were just windmilling in the water breeze. That was fun.

249. That number is great news. Yahoo!

Oh, and the sunrise slowly lighting up the mountains was gorgeous today.

Great new run route, and lonely spin

There was still a bit of snow on the ground this morning, so I wanted a route where I could see the path. So much for down beside the canal. I parked up on top of the ridge beside the Canoe Club, then started walking south on the path. Partway along there's a road that crosses over top of Deerfoot that leads to the Inglewood Golf Club. My first thought was to take it down to the canal path and keep heading south, since that part of the path is flat and reasonably well lit. But where the road turns right, there's a locked gravel access road for the canal, and there were lots of people and dog prints along it. I thought what the heck, why not?

It turns out that road goes back up hill and along south way above Deerfoot. You get an absolutely stunning view of the city, including downtown. I ran all the way down to a cellphone tower, then it was time to turn around and retrace my steps back to the car. I spent half the time enjoying the view of the city, and the other half of the time looking at the pre-dawn sky. I'm sure going to do this route again!

Something that's new to me, but will be old hat to all you runners, is that I noticed I was carrying tension in my legs. A few steps and I managed to get rid of it, and in the process run smoother. A minute later I noticed tension in my shoulders and upper back, and managed to get rid of that as well. Later during the run, I was starting to slow down as my bod was thinking "3 min, time to walk", and I told it to keep going and pick up the pace, and it did. For much of the run portion I was breathing deeply and evenly, with no gasping, and could still talk. I haven't run this fast since high school! Yeah Susi, I can hear the smug "told ya so."

7 minutes warmup walking briskly
4 x 5 min run 3 min walk
8 min cool down walk
45 minutes total, and I'm guessing from Google Maps, about 5.5 Km.

Busy day at work, then zoomed straight to the Library for my volunteer stint helping to teach computer courses to run into a brand new project we couldn't get going. Then home to grab a quick small bite of food.

Then, evening spin in my basement! I tell you, it doesn't get anymore more exciting than this. The IGP™ called for a 45 min ride. I really couldn't face doing one legged drills, though I know I need them. I wanted to sit and pedal the entire time. Well, I didn't quite make it; I started feeling uncomfortable on the bike at 40 min and shifting around. But throughout the spin, there was a number of times where all my weight was on my butt and the spin was really happening. Every time it did, my cadence picked up by about 5 rpm or so.

10 min warm up easy spin at 85 rpm
shift into 1 harder gear
1 min at 85, then 1 min at 100
shift into 1 harder gear again
1 min at 85, then 1 min at 100
shift into 1 harder gear again
1 min at 85, then 1 min at 100, and about here my HR topped 140 so I decided not to go another gear
Then back to easy gear again and spin 4 minutes to bring heart rate down
Do it all again on 20, and again on 30.
on 40 go into an easier gear yet and easy spin for 5 min to to relax the legs.

45 min run, 45 min bike.