Work training is hard at it. Hunched over in a dark room, concentrating on small print, complicated processes, and trying to keep up. I'm feeling it. My shoulders were feeling brutal during yoga, and I nearly cried when she said, cobra to plank, and back again, a whole bunch of times.
The swim lanes were a bit of a zoo this am, even by standards, and I just wasn't up to it. Did my stretches in the dive tank, then deep water running, just over 30 minutes.
This working for a living sure gets in the way of training. Bedtime now.
Ironman Canada - DONE! What next?
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Talk about taint!
Today I smelled like a geezer for a couple of hours. I was so grossed out. That story started when I needed to comb my hair the last couple days. My rule is, when I need a comb, what I really need is a haircut. Not that there's much hair to cut, and I'm considering getting a buzz for the summer. Anyways, I went to the usual shop, with two barbers. A really nice lady, and a nice geezer. I prefer the lady, she's quick and does a really good job. The geezer is slow, and the job has been getting less good. There was a wait, and then I ended up with the geezer. This isn't the best haircut I've ever had, lets just say that. And he put this stuff into my hair, in spite of asking him not to, since I had a bike workout coming up soon. Well, crap, I think that stuff was white glue, or something similar. It smelled bad, geezer bad. I had to go into Co-op for a few things, and I swear, a little old lady was following me around with a hungry look. Sheesh.
Walked 20 minutes in the morning. Really good core session after work, 30 minutes. Smelling like a geezer. I continue to feel better, but I think the reason core went so well is that it did not include my faves plank, pushups, wall sits, and the held squats thing.
Then onto the bike, and I quickly realized this wasn't going to be as good as last time. It felt like I was at least one gear harder than normal, and my legs weren't happy about spinning above 100 rpm. Still, I started into the workout, cadence set and one leg drill, but started getting some odd feelings out of my legs. There was a periodic click at the top of my knee caps I didn't like at all, and it felt like there was an elastic band taped to my shin, over my knee, and to the bottom of my quads. The first main set was to be time trial gear at 90 for a while, and neither my lungs or my legs were having it. There was a heart rate goal too, but the battery in the monitor has died. Still, I'm not upset. While it isn't an improvement over the other day, that had been a big step forward, and I'm not surprised they're a bit tired today. That was just over 30 minutes, then another 15 stretching and rollering.
Part of the reason I ended early is that I couldn't stand the way I smelled. As I was beginning to sweat, the old geezer smell was getting stronger and stronger. Even all sweaty, my hair still felt like a hard hat. I had to wash my hair twice afterward.
Walked 20 minutes in the morning. Really good core session after work, 30 minutes. Smelling like a geezer. I continue to feel better, but I think the reason core went so well is that it did not include my faves plank, pushups, wall sits, and the held squats thing.
Then onto the bike, and I quickly realized this wasn't going to be as good as last time. It felt like I was at least one gear harder than normal, and my legs weren't happy about spinning above 100 rpm. Still, I started into the workout, cadence set and one leg drill, but started getting some odd feelings out of my legs. There was a periodic click at the top of my knee caps I didn't like at all, and it felt like there was an elastic band taped to my shin, over my knee, and to the bottom of my quads. The first main set was to be time trial gear at 90 for a while, and neither my lungs or my legs were having it. There was a heart rate goal too, but the battery in the monitor has died. Still, I'm not upset. While it isn't an improvement over the other day, that had been a big step forward, and I'm not surprised they're a bit tired today. That was just over 30 minutes, then another 15 stretching and rollering.
Part of the reason I ended early is that I couldn't stand the way I smelled. As I was beginning to sweat, the old geezer smell was getting stronger and stronger. Even all sweaty, my hair still felt like a hard hat. I had to wash my hair twice afterward.
Monday, March 29, 2010
And now, a pretty good run
The swim this morning was a bit shorter than planned due to a hard back end. No, not my back end. A firm 8am meeting time, with people that are paying me well to respect their time. I don't want to be late even more than I normally don't want to be late. Though I did take a few minutes to chat with my buddy Deb.
Warmed up, then did 10 x 100 on 2:00, with 100 m backstroke break in the middle. I was pleasantly surprised that all but the last couple were 1:45 or so, and even they were 1:48 and 1:49. Cooled down, stretched. 30 minutes only, I wish I could have gone longer.
Walked 15 minutes at lunch, communing with my legs. Communed with them on the drive home, and puttering about the house after getting home, seriously wondering if I should try to run or not. I had a good bike yesterday, and my hams are feeling tired and pre-crampish. During the swim I had a few ham twinges during the flip turns, as I was really trying to power through them.
