"You got beat by a girl??"

Muskoka Race Report

"You got beat by a girl?" Actually got beat by two of them. Having the likes of Samantha McGlone or Tereza Macel 'beat' me is actually quite an honour. I often use the pro women as a bit of a bench mark for my own performance. I know when my times start to near their times, I've attained a certain level of performance. I'm just happy I'm healthy enough to even consider hanging on their heals because they can certainly lay the smack down and kick a lot of ass!

Goal: Attain an IMLP spot.

Arrival
I'm a keener. Got to the site nice and early. It takes me awhile to feel completely warmed up and I wanted a good spot in the transition area. So I arrived early enough to take the bike for a spin, go through check in procedure, lightly stretch out, go for a jog and finally do a swim warm up. I had some extra time and met up with Cliff , who was so keen on racing, he got a speeding ticket on the way to the race site! Hmm.. racing to get to a race.. ironic?

After talking to a few people the day before the race and in the transition area, I found out that quite a few were looking for Ironman spots. Silly me, not signing up the year before and leaving it to the last minute to qualify. I just find it so difficult to pay a large chunk of change to IMNA a full year before a race. Too much can happen between then and now. So I take my chances and try to qualify. Hey, sometimes life is gamble.

Swim 2k: Time: 29:06 Age group: 4/95 Overall: 41/792
I'm in the 3rd wave. Not a big fan of wave starts, I'd prefer a mass start, but the format for this race is 'chase', so we do waves. The horn blows and we're off, nice clean start. I breath left, I breath right and appear to be leading the crew in the first 200m or so. I relax and think about doing nice long strokes. I'm sighting the bouys really well and put my head down and swim 20 or 25 strokes without sighting, pop my head up and still maintaining course. All good signs. I feel like I'm swimming about a 1:24 pace. I run into a little traffic during the last half of the swim, just due to catching up the previous waves, but navigation is good and had no problems swimming around them. A little dissapointed in my 1:28/100m pace, I know swimming, and I know I was swimming faster than that!
Out of the water in 4th place in my division. I have NO idea how 3 buggers in my age group managed to pass me - totally didn't see them. We exit within 30 seconds of each other - so it's a close race.

T1: I see one of the guys that exited the water me and compliment him on his swim. I get an odd look, which in turn I find odd.

Bike 55k. Time: 1:33:29 Age group: 14/95 Overall: 76/792
I liked the bike course. I think many people would say it's 'challenging', lots of rolling hills and a few good climbs. I even came out of the saddle once or twice and rarely do that on any climb. I was keeping my effort in check during the bike, wanted to get a few calories down and just gauge my overall feel. I was a little scared that I may experience nausea as I have in the past, but I didn't! Phew! In hindsight, I should have put the hammer down more on the bike - but hindsight is 20/20, right?

Run 15k Time: 1:02 Age group 10/92. Overall: 75/792.
A very solid run for me. I'm very happy with it. I can attribute my decent run performance due to my increased bike endurance. I just got off the bike and immediately ran ~4 minute K's for the duration. I used to envy the guys who could run after the bike.. I'm slowly turning into one of those guys! The hard work is starting to pay off.
I got passed by one guy in my age group and asked him if he was going for a IM spot and he said "No". (phew) So I wasn't sure at this point, I thought I was around 4 th in my age group and after I checked the official results I was suprised that 3 more guys managed to get by me. So I finished 7th. Eep, that's enough to make me sweat on whether or not I'll get a IMLP spot!

After the awards ceremony they give out the Ironman spots. There seem to alot of people here and more than once Sally and I saw the odd tear on someone who wasn't able to qualify. My heart goes out to them, to train all those hours and not get a spot. The competition was that intense. So they call the M35-39 division and a BUNCH of us trod up to the desk. Nerve wracking. (what is it with us mid-life-crisis-guys trying to capture the athletisism of our youth??) We are talking amongst ourselves.. 'what spot are you going for?', what's your time?' etc... I know there is at least 2 spots for IMLP, but the bad news FIVE out of the 6 guys that were faster than me showed up to claim a spot! They start the procedure... 1 guys take IM Florida, the next 2 take IM Canada, the next one take IMLP! I'm next, I got the other IMLP spot! PHEW! Didn't have to wait for roll down. But there were many dissapointed guys in my category and I'm kinda bummed for them. I think the level of competition at this race kinda took everyone by suprise.

Well I didn't want this to turn into a long convuluted report but it sort of ended up that way. :)
Cheers!

Scared?

Nah, not really. More like 'healthy nervous'. Why? Racing this weekend and it's been much too long since I've last raced. I'm ready. I'm fitter. (fitter?). I'm faster (hopefully). I'm excited. I'm nervous. I'm a little more experienced and I'm really looking forward to 'test' myself.

Everynight before I goto sleep, I take the opportunity to focus on breathing and goto my 'happy place'. It's a meditation ritual that usually sets up my sleep rather well. Waaaay back when I swam seriously, I used this time of 'twilight sleep' to visualize my swim technique. It was almost like having a DVD of proper swim technique, I'd put it on slow motion and visualize exactly how I wanted to swim. Program the mind and the technique and more importantly the muscle memory will follow. Hey, it worked for me then, so now I still do it. Only this time I'm running over race strategy, transitions etc... you know.. tri stuff.

Last week's numbers:
Swim: 10k
Bike: 425K
Run: 67K
Pretty much exactly what I wanted. The highlight was the weekend, Sat: an open water swim! (3.3k), a 140K bike followed by a 12.5k run. I felt awesome. Capped it off with a long run of 30k on Sun.

This is an easy week. I have Mon, Wed and Fri scheduled as easy days, Saturday is travel and chill with Sally day. Sunday.. it's off to the races!

The economy... of movement.

Odd, a Saturday blog update. I haven't had the urge to update lately, but tonight I just felt like writing - so here I am. Now the question is what to write about? Lately, my blog has pretty much degenerated to mileage totals etc.. blah blah blah. The main reason is due to lack of time. As regulars know, I try to take training as serious as I can at any given moment, so alot of stuff gets put on the back burner. Can't update, must get to bed. When I focus on training, I train. I use up all my SAPs (spousal approval points) and focus on the task at hand. That means no TV, little internet and I'm usually too tired to read more than a page of my book before off goes the lights. What's even wierder is that I love doing it.

Part of me wonders just how narcissictic a blog is. I guess there is component of that which is bothersome. There is time a factor, I mean I just spent 15 minutes writing a paragraph and half! Even though I don't have many readers, I still feel compelled to update. So why do it? I guess it's sort of like opening a door, take a peak inside and if you like what you see, hang out with me, if not, move along, there's nothing to see here.

So, I was the pool the other day and someome says "how do you make it look so easy?" A simple question that demands a long answer. The easy answer is "practice", which is absolutely true, but it's much more than that. It's about econonmy of movement, being relaxed, thinking about technique, being fluid, looking 'effortless' and of course practice. I'm always thinking of that whenever I swim, bike or run. I'll try to emulate a pro that makes it look 'easy', I'll visualize what he/she does and start to incorporate it into my own technique. When I run, I always try to be fluid, strong, have quick feet, rythmic breathing, good posture, relaxed shoulders, loose fingers etc.. Eventually it becomes habit. Soon everything will 'gel' and you may get that feeling once. Remember it. You'll get it again. Soon enough it will be habit and now you're in the 'zone'. Embrace the zone because that's when the shit really starts to get interesting.

Well it's past my bedtime, so I must be off. Cheers!

Anatomy of a 'big' week, monthly totals etc..