Annnnnnnnd, to draw out the suspense, I dressed, did a bit of loosening up, and headed out. Walked a brisk 10 minutes then into an easy run, communing with my legs the entire time. This isn't what I'd call a bouncy easy run. It was more like a heavy footed slog, though not quite like the T Rex of history. I had to vary the stride a bit, as there was some odd twinges along the way, and I wanted to try to break things up a bit. Normally I clump along, same stride. My hams complained a bit if I did that.
I actually ran 35 minutes with no pain! Yahoo!! That was 5K nice and easy. That's the first time that's happened since mid Feb, so I'm pretty pleased. In the great scheme of things it wasn't the best run I've ever had, but so much better than recent ones that I'll happily put it in the bank. After all, it wasn't so long ago that a 35 minute 5 K was a hard run. Did a really good stretch and roller after. Hams, especially the left, are still feeling a bit crampish, but that's ok. Everything is feeling much better.
There is an acupuncture appointment next Monday. Maybe by then everything will be all better, but who knows. It won't hurt to get it done anyways.
Now, back to the stalking in progress....
I found these two images. Not what I'd call pretty.
Warmed up, then did 10 x 100 on 2:00, with 100 m backstroke break in the middle. I was pleasantly surprised that all but the last couple were 1:45 or so, and even they were 1:48 and 1:49. Cooled down, stretched. 30 minutes only, I wish I could have gone longer.
Walked 15 minutes at lunch, communing with my legs. Communed with them on the drive home, and puttering about the house after getting home, seriously wondering if I should try to run or not. I had a good bike yesterday, and my hams are feeling tired and pre-crampish. During the swim I had a few ham twinges during the flip turns, as I was really trying to power through them.
Annnnnnnnd, to draw out the suspense, I dressed, did a bit of loosening up, and headed out. Walked a brisk 10 minutes then into an easy run, communing with my legs the entire time. This isn't what I'd call a bouncy easy run. It was more like a heavy footed slog, though not quite like the T Rex of history. I had to vary the stride a bit, as there was some odd twinges along the way, and I wanted to try to break things up a bit. Normally I clump along, same stride. My hams complained a bit if I did that.
I actually ran 35 minutes with no pain! Yahoo!! That was 5K nice and easy. That's the first time that's happened since mid Feb, so I'm pretty pleased. In the great scheme of things it wasn't the best run I've ever had, but so much better than recent ones that I'll happily put it in the bank. After all, it wasn't so long ago that a 35 minute 5 K was a hard run. Did a really good stretch and roller after. Hams, especially the left, are still feeling a bit crampish, but that's ok. Everything is feeling much better.
There is an acupuncture appointment next Monday. Maybe by then everything will be all better, but who knows. It won't hurt to get it done anyways.
Now, back to the stalking in progress....
I found these two images. Not what I'd call pretty.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Improvement has happened
I did nothing at all yesterday. NOTHING AT ALL. Unless you count combing a cat who loves to be combed, reading the papers, and going to a dear friend's goodbye party as activities worthy of blogging about. No, she's not dying, she's only moving to BC.
The last several weeks have been the biking pit of despair. Being on the bike has sucked. I had no idea what to expect today. My legs don't particularly feel any different, but woooo-weeeeeee! They sure behaved differently! Within 5 minutes of getting on the bike I was up to 100 rpm and it felt great, which is a big change from struggling for 20 minutes to get there last Thursday. Still, I knew things weren't "fixed" and things could go off the rails pretty quick, so I still did a good warmup, with brief spin ups to 120 rpm. Lots of one leg drill, more than what the plan called for. Lots of cadence pyramids and ladders, mostly topping out at 110, because 120 still wasn't totally comfortable for longer than about 10 or 15 seconds. All this was in an easy gear, keeping it thoroughly aerobic. My legs were very happy to spin at 90 rpm, without me even trying to go there. Stood for several minutes, still in a fairly easy gear, just to stretch and see what my legs thought. Not bad. For just a couple minutes I got into a time trial gear, just to see. Up to about 85 rpm was ok, but didn't want to push it. Did a 15 minute cool down, for 90 minutes total.
Before and after did 15 minutes of gentle stretching and rollering. The plan called for some core, and to run off the bike, but I thought that was being just a bit optimistic. I decided to take a good solid bike and call it a day, rather than push too much and hurt something that is just beginning to feel happy again. Walked later in the afternoon, since it's practically summer here. (Today. There is still more snow to come.)
By the standards of the last month, this workout was over the moon. By my regular standards this is a good recovery spin workout. So I'm very, very pleased. I'm hoping the legs are finally coming around, and the run will improve too.