Just finished a big week of training. I was on vacation and decided to make training the number one priority. Tried to train like a pro, ok well maybe a pro's easy week. :) Here's the low down:
Monday (easy day): swim 3k (a.m.) run 7.5k trails. (p.m.)
Tuesday: bike 129k, run 7.5k trails. (brick)
Wed: bike 108k, run 10k road. (brick)
Thur: swim 4.8k (a.m.) bike 90k (computrainer)
Fri: swim 2.7k (a.m.) run 10.5k (noon), bike 30k(p.m.) on computrainer. (recovery ride)
Sat: bike 208k (!)
Sun: run 30k
Totals for the week: swim 10.5k, bike: 565k run: 65.5k. Exceded all goals for each sport - good stuff. Things to consider when doing a 30 hour training week:
1) Sleep. I made sure to get to bed early and every night I was logging 8.5 to 10 hours of sleep. If I felt I needed a nap midday, I took one.
2) Nutrition. Had to be hyper aware of getting good quality food into me. Between getting lots of zzzz's and eating well, I was able to recover effectively.
3) Massage. Paying attention to the IT bands and the quads. After every leg workout, I'd message my quads for 5 min. I also felt this made a difference in my recovery.
4) Stretch. 20-25min of stretching after every workout.
Highpoints: I'm swimming faster than I should be. Not sure why as swimming is my best sport and hence trained the least - but I'll take it! Mileage PR on the bike. I'm a firm believer in logging lots of miles on the bike as this is a very effective way of increasing overall endurance. Met up with Cliff on Saturday, he was doing '3rd line climb' hill repeats. Hard man stuff. So a salute goes out to him. Lastly, after a tough week, today's 30k run felt good. Hey anytime a 30k run feels good, it's a highlight.

So in the end, my attempt to train like a pro for a week was a success. I enjoyed every minute of it and suprisingly, don't feel beat up at all. Back to work and the real world tomorrow.

Totals for the month of May:
swim: 36.9k
bike: 1706k
run: 237.5k
The goal for the month was to log bike K's and 1700k is a mileage PR. Not bad in the run department either, alot of short runs (7-8k) does start to add up over time. The other bonus for May was my half marry PR.. so yea, May was a good month. Cheers!

Tardy Tuesday update..

Sorry for my tardy updates lately. I've been focusing on training, sleeping and eating, as a result, my internet time is way down. Less interent = more training! So without further ado, here are the tardy numbers for last week:
Swim: 8k
Bike: 483k
Run: 56.5k
A good week. Only 2 swims, but each one was 4k. I wanted 450k on the bike, flirted with 500, but I'm happy with 483k. As for the run, was aiming for 60k, but I won't beat myself up for missing it by 3.5k.

Swim stuff. Want to swim slower then IM pace? Breath every 5 strokes. Want to swim at IM pace? Breath every 3 strokes. Here's a good set to experiment with: 2(5X200). First one drill, your choice. #2 breath every 5, #3 breath every 3, #4 at half IM pace, #5 at Oly or faster pace. Repeat.

An interesting footnote on how 2 'hard' days can differ. Thursday's plan was to bike 110-120k and run 7.5. It was hot, humid and we were under a smog advisory. I checked the air quality index and it was at 'moderate' (AQI was 40, today was 'good', AQI 17). Basically I was on the cusp of training outside or riding the Computrainer inside. I trained outside. Got lost on my bike, (exploring new territory), ended up bonking and grinding out 160k. Got home late, much to the chagrin of Sally, went fetal, then proceded to cough my lungs out for 40 mintues. Ok, so now I know I can't train long on 'moderate' air quality days.

Fast forward to Saturday. Good air, good temperature and overcast. I biked 192k and felt great, even did a short 5k transition run afterwards. A 7 hour endurance day and it was awesome. I was amazed at the difference between the 2 days. Lessons learned: dial back the intensity even more in the heat and humidity and train indoors during smoggy days.

Vacation this week. :)) Hoping to do some big numbers. It will be my last 'big' week. Here's the plan for the next 4 weeks: this week: 'big' week. (~bike 550k, run 60k) Week 2: 'moderate' (bike 400, run 60) Week 3: easy. (race on the weekend), Week 4 'moderate' (last hard weekend on June 23/24) Taper begins June 25...

Monday weigh in..

Ya gotta love the easy weeks that have built in long weekends! Here's the stats for the week:
swim: 10.7k
bike: 130k
run: 42k
weight: 158

Picked up an extra swim session and the high point for the week was on Friday when I logged a 5+k swim. I did my favorite long distance set:
4X400m @ 6min
8X 200m @ 3min
16X 100m @ 1:30
Usually I have low energy stores by the 16X100m set, but I made extra sure to have enough food in me before the swim, so all was good. Held 1:25's for the last set for each one - just slightly faster then IM pace. Throw in a cool down and bada bing - 5k done.
Bike: 130k on the Computrainer.
Run: First run since half marry was on Thursday. Did 7.5k+ on the trails for the Thurs and Fri and a early morning Sat and Sun run of 14k each. I was out of town for the weekend, so had to squeak in a run when I could.
That pretty much caps off the week.

The plan for this week. Swim ~6k, bike 450k, run 60k. I've already had a 'recovery ride' today, so maybe if I'm lucky I'll break 500k on the bike. That would be a record methinks. We'll see how it goes. Anyway, I'm starving, off to make dinner. Hope you have a great week - cheers!

Sunday Synopsis

By the numbers..
swim: 6.5k
bike: 414k
run: 53k
turtles saved: 1
bike accidents: 1
season high bike mileage: done!
PB's: 1

Wowsers, what a week. Ok, working backwards, starting with the last one. I PB'd at Mississauga half marathon today. I really kinda, sorta have to laugh at this because it was *totally* unexpected. No taper, large time on the bike, including 165 hilly, chilly, windy K's yesterday, I thought running a 'race' today would have basically amounted to a silly experiment. So with my HRM on one wrist and my garmin on the other, my intention was just to gather data, learn and run hard. Basically, I went out at 4:00/k, took note of my heartrate and pace at every kilometer marker. HR was pretty steady @168-170 for the duration, a tad higher towards the end. This is solid 10+ beats below my LT which is ~182. From the 8k mark on, I kept thinking: "ok, the legs are going to give out now" - they didn't. At the 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15k mark, I thought the same thing, but they were still holding up. Very cool, thank you legs. Slowed a bit from 15 to 19 and tried to come in strong for the last 2. Total time: 1:25:24. Solid.

Logged over 400k on the bike, this was actually my primary goal for the week. I'm continually amazed at how much faster my recovery is and I think a large part of this is due to my extra cycling time and fitness level.
Bike schedule looked like this: tues: 123k wed: 36k on the computrainer (recovery ride) thurs: 90k on the CT (road a loop of Lake Placid) and Sat: 164k.

Bike accident. Pretty much covered it in the last post. I'm so grateful nothing got hurt too bad.

Turtles saved. My yearly save the turtles drive is officially underway. This one was a big sucker that bascially parked himself in the middle of the road. Damn thing must have been 40 pounds. Silly turtle. Got him safely to the pond on the other side of the road.

Run. Missed one scheduled run. Was suppose to run on Tuesday after the bike - looked after the road rash instead and called it a day.

Swim. All is good. Technique feels solid, endurance is lacking a bit, but there is still time to get some extra pool work done. Not worried. Actually, this will be a good week to get an extra pool session or two in - let the legs recover a bit.
C'est tout for now - cheers!

Welcome to the club.. a quandry no more.

There are two types of cyclist, those that have crashed and those that haven't.... yet. I'm now a proud member of the former. :) My induction to the club was so fast, I scarely knew it occured until I was on the pavement. Here's the details: Tuesday I have a long brick scheduled (long ride followed by a run), I'm out on the bike and feeling great, I'm so owning the hills and the wind isn't bothering me at all. Just one of those days everything feels good. So I'm at the 3 hour mark into my ride and figure, damn I feel so good, let's do another hour. An unscheduled extra hour - hell ya!

I'm 10k from home and passing a construction zone where they are doing road work. Guess what they decided to put on the pavement? Some sort of oily petroleum product - nice. My bike slid out from under me so fast and bam I was down. At the time I was only going 20-25kph, so I didn't get too banged up. Just a bit of road rash, some sore wrists and couple of bruises. Perhaps the biggest downer is the SIX cars that zoomed right past me without even asking if I was ok. To them I give a BIG hearty one finger salute. Hehe.. had to get that off my chest. Karma has a way of biting you on the ass and to them I really hope they don't experience that feeling of being totally let down by my fellow man.

Anyway, enough of that. I just know you want to see pics!











Not so bad. The good news is I'm still able to bike and run. (phew)

Earlier this week I had a bit of quandry. I have a half marathon scheduled for this weekend and I was debating about whether to take a couple of easy days and go for a PB or keeping up the volume and just go for a good hard run. Well, between my biking mishap and the fact that I'm pushing pretty good bike/run volume, I've decided to just go for a hard run and see how well the legs hold up. Should be interesting..
Gotta go.. bedtime!

Games, wheels and a great week.

I frequently play little games with myself in order to get a job done. A work/ reward type thing. For example, sometimes I'll write a workout down on my calender before I actually do it. Then when I have to do the workout a part of me says 'well it's already written down, you can't change it or wimp out now. Another one is I'm only allowed to eat or drink at the top of the hill. This allows me to focus on the task at hand while knowing there is a carrot (however small) that awaits me when I'm done. Some other 'games', counting strides or exhales, crossing the crack in the pavement at the bottom of my driveway and visualizing that as my Ironman finish.. hey whatever keeps you going, right?

I guess the big news is I now have race wheels. :) I ended up getting the H3C's.. actually a fellow tri-wienie had a pair for sale and he lives an hour away. So after Saturday's long and windy ride I went and checked them out and made a deal for them on the spot. He actually bought them from the fellow I mentioned in my previous post - Speedy. So instead of buying a brand new set, which are not cheap, I saved some coin and got a gently used pair.
Just a quick update on the sponsorship news. Speedy, the Canadian distributer for Hed, is also the rep for Blue Competition bikes. As it turns out, he is in fact looking for athletes to represent the Blue line of bikes. Basically, you get a free frame and obviously in return you have some responsibilities and of course the bike still needs all the components; so this isn't in the cards just yet - but maybe in the future. But if you're in the market, I urge you to get in touch with him - you have nothing to lose.

A good workout week. I can't believe IMLP is closing in so fast, I'll be tapering in what? 6 weeks? Damn! I'm so not ready. Though I guess one is never 100% 'ready'. There is always the feeling I should have done more..
Anyway, here's the numbers for the week:
swim: 6.5k
bike: 385k
run: 66k
I guess the highlight was Saturday's long ride. It was a tad windy, a tough effort and an all around solid workout. Total ride was 163k. I've been tweaking nutrition and it pretty much seems that I can eat anything I want as long as I keep my heartrate below 140. For example, at the 90k mark, I stopped at a convience store, ate 500 cals worth of snickers bars, chugged back some Infinit, hopped on the bike and got the HR up to 140 and suffered no ill effects. More experiments to follow, but this is very good news.
Cheers!

Monday weigh in, April's totals, a new chapter..

Yowie zowie - holy irregular updating of the blog, Batman! A quick recap of last week: jury duty is a drag. This basically sums it up: wait in a large lounge with 150 potential jurors (fortuneately I brought a good book- The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini) only to get told that we are not needed today and to come back tomorrow. In the end, I never did get called, but I sure did get some serious reading done!

So between jury duty, work and being away for the weekend, the totals for the week aren't exactly earth shattering. Here the scoop:
swim- 0!
bike: 185k
run: 38k
Hey, sometimes real life messes with my training schedule, just gotta "buck up little soldier" and deal with it.

So April didn't happen exactly as planned. I must remind myself that in the grand scheme of things this isn't a big deal. I'm only in month 8 of a massive 2 year 'base building' phase, so having the odd bad month is not a big deal.
Here's the numbers for April:
swim: 23.9k
spin: 11hr 30min
bike: 300k
run: 173k

May starts a new chapter. Training wise, I'm going to juggle things up a bit, but my basic week will look like this from now until IMLP. Mon- easy swim (2-2.5k), easy run (optional). Tues: long brick (100k ride, 40 min run) Wed: short brick (30-50k ride, 30 min run). Thurs: long brick. Fri:long swim, short run. Sat: long ride/short run. Sun: long run. Once in May and once in June I want to skip Sunday's long run and do another long ride for some tough back to back long ride action. I was thinking of grabbing a couple of fellow tri wienies and ride to Midland (about 190k), stay the night, then ride back the following day. Might be able to talk Cliff into joining me? :)

Last week I promised I'd talk to Hed about race wheels, I talked to "Speedy" the Canadian distributor for Hed and after picking his brain and discussing my needs etc.. I think we/I decided that the Hed 3 carbon would be a good choice. For the record, I'd recommend anyone in the market for wheels to give Paul a call. He spent over an hour with me on the phone discussing my needs, wheels, aerodynamics, racing and sponsorship opportunities. To me, time is a most valuable commodity and anyone who willingly spends an hour with me without having the need or pressure to 'close a sale' is OK in my book. Get in touch with him, through his website here. I'll let you know if/ when I pull the trigger on those bad boys... hmmm... I do have a birthday coming up... :)

Worst inaugural ride ever? Sunday weigh in.

Ok so the title is misleading, I'm sure it wasn't the worst inagural ride, but is sure as heck wasn't the best. Let me back track a bit... We had a fantastic weekend in southern Ontario, the weather was pretty much perfect, sunny with highs around the 24C mark. Bascially, perfect riding weather. I'm pumped. Friday was nuts. Work, swim 4.8k, eat, do house chores, run 7.5k, eat some more and prep bike. A very full day. Alot had to accomplished to get a clean slate for Saturday's first ride of the season. Fast forward to Saturday:
On the road at 8:40, want to start the season of with a bang and get 150 to 160k in. 10k into the ride, flat tire. Change tire, but now I dont' have a spare. I figure I'm only 10k from home, I'll zip back and get another. So I head home and figure that while I'm here I'll change the rubber in the backwheel to something a little more newer. Pump up the tires and I'm good to go. Ding Ding. Round 2:
8k into ride number 2, ssssssssss... damn, there goes the air - voila flat number 2. Ok, so obviously I'm having an issue. I take the rubber off the wheel and inspect the wheel - can't find a single thing wrong. No nicks, foriegn objects - nothing. A fellow tri-wienie stops and we shoot the breeze while I get back up and running - we end the conversation with maybe we'll meet up later and do some time trialling work. I think 'great!', I just maybe able to salvage this ride yet. Since I'm only 8k from home, I zip back and grab my last spare tube, refill water bottles and eat a banana.
Ding. Ding. Round 3:
I'm on my last spare, so I decided I better swing by the bike shop and grab some more. Better safe than sorry. So as I'm getting ready to leave the, who drops in? My fellow tri-wienie from round number 2. His workout was done and was about to do an easy ride home. I'm not into that. I came out today to log some K's and damnit that's what I'm going to do. I get 90 minutes into round 3, you guessed it, flat numero 3. Ok now I understand the Normann meltdown of Kona '05. Actually, I didn't go balistic at all, just kinda laughed, sat on the country rode and took my tire apart for upteenth time for the day. Flatted in a different part of the tube and still could find NOTHING causing it. That's the only part that cheeses me off - not being able to find the cause.
Ding Ding Round 4
Uneventful. Made it through the rest of the ride without flatting, had at least 150k on the agenda and in the end only manage to scrape togethor 115k.
Ding Ding Round 5
Got home, finished my chores just in time for the arrival of my M.I.L. Hehe, actually my mother in-law and I get along fine, I agree with everything she says and then Sally straightens her out. Hey, it works. :)