Weekly Summary
Swim 2.66 hrs
Bike 2.25 hrs
Run 0.5 hrs
Walk 1.5 hrs
Core 2.75 hrs
Total 9.66 hrs
The last several weeks have been the biking pit of despair. Being on the bike has sucked. I had no idea what to expect today. My legs don't particularly feel any different, but woooo-weeeeeee! They sure behaved differently! Within 5 minutes of getting on the bike I was up to 100 rpm and it felt great, which is a big change from struggling for 20 minutes to get there last Thursday. Still, I knew things weren't "fixed" and things could go off the rails pretty quick, so I still did a good warmup, with brief spin ups to 120 rpm. Lots of one leg drill, more than what the plan called for. Lots of cadence pyramids and ladders, mostly topping out at 110, because 120 still wasn't totally comfortable for longer than about 10 or 15 seconds. All this was in an easy gear, keeping it thoroughly aerobic. My legs were very happy to spin at 90 rpm, without me even trying to go there. Stood for several minutes, still in a fairly easy gear, just to stretch and see what my legs thought. Not bad. For just a couple minutes I got into a time trial gear, just to see. Up to about 85 rpm was ok, but didn't want to push it. Did a 15 minute cool down, for 90 minutes total.
Before and after did 15 minutes of gentle stretching and rollering. The plan called for some core, and to run off the bike, but I thought that was being just a bit optimistic. I decided to take a good solid bike and call it a day, rather than push too much and hurt something that is just beginning to feel happy again. Walked later in the afternoon, since it's practically summer here. (Today. There is still more snow to come.)
By the standards of the last month, this workout was over the moon. By my regular standards this is a good recovery spin workout. So I'm very, very pleased. I'm hoping the legs are finally coming around, and the run will improve too.
Weekly Summary
Swim 2.66 hrs
Bike 2.25 hrs
Run 0.5 hrs
Walk 1.5 hrs
Core 2.75 hrs
Total 9.66 hrs
Friday, March 26, 2010
The 6am water is not calm
FOMC opens late, at 6am, but the door is open a few minutes early. I got there just in time to be the third one into the pool. The plan called for 2800 m, but I think I did 3000. There was a bit of pull that felt so good going back and forth I kept on going. Just a few minutes over an hour. No drama today, so the llama would have been fine.
Fairly strong swim for me. The two girls in the next lane, I found out later, were doing a 1500 m time trial. One kept me on pace in that my moderates were a hair faster than her regular pace. The other cruised along somewhere between my hard and sprint pace. Great flip turn. I need to be opening my hips up sooner and engaging my abs more.
After the swim I was into the dive tank for some stretching and a bit of deep water running. I'm feeling pretty beat up these days. The shoulders are good for swimming, once I warm up, and feel good during swimming, but after they are sore. My legs are shite right now. Even the 15 minute walk at lunch time was painful. My right hip flexors were protesting.
Given that it's been a training week, I've spent a lot more time than usual hunched in a non ergonomic setup, and I can really feel it this evening. What a party animal I am. It's 8pm; I'm going to hit publish in a minute, chug some vitamins, and go to bed. Tomorrow is going to be sleep in as much as possible, and enjoy not doing any workouts.
Fairly strong swim for me. The two girls in the next lane, I found out later, were doing a 1500 m time trial. One kept me on pace in that my moderates were a hair faster than her regular pace. The other cruised along somewhere between my hard and sprint pace. Great flip turn. I need to be opening my hips up sooner and engaging my abs more.
After the swim I was into the dive tank for some stretching and a bit of deep water running. I'm feeling pretty beat up these days. The shoulders are good for swimming, once I warm up, and feel good during swimming, but after they are sore. My legs are shite right now. Even the 15 minute walk at lunch time was painful. My right hip flexors were protesting.
Given that it's been a training week, I've spent a lot more time than usual hunched in a non ergonomic setup, and I can really feel it this evening. What a party animal I am. It's 8pm; I'm going to hit publish in a minute, chug some vitamins, and go to bed. Tomorrow is going to be sleep in as much as possible, and enjoy not doing any workouts.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Trying not to be a whiner, or a weiner, but...
Do you remember the start of Wide World of Sports? The announcer intoning "the agony of defeat" as the ski jumper pinwheels off the side of the ramp? Well, at least I haven't pinwheeled off my bike like that. Can you tell I'm clutching at straws here, trying to find the good parts of the workout?
Grading the half hour of core is an exercise in relativity. By the standards of what I was thinking of normal, it's pretty pathetic, but given recent performance, it's pretty good. At least I got through all three sets, only dropping one of the exercises. Held squats - my quads weren't having any of that. The rest got done, more or less. More was butt lift, and steps. Crunches and tricep dips were about the same. Less was plank. Geez, let's not talk about that.