So the weekly weigh in is 24 hours ahead of schedule. Why? Tomorrow I must report of jury duty. Hey, I'm all for doing one's civic duty, but deep down I'll breathe a sigh of relief if I don't get picked. I also plan on re-taping the inside of my offending wheel, with the hope of that will solve my flatting problem.

Last week's numbers:
Swim: 6.8k
Spin: 3 hours
Bike: 115k
Run: 64k
Weight: 157

Once or twice this week I had to remind myself that I'm still recovering from being sick. (I can still feel residual crap in the bottom of my lungs) So overall it was pretty good week.
Stuff to think about this week: run 6 times, fix wheel and contact HED in regards to race wheels. I've been putting that last one off, but I promise, promise, promise to do it this week. Oh yea, must finish off taxes too. Oh joy.

The funk is out! The funk is out! Monday weigh in.

I think the last of this @#%%%^! bug is over with. Three weeks to the day.. zoinks. After my 1.5 hr 'nap' on Fri, I crashed early and got 9.5 hrs of sleep. This put me in good shape for Saturday and I ground out 3:20 on the computrainer. I had 3 hrs on tap, but since I'm in Colorado, I have some good climbs to contend with and I never stop halfway up a climb, so the total time for Saturday spin session was 3:20. I asked myself, 'is the funk out?' I say to myself, 'I think so.'
So I crash on Saturday night and get 10 hours of zzz's. Yea baby! Next on tap, a 2 hour run. This will be the real test, as long runs always leave me feeling a little beat up. The good news is I got er done and it actually felt ok! Woo hoo... the funk is OUT! I'm so frikin happy to be healthy again. :))

So, here's the numbers for last week:
swim: 7k
bike: 4hrs 30min
run: 52k

Training wise, it's been a brutal last 4 weeks. Easy week, followed by a week of crappy-sickness, followed by 2 weeks of slowly-getting-progressively-better-sickness. Not exactly going according to plan, but now that that is all behind me, what now? The one thing I must resist to do is try to 'catch up' on lost training. Oh yea I'll be starting to crank out some good mileage, but I'm not going to jump into right away - so the next 10 days will just be a build period and by May I'll be going full bore.

Sally always asks me 'what do you think about on your long ride/runs?' To which she gets the standard male response ' I dunno.' What do I think about? I had some great topics I was going to bring up on my blog, I mean some good, serious, deep stuff - but that was 24 hours ago and can I remember it now? No. I think I just enter a quasi dreamlike state and just think about stuff. I really should carry a voice recorder so I don't forget all this stuff.

C'est tout for now. Cheers!

Get the funk out!

I can tell I'm slowly coming out of my 'funk'. Still not 100%, but improving, and that's what is important. The workouts since I've been sick have been rather uninspired, physically I'm probably around 80-85%, mentally, I'm still in a bit of a rut, but it will come around. As an example today, I had a 4k swim planned and physically I felt quite strong in the water but I was feeling tired mentally and doing a workout when you are not 100% into it is rather taxing. I did get the job done, went home, ate and promptly fell asleep - for an hour and half! Needless to say, my 2nd workout, which was to be a short run, promptly got tossed out the window. I hoping by the start of next week I'll be back to 'normal'.

Tomorrow I'm going to grind out 3 hrs on the trainer and Sunday I'll see if I can run for 2 hours. Hopefully all goes well. Have a great weekend!

Monday weigh in..

I wish I stuff to report, but I don't. I'm still not 100% and am now starting to get a little worried. I know I'm on the mend as I'm sleeping much better, but I'm still have congestion issues, especially at night. Damn, I've been fighting this bug for 15 days now and it appears it's going to be hanging on for a few more yet. I can hear you now: "why don't you go to the doctor??" Ok, got me, I'm guilty. But seriously, what's a doctor going to say? 'Rest, eat well and here take some drugs.' So, I'm batting 2 out 3 - that's not too bad. Joking aside, if I can't clear the last of this bug up in the next few days, I will go - promise.

I did keep last week's promise of only working out for an hour a day, for Monday to Friday. As a result, last week's totals are messed up. Here's the low down:
swim: 7.6k
spin: 4hrs
run: 12k
No, that run total is not a misprint. My whole schedule is messed up due to this damn bug and I've had to take multiple days off during the week to get the extra rest. The long run got moved up a day (which made it today- hence it's not in last week's total - oh and by the way, it was crappy - had 2 hours on the schedule, felt terrible so cut it down to 1.5 hrs).

So that's basically the situation, it looks like this week is going to be yet another easy week and hopefully I can shake the last of this illness. Hopefully the workouts that I do are enough to maintain fitness because I'm sure the heck not gaining any. Gotta run... err make that sleep. Cheers.

Another brick in the wall, monthy totals.

So my big bike turned out to be a big bust. Hey it happens. Not much I can do except re-examine the coming month, tweak the plan and soldier on. The good news is that I'm slowly winning the battle over the bug that sidelined me. Last week I ended up putting all my efforts into 'getting well.' I like to do that, focus on one thing and do it the best I can, then move on. So how did I focus on getting well? Pretty simple, try to think good thoughts (this can be tough, being sick just makes me feel sorry for myself), eat super-well and get lots of rest. Positive thoughts and meditation looks after my mind and soul, eating well and getting lots of rest looks after my body... 100% health is sure to follow!

Naturally I asked myself if I was over training. It can be hard to be objective about oneself, but after looking at the symptoms and the data I decided that I wasn't. Here is why: I wasn't displaying the usual symptoms of overtraining ie: chronic inflamation, messed up sleep patterns, phsyical injury, GI distress, high resting HR or sugar cravings. Actually this months totals were LESS than last March's totals, so I truely don't believe I was shelling myself. For now, getting sick twice in 8 weeks I'm going to chalk up to 'one of those things.'

I imagine my immune system is like a wall, after it's been compromised I must rebuild it. How? 1) estabish and stick to a regular sleep pattern. Super important for the coming 4 months. 2) I need 8 to 8.5 hour every night. 3) Be hyper aware of the diet. Fruits, veggies, quality protein, whole grains and healthy carbs - my junk food allowances are: pretzels on occasion and a daily handful of chocolate chips.
(and yes the title of the post is a Pink Floyd reference:)

March totals:
Swim:27.3k
Spin: 31:30hrs
Run: 160.5k
I give my current swim fitness a 'B'. Bike fitness a B- and run fitness a C. The goal for April: maintain swim fitness, bring bike fitness to a 'B' and run fitness to a B-.
How?
This week for Monday to Friday, I PROMISE not to work out more than 1 hour a day. I must finish building up my 'immune system wall'. The following weeks will be cycle/run focused, but I'll still be swimming at least twice a week, getting 7+k in. I wanted to start a running 'tempo cycle' and get a weekly tempo run in for the next 6 weeks - that plan is currently on hold.

Lastly, I updated the race schedule, it's on the left. There are a couple of more I've got my eye on, but the important ones are up. Somehow I think this year is going to be dedicated to "building the base"... That's all for now,
Cheers!

Kinda bummed..

Ever have something you were looking forward to and it turned out not quite like you expected? Yea, I was looking forward to my big bike/training week, it's the end of winter, the weather is great and I've been looking forward to a week where I could just focus on training, sleeping and eating. Saturday starts of rather well, a solid brick workout weighing in at 3.5 hrs. Sunday was similar, but a bit longer - 4 hrs in total. The thing is, I felt awesome, bricks are notorious difficult workouts and I just plain old felt good. What a great start to my little epic week.

Sunday night roles around and I start feeling kind of funny. "oh oh.." It's now Tuesday I'm just coming out of a little 24-48hr bug that reaked havoc with my system. This has me bummed as it was only 6 weeks ago when I was sick, now I've been nailed twice in a short period. Not good. So now the priority is getting back to 'normal', eating well and getting 8+ hrs of zzz's every night.

A hearty thanks to Sally for putting up with me, I'm really a cranky sot when sick. Big hugs to my wife. :)

301W, T-minus 25 minutes.

Training camp officially begins in 25 minutes, so I figured I would do a quick blog update.
The last 5 days have been very easy, I want to make sure I'm 100% rested for my mini camp because I know I'll be rather shelled by next Sunday. Recap of the week:
Mon: Swim 2.5k
Tues: off
Wed: Swim 4.8k
Thurs: Spin 1hr (LT test!)
Fri: Swim: 3.1k
Even though it was an easy week, I upped the swim mileage. I figure getting the extra swim time still counts as 'easy' since it is time that doesn't involve leg work. Nice endurance set on Wednesday: 4X400, 8X200, 16X100. Booya.

It's been 2 months since my last bike LT test, so Thursday's workout was dedicated to that. What's interesting about doing the test is that it provides concrete data on whether or not your improving. Here is a brief synopsis of my last LT test numbers:
Time: 28:20 Avgerage speed: 38.1 Watts: 283
And the latest numbers are:
Time: 27:40 Average speed: 39.0 Watts:301 (yay!)
Good stuff, fitness level is increasing and I'm getting faster. Whoever said "It doesn't get easier, you just get faster" is so right on the money. It's difficult to describe just how tough a LT test is unless you do one. These are done at 100% effort, all out, leave nothing behind. Its funny though, when your done I always say to myself 'hmm, I bet I could have gone faster...' But during the test you tsay things to yourself 'oh my god, I've got 10 minutes to go... or.. I should do this test on another day.' Time seems to slow down too, in the last couple of minutes the seconds are taking there sweet time. You should try it sometime.

Lastly, here is the plan for the week:
Sat: 3 hr ride, 30 min run
Sun: 3hr ride, 30 min run
Mon: 1 hr ride am, 7.5k run pm
Tues: 2 hr ride am, 2 hr ride. pm
Wed: swim am, 1 hr ride pm
Thur: 2 hr ride am, 2 hr ride pm
Fri: 1 hr ride am, 7.5k run pm
Sat: 3 hr ride, 30 min run
Sun: run 2+ hrs.
Ok, it may not be EPIC, but that will be a solid/tough week.. Every workout will be in primarily mid/high zone 1.
Eep, 2 minutes until the official start, gotta go!
Cheers!

Monday weigh in. Long term planning..

Last week was the end of a 4 week build and it was a good week. The first 2 weeks were moderate volume of all 3 sports, the 2nd week I cranked it up a notch and last week it was cranked up yet again. Here's the numbers:
Swim: 5.6k
Bike: 8hrs 30min
Run: 67.5k
Weight: 157
Due to March break, I only managed 90 minutes in the pool but still got some quality work in. Fridays main set was a 20X100m on 1:30, alternate one slow and one fast. (1:18-1:20 for the fast ones and 1:26-1:28 for the slow)
The biking is going well. I'm just trying to log as much trainer time as possible without going too crazy. The Computrainer really helps as simulates outdoor riding so well - minus the lousy drivers and crappy weather of course.
Even though I feel like I'm not logging enough running K's, my run feels strong. The Mark Allen low heart rate protocol I've adapted is slowly paying off dividends. Earlier in the week I was noticing I had to put in more effort to reach my desired heartrate training level. More effort = more speed and yet my HR is still in zone 1. Good stuff.

Here's an interesting tidbit about Jasper Blake, Canadian Ironman Champ for '06. His zone 1 heartrate before IMC for running was 3:45/km! Interesting to note that he split a 2:48 marathon for an average of 4:00/km. Even he had trouble maintaining his training zone 1 running heartrate during a race, obviously biking 180k before hand has something to do with it.

Do you have a long term plan? No I don't mean long term as in 6 months from now.. more like what are your goals for next year? The year after? I've been mulling my long term triathlon plan for a few months and here is what I've settled on. Keep in mind this long term and the crystal ball gets murkier the farther I look down the road. This year: IMLP: goal: sub 10:30. Next year: IMC: goal: sub 10hrs. 2009: IMOO or IMFL: goal: qualify for Kona. 2010: Kona. Yea, I've got plans until 2010... go figure.

Next week I'm off work. I've slotted my 2nd BIG BIKE week for it. Yes, I'm taking time off work to train. I don't have a problem with it, neither should you. :) Here's my bike plan: 1st big bike week was end of Jan, where I managed 11hrs on the trainer. 2nd big week is 2 months later, I'm going for 18+ hrs over 8 or 9 days. Two months after this one is my 3rd big bike week and 7 weeks after that is IMLP. Am I training smarter? I think so... am I getting smarter? Hmm.. the jury is out on that one.
Cheers!

Monday weigh in

Last week was my 3rd week of a 4 week build, in which I've been distributing my time more equally among the 3 sports. It was a pretty good week workout wise, although I did miss once scheduled short run. I have to remind myself that's it's OK to miss a workout every so often, especially if I'm feeling tired. Here's the numbers:
Swim: 7.3k
Spin: 8hrs
Run: 51k
Weight: 157
The weeks highlights:
- met up with Cliff, on Friday for a swim session. I haven't seen Cliff since last October and wanted to see his swim progress. The good news is, in my opinion, he's reached the stage that in order to get better, he's going to have to start logging some serious pool time. It's a bit of a milestone of sorts, so a hearty congrats goes out to him.
-also pool related, my main set on Friday was a 10X400m on 6 min. Good set, coming in on 5:45's. My swim is at about 90% already and I'm very happy with that.
-passed the $1,000 mark for my charity fundraiser. Woo hoo 4 digit territory, and yes I do think a 5 digit number is on the horizon. Perhaps in a couple of years. It's all about taking baby steps in the right direction.

Not much else to say, solid spin hours, the running K's are a tad low, but I'll be adding a run or two this week and start building them back up. I have a run build scheduled for April. Actually the plan for the next 7 weeks goes like this: hard week, easy week, bike week, easy week, 3 week run build session.

That's all for now, cheers!

Monday weigh in..