The bike was a long slow warm up. My legs felt like noodles. I checked the gears again and again. It felt like big ring. It took 20 minutes to build to the point my legs would do 100 rpm. My legs weren't happy about this, and did not feel strong. Even at this mild effort I could feel them weakening and getting twitchier with the hams feeling like they were going to cramp. Worked with that for a bit hoping they would come around. By the time 30 minutes rolled around and I was trying for 105 rpm, I started getting the same pain in my left knee I had during the half marathon. Sigh. Grrrr. I gave up. I got off the bike. I could see no reason to continue pushing into pain to do what should be a trivial effort. Didn't even do a cool down, since properly speaking, I wasn't even warmed up.
In the morning walked for about 15 minutes before work, and for about a half hour at lunch. I had been thinking of taking my work clothes and running before work, but within 5 minutes of waking up I could tell that would be a bad idea. Plus, it was -5C!! (23F) Do you have any idea how cold that is after you've been having nice weather?
Grading the half hour of core is an exercise in relativity. By the standards of what I was thinking of normal, it's pretty pathetic, but given recent performance, it's pretty good. At least I got through all three sets, only dropping one of the exercises. Held squats - my quads weren't having any of that. The rest got done, more or less. More was butt lift, and steps. Crunches and tricep dips were about the same. Less was plank. Geez, let's not talk about that.
The bike was a long slow warm up. My legs felt like noodles. I checked the gears again and again. It felt like big ring. It took 20 minutes to build to the point my legs would do 100 rpm. My legs weren't happy about this, and did not feel strong. Even at this mild effort I could feel them weakening and getting twitchier with the hams feeling like they were going to cramp. Worked with that for a bit hoping they would come around. By the time 30 minutes rolled around and I was trying for 105 rpm, I started getting the same pain in my left knee I had during the half marathon. Sigh. Grrrr. I gave up. I got off the bike. I could see no reason to continue pushing into pain to do what should be a trivial effort. Didn't even do a cool down, since properly speaking, I wasn't even warmed up.
In the morning walked for about 15 minutes before work, and for about a half hour at lunch. I had been thinking of taking my work clothes and running before work, but within 5 minutes of waking up I could tell that would be a bad idea. Plus, it was -5C!! (23F) Do you have any idea how cold that is after you've been having nice weather?
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
No fun yoga
Swim in am cut a few minutes short, and not quite what the program said. But when there's a gong show going on, you'd better be banging the biggest and loudest gongs, or you'll be getting your gongs banged.
There were 4 people in the lane most of the swim. Mr. 25 m churn, could swim at a respectable speed, 25 m at a time, sounding like a heart attack, even worse than Julie used to, after every length. And churn! Holy cow talk about bubble city. One girl swimming moderate speed, but slow about getting the message people want to pass her. One guy about my speed, then switching to fins and kickboard. One really slow breast stroker giving the rest of them a bad name. Nearly ran over her once totally by accident. And me, trying to keep ahead or catch the pack. Or a full speed burst to pass, and stay passed. So after a warmup it was a pretty intense 40 minute swim. For the record, it takes exactly 20 minutes from hopping out of the pool, to walking in the front door at work.
Yoga was kind of brutal. My shoulders are killing me. We were doing leg circles with the strap, and Fiona was talking about doing smaller circles if anyone's hips were clicking. Well, my hams were clicking. No shit. Around, and I could feel a tendon, or ligament or muscle pulling against other stuff, then snapping past. It's a very weird feeling. I did smaller circles. Other stuff would normally be good, but I wasn't quite in the mood.
There were 4 people in the lane most of the swim. Mr. 25 m churn, could swim at a respectable speed, 25 m at a time, sounding like a heart attack, even worse than Julie used to, after every length. And churn! Holy cow talk about bubble city. One girl swimming moderate speed, but slow about getting the message people want to pass her. One guy about my speed, then switching to fins and kickboard. One really slow breast stroker giving the rest of them a bad name. Nearly ran over her once totally by accident. And me, trying to keep ahead or catch the pack. Or a full speed burst to pass, and stay passed. So after a warmup it was a pretty intense 40 minute swim. For the record, it takes exactly 20 minutes from hopping out of the pool, to walking in the front door at work.
Yoga was kind of brutal. My shoulders are killing me. We were doing leg circles with the strap, and Fiona was talking about doing smaller circles if anyone's hips were clicking. Well, my hams were clicking. No shit. Around, and I could feel a tendon, or ligament or muscle pulling against other stuff, then snapping past. It's a very weird feeling. I did smaller circles. Other stuff would normally be good, but I wasn't quite in the mood.
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