I'm just thinking on the fly - about inspiration. The reason why I bring it up is because I got an email earlier today from someone who said they thought my blog was inspiring. It sort of makes me feel proud, embarrassed and humble all at the same time. I don't feel I write particularly well, yet I've had comments from people saying otherwise. Usually, I just to write as if I'm talking to you, and it's usually just off the top of my head. Some days it seems to just flow out and on other days I can't string two words togethor for the life of me. So when someone takes the time out of there day and drop me a note - it means something - and that's cool shit.
So I'm pondering about 'inspiration', what inspires you? Who inspires you? Something to think about. I get inspiration from many sources and sometimes don't even know it until I think about it later. Go to an Ironman, jeez if that doesn't inspire you to do something, then I think there is something wrong with ya. The list is long about what/who inspires me, sometimes it's fleeting. I'll see an eldery person who has gone through WWII and I think "I can't imagine what they've seen". There is inspiration there. Back to Ironman, how about the 75 year old nun, Sister Madonna Budder, multiple Ironman finisher and was at IMC and did Kona last year. Inspirational.
It reminds of the quote: "What ever you do, do it well." I'm going to just leave it that - something to think about.

Back to some actual training stuff! Last week numbers:
Swim: 6.6k
Bike: 6:40
Run:: 57.5
Weight: 158
This has been my standard week. I up the time spent in one sport and usually there is time taken away in another area. It's always a combination of balancing the sports and taking the time to focus on one area, then re-balancing. I'm pretty much in a phase of training where I'm balancing the 3 sports. The obvious exception is swimming and that's just because that's the area where I need the least improvement.

This week I'm going to try up the bike time a bit and hopefully the run mileage too. That will be challenge because tomorrow they are talking about MINUS 30C windchills! Those of you that read regularly know that I wimp out when it gets ridiculas outside. The good news is that I have 2 others sports in which to pick up any slack. So instead of run/bike day tomorrow, it's looking like a swim/bike day. See? Having 3 sports to balance can be good thing!
Have a great week.

Monthly mileage, hardest bike workout ever..

Just finished my 80k time trial bike workout about 2 hours ago. It's hard to describe just how much of a sufferfest the last hour was. I wanted to quit, I wanted to cheat (bad thoughts), of course I didn't but I sure wanted to. Having never done a workout of this type before I wasn't quite sure how to pace myself. My strategy was try and hold a mid zone 3 heartrate and see how well I do. I did fine up to about the 1:10 point and from there on it was pretty much a game of counting minutes, breathes - anything to keep my mind off of my obvious discomfort. Final time was 2:14, the first 40k look was just under 1:06 and even though I thought pacing was screwed my 2nd lap was about 2.5 minutes slower than the first. I'm actually kind of pleased because I wasn't pushing the watts and it certainly felt much slower. Methinks the legs are going to be a little cranky tomorrow.
I also did a 10.5k run earlier in the day, so I'm sure that was a factor in my bike workout from hell.

February mileage report:
Swim: 19k
Spin: 25hrs 40min
Run: 103.5k

The number dont' lie, no it wasn't a great training month. Between being sick and the subsequent recovery period, I just wasn't able to log huge numbers. The good news is my swimming feels good and 25+hours on the trainer isnt' too bad.

March 1 is big day for me.. in my mind we're so close to the end of the winter that I can almost taste spring. Oh man that makes me happy - I can't wait. Of course we are getting walloped with snow and freezing rain as I type, but I don't care. Winter's days are numbered...

Ok, I'm off. Must get a well deserved 8+ hours of zzzz's.... hmmmm... sleep.

Monday weigh in

Not a heck of alot is happening, last week was my first week of getting back to some 'normal' workout and feeling 100 percent healthy. Here's the numbers from build week number 1:
Swim: 7.1k
Spin: 7 hrs
Run: 49k
Two swims, with one of them being a 4k'er. I like the 4k swims because in my mind they are the ones that 'count'. Anything 4k and over counts because an IM swim is 3.8k, so I figure 4k plus is great for building endurance. If I can get 20 or so 4k+ swims between now and IMLP, my swim will be fine.

7 hours on the bike - no complaints there. The highpoint being last Thursday I did a 45 minute zone 3 workout - pushed 268 watts for the duration, felt good. I've come to the conclusion that to get fast on the bike, one really must embrace suffering. I don't know why, but when the legs start to hurt, I think they are fibbing because you can keep pushing at the same effort for a very long time before they truely start to give out. I only bring this up because I have an 80k time trial on the books for this week - and I'm looking forward to it with apprehensive trepidation.

Yay, I'm back running. While 49k isn't alot, it felt good and felt strong. I don't think I lost much run fitness during my sickness. Sunday's run was a 20k'er (hmm, nice -20C windchill) and I held sub 5min/K for the duration while keeping the heartrate in zone 1. A good sign.

So basically the plan for this week is to maintain swimming and biking and up the running K's a bit. Cheers!

Bye-bye California, hello Arizona!

Egad, it's been awhile. I have not forgotten about you - honest! I was going to do an update on Friday, but got sidetracked by computer issues. Actually, the computer royally ticked me off, so I reformatted. Anyone who has done this before, knows it's a pain in the butt. The good news, I have my most of my old software back up and running and the system is running so much better now.

The last 2 weeks, I've been rather hamstrung by a nasty little bug that is being rather persistent. Last week I was going to 'get back at it' - and to a certain extent I was successful, but I was lacking heart. Things weren't still at 100%, so I kept the intensity down and just concentrated on getting back to being sick-free. Here is what I ended up doing last week:
Swim 5.9k
Spin: 9hr 10min

What? No running??! Yes, the running mileage has taken a severe beating in recent weeks. Sickness, snow storms and minus 25C windchills = no running for me! Decent spin time though and the extra time on the bike should help my muscle endurance. (which, in my opinion is my primary limiter for an Ironman) Which brings me to bye bye California, hello Arizona:
I'm slowly plugging away on the Race Across AMerica (RAAM) on my Computrainer. Curently, I'm on stage 8 out of 57, which puts me pretty much smack in the middle of Arizona. Depending how much RAAM riding I do, I should be in Utah by next week sometime.

So what's the plan? Ahhh, the 'plan', is always dynamic, but here is it's current incarnation. A 3 or 4 week build phase, followed by an easy week, followed by a big bike week, followed by an easy week. That'll put me into the beginning of April. Gotta get the running legs back, that's a priority - just consistent mileage and getting out 5 or 6 times a week. I had a scheduled 'A' race in the beginning of March, which actually sold out before I registered. I'm on the waiting list, if I'm offered a spot I'll take it, but it sure won't be an A race - it'll just be a good hard run.

That's all for now. Cheers!

I've been sponsored and smoted!

The BIG news first. My employer, Canada Post, has agreed to sponsor me for 2007! I had some wacky promotional ideas, (carrying a letter around during the course of an Ironman was one..), that luckily they aren't going make me do. (I'm still not sure the best place to put the letter during the swim portion...) Bascially it boiled down to this, we like what you did you last year - keep up the good work. Hey! I can live with that. I've provided a nice helpful link to the Canada Post website on the left of your screen, so go click on it and buy a stamp or something!

And now for the 'smoting' part of today's post. It appears that the Super Bowl Gods weren't too fond of last Friday's mini rant against their game, by Monday I was sick as a dog - I've been smoted. I don't get sick often, but when I do, I usually go down for the count. So my workouts for this week look like this:
Monday - OFF
Tuesday - NADA
Wednesday - ZIP
Thursday - Z-E-R-O
Friday- run 7k and hack a lung out. (nah, it wasn't that bad)
So I'm starting to feel better today and did get a short run in. It's funny, being sick makes me depressed in ways like : 'I don't want to workout' or : 'I don't even feel like working out' or 'Bah, I've already lost fitness.. missing another day won't matter'.
That's the bad side...
The good side is: 'ahhh a forced rest, time for some extra muscle repair, so I can really start to rip it up' or 'this rest will make me stronger for later..'
Naturally, I side with the good, a forced rest this early and after some pretty good mileage for Oct, Nov, Dec and Jan is probably good for me. Either way, I'm looking forward to getting back to 100% so I can assauge some of this guilt of missing 4 days in a row! My recipe for getting well: rest, quality food, rest some more, get active when possible and just 'focus on getting well.'

Oh yeah another thing, I'm down to 156 pounds - that's only 5 pounds away from when I used to swim seriously, a mere 20 years ago! I think my new race weight will be 155.
Ok, I must go nap now. Have a great weekend!

SUPER January totals..

Hi, my name is Darren and and I couldn't care less that this weekend is super bowl Sunday. Can't stand the game. Can't stand the hype. Can't stand the hooplah. You couldn't pay me to watch it. I suppose many would consider that sacrilege and blasphemous, ahh well, to each his own. I do like the junk food though.....

Ok so the January totals aren't SUPER, but they aren't bad either - here ya go:
Run: 255.5k
Spin: 31 hrs 15 min
Swim: 15.65k

Failed to meet my monthly run goal of 300k, but I smashed my projected bike time. That was mostly due to my bike focus week where I did 16 hrs in 8 days. So even though I missed my run goal, the extra time on the bike made up for it.
As for swimming, I'm just getting back into it and progress has been good. Example: when I first got into the pool, I was winded doing a 5X200m on 3:15, coming in on 3:00. Today, I did the same set coming in sub 2:50's and more importantly it felt better. I think by mid March swimming will be back to normal.

I tried to sign up for my early season "A" race - The Chilly Half Marathon and it's SOLD OUT. Doh Doh Doh Doh Doh. I'm on the waiting list, so I'm hoping between that and me begging the race director I'll get in. I can't believe it sold in January - is this running thing catching on or what?

The weekend plan: Sat: spin 3 hrs or so. Not sure if I'm going to do Lake Placid or another leg on the RAAM course. Sunday: run. A cold run according to the forcast - oh joy.

Here's hoping you have a SUPER weekend! :) Cheers!

Monday weigh in..

Bike focus week is done. From Saturday the 20th to Saturday 27th a total of 16 hours on the trainer, that's the equivalent of 500k -not too shaboo for January! Lesson learned: due to easier/faster recovery the key for building muscular endurance is to log lots of cycling miles. I mean lets face it, you can be great runner but if you don't have the cycling miles in your legs, you will not run well after a 180k bike in an Ironman!

So here are my Monday to Sunday totals:
Swim 5.85k
Spin: 10 hrs
Run: 42k
Weight: 160

Swimming is coming along ok, the stroke is slowly starting to feel better, which is pretty cool because today was only my 6th swim since IMC (Aug /06) - so it's only natural I'm going to be a little rusty in the water. I'm still just focusing on drill work, some pulling and the odd 5 X 200.

The goal for this week is to bring back up running frequency and mileage, log around 5 to 6 hours on the trainer and swim twice and take two easy days. (Monday and Friday).

Still no word on sponsorship, I'm hoping to get news in the next week or two so I can update my '07 race schedule. I'll keep you posted.

The 50/50 draw at work is progressing well - closing in 600 bux for the kids - good stuff.

Must... go.. make... dinner.. hmmmm... foooooooooood.
Cheers!

Focus & Bonking

Note there is no 'i' in the title.

'Bonking' occurs when you deplete your energy stores, you are basically trying to complete a workout or race with the needle below empty. Generally, it's not a fun experience, power output is minimal and all you really want to do is curl up somewhere, eat some food and grab a nap.

Why am I talking about bonking in January? Usually this only happend during a long bike ride... Well, funny you should mention, but this is a bike focus week. I've been logging some good hours on the Computrainer this week and yesterday's workout was a douzy.
Let me recap the week thus far: Tues: Run 11k (25 min @tempo), 2 hours on the trainer. Wed: Run 9k (trails) 1 hour spinning. Thurs: a 3.5 hour trainer session. (new record!).

The thing about yesterday's workout was not only was it long, it was hard. I downloaded all the RAAM courses for the Computrainer. What is RAAM? Oh, it's a little race where people Ride Across AMerica.... on their bikes. Yea, it's whole new level insanity, which we can discuss at another time. So my thinking is
'hey, over the next little while, I'll plug away on the RAAM courses and eventually I'll be able to say I rode across America in training - so it's virtual riding, but it still counts. So I fire up stage one, (there are 57 in total) and holy crap it's HILLacious. I got more than I bargained for: net elevation was over 1100 meters and that's just net elevation, not even including all the ups and downs on the way. Zoinks. ALOT of hard climbing, I'm talking 15% grades up and out of saddle climbing. Wheeeee!
Average speed for the whole workout was a mere 24kph! Did I bonk? No, but it was close - power output was low and I feeling a little grumpy by the end, but at least I finished that sucker!

So, since Sat, I'm at 12.5 hours of trainer time and I still have 2.5 days to go...

That's all for now. Cheers!

Monday weigh in

Ok ok.. I admit it. I'm a fair weather runner. My tolerance for cold weather running stops around the -8C degree mark. Throw some wind in the mix and my will to run evaporates. Luckily last week, was a designated easy week, so even though I bailed on a run or two, I won't allow myself to feel too guilty over it. Here's the mileage report:
swim: 5.6k
bike: 8hrs
run: 23.5k
weight: 160 (down another pound)

Only 2 runs for the week. Did I mention I'm a wuss when it's too cold? Here's what actually happened. Saturday woke up, walked the dog with Sally - all the while she got to listen to grumpy Darren cursing the weather the gods. I get backand bailed on my Sat morning run, instead I fire up the spinner and do a Lake Placid loop on my Computrainer. Phew, that makes up for the run I bailed on. Sunday... brrrr too cold. Run for 2 hours with -20C wind chills? Nah. So I did the Lake Placid loop again on Sunday - hence the spike in bike hours for the week.

I guess with the weekend dedicated to spinning, my bike focus week got bumped up a couple of days. So instead of a 6-day bike focus, it'll be a an 8 day focus. I've adjusted my build weeks. I used to do a 3 week build, followed by an easy week. This Jan I've been trying something new - 2 week build, easy week, focus week, easy week. We'll see how it goes..

Sorry for the short post, but Sal and I have a dvd date - we're starting 24 season 3. Cheers!

The Hungry Trout, bike LT test.

Slowly starting to get things in place for Ironman Lake Placid. After a few days of searching and finding absolutely nothing in the accomodation department, we lucked out and secured a spot at The Hungry Trout Inn. Would I make this stuff up? Actually, the place looks pretty good and it's about 30 minutes outside of Lake Placid located on the bike course. Phew, I can now cross 'find accomodations' off the list.

Yesterday, I did my very first lactate threshold test on the bike. Zoinks, that was fun. If fun means 'sweating profusely while gasping for air and having your legs screaming at you to stop'. Then yes, that was fun. The bike LT test is similar to the run LT test - it's basically a 30 minute all out time trial in which you record your heartrate and determine your 'lactate threshold'. Your LT is then used to establish your training zones. The numbers are: avg watts 283, average HR: 170 - initially I didn't think I could hold this for 30 minutes, but I did - so I think it was a good test. Painful, but good.
So zone 1 (easy) is <139 HR and zone 2 (endurance) is 140-151 HR. Kind of funny as I've been training between 135 and 142 HR on the bike for the last few months.

I also got my 2nd swim of the year in yestereday, 2.6k. Easy sets, drillwork, nothing too hard - slowly getting the arms back in the swing of things.

Today: run 11k plus 1 hr on the bike - more drill work.
Tomorrow: swim & run
Fri: 2nd easy day of the week .. bike 60-90 min.

That's all for now, it's bedtime and I need my 8!

Weekend update

It's interesting to see how other people approach training. I keep an eye out on follow bloggers, visit many forums, websites and pro's blogs all in effort to garner as much information as possible and make an informed decision on what is good for me. The bottom line is there is no one definite clear answer that works for everyone. Some people speed train all year around, some 'periodize', some do huge amounts of base training and little else. Regardless of what works for you, one thing is clear, you have to log the miles. Which is kind of a nice segui into the this week's mileage report:

Swim: 2.1k
Bike/spin: 6hr 45min
Run: 84.5k
Weight: 161 (dropped 2 pounds!)

I guess the big news is that I went for my first swim - just did some basic drill stuff and took it easy. While at the pool, I was chatting with the lifeguard and as it turns out, Lisa Bentley regularly swims there. Yes, THAT Lisa Bentley. So not oly does the pool have a maximum of 4 swimmers for the entire pool during adult swim, a 10 time IronWoman champion also trains there. -Yup, I'm liking my new pool.

I guess most other news for the week pales in comparison. I ditched one run, so only got 5 runs in on the week, but gained 75 minutes of bike time and a pool workout. Fair trade I'd say.

I'm going to back off a bit this week, cut the running mileage down to ~50k, swim twice and bike maybe 4.5 -5 hrs - depends how I feel. I have TWO very easy days this week. Wacky stuff. The point of this week is rest up for the following week, which will be my first bike focused week.
That's it for now.. Cheers!

Monday weigh in..

I meant to update on Friday, but got sidetracked. Why you ask? After being ever so patient, my Computrainer finally arrived and like a little kid at Christmas I naturally had to start 'playing' right away! For those that don't know, a Computrainer hooks your bike up to the computer and you can race other opponents, pre-race a course ( or build your own), it simulates hills and grade percentages, provides you with loads of data: speed, rpm, watts, real time 'spin analysis', heart rate and the list goes on.

After I hooked it up, I fired up spinscan and could tell immediately my left leg does more work than my right and that I have a 'dead spot' at top-dead-centre. I have more work to do on the bike than I originally thought!
Anyway, enough of my new toy, if you are interested, go click on the link above or drop me a note. Incidentally, I bought mine through Mike Plumb over at Tripower. He did a group deal that provided a substantial discount. So in addition to being an athlete and a triathlon coach, he's an all around nice guy!

Last week's mileage report:
Run: 91.5k
Spin: 5.5 hrs
Weight: 163
Not too shaboo. I did a 30 minute tempo run on Tuesday which went well, held a heartrate of 175 for the duration. Other than the Computrainer, the only other thing of note was that yesterday I did 25k run in which I acutally had to push myself to maintain a high zone 1 heartrate. ie not over 150 bpm. Held 4:58/k over hilly terrain, in zone 1 for 25k. I'm happy with that because it's tangible evidence my fitness level is increasing.

This week the plan is pretty much the same, maybe add an extra spinning hour and increase the tempo run to 35 minutes.

Oh yeah.. I checked out a new pool today. The problem is my old pool, which is an excellent facility, just can't get their act togethor regarding lane swims. So I go and check out this other pool, which is not as nice as a facility, but .. and this is a big but, it only had ONE swimmer in the whole pool for the adult/lane swim. I think I found a new swim home... :)
Cheers!

I resolve to..

Stop making resolutions. Not that I ever really did anyway. However, I hope in '07 that I can expand my physical, mental and spiritual horizons, which really is an ongoing process as opposed to any arbitrary 'resolution.'

Last night some good friends came over, including Reddog. Good food, friends, converstion, a beverage or two and a board game. Pretty low key and casual - just the way I like it now. A far cry from my younger days, upon reflection, I have sure done some stupid things. Fortuneately, we kept the festivities to a dull roar and I emerged in '07 relatively unscathed, though perhaps a little sleep deprived. Yes, today is a designated off-day. :)
However, a new phase starts tomorrow. Here's the plan: for January: week 1, 2 run focused. week 3: easy. week 4: bike week. Bring the total spinning hours to ~22-24. Try to maintain 300+ running K's. Do 4 tempo runs and 2 interval sessions. The major change is the addtion of speed work, this period will last for Jan and Feb. The goal for week 4, bike week, is to get 10 hours on the trainer. Oh yea, I may even make it to the pool 2 or 3 times this month... wacky stuff.

Monthly stats:
run: 332k (mileage PR!)
spin: 18.5 hours

Jan 1/06 - Dec 31/06 mileage:
run: 2424k
spin: 131 hours
bike: 3432k
swim: 191k

A good 'build year'. I think if I can build more in '07, I could have a break out year in '08. Hehe, '07 is only 15 hours old and I'm already to starting to think of '08.

This quote seems fitting for Jan 1:
"Never live in the past but always learn from it. " -Unknown

Milestones

A couple of minor milestones. One is relating to winter. You see, psychologically, I break winter down into two major milestones. The first one is the winter solstice, which just passed on Dec 22. Daylight has been increasing for the last 5 days! The next major winter milestone for me isn't until March 1, when it's so close to the end of the tunnel and you can taste spring. Jan/Feb can be a tough stretch, but once March is here, it's game on!

2006 is winding down real fast. As I reflect on the year, specifically relating to triathlon, I think of the top 3 things I've learned. 1) speed is icing on the cake and I don't have cake yet. Off the top of my head, I can't recall who said that, so I can't give proper credit, but it was someone wiser than me! It really is all about building a bigger engine. 2) It really is all about the run. Which is kind of a trick statement. It should be: it's all about arriving at the run with enough endurance to actually run." I thought I was working on the run in '06, but truthfully I did not end up doing what is required. I believe you have train like a runner to become a better runner. Also, just as importantly, do the bike miles to arrive at the run in reasonable shape. Lastly, nutrition really is king. I've found that 'nailing' my nutritional needs for the longer events quite difficult and even though I've learned alot, I still have a ways to go. Such is life.

Another milestone... 101 running K's last week. Yea! A nice Christmas present to myself - a mileage PR. Here's the belated stats for last week:
run: 101 k
spin 4 hr
Plus the usual 2 hours dedicated to stretching and core work.

Ok, well I was a little reluctant to post this, but I did promise I'd post my new bike position, so here it is. Constructive criticism always welcome.. note, I did stay constructive. :)











The only real adjustments over last year is that now there are no spacers in the stem. I played with angling the aerobars down a bit, but after some research decided against it. I was able to achieve a nice flat scapula area and have so far found this position to be comfortable, so for the time being this is the position I'll go with.

The camera did point out some technical flaws in my pedal stroke, just some minor things to work on while logging the spinning hours.

Speaking of spinning, I better stop typing and start logging some miles in front of the TV. Cheers!

It's crunch time..

It's crunch time at the North Pole. I'd imagine those poor elves must be 'in the weeds'. <-- bartending lingo for when your busier than hell. I hope Santa is good to everyone.

The week is progressing well, I'm on track for 100 running K's, just have to do a couple 22k runs this weekend. Monday was off, Tuesday: run 17, spin 1hr, Wed: run 12, spin 1hr, Thur: run 17, spin 1 and today was run 9 in the nice cold rain and spin 1. At least the weather looks decent, so I shouldn't have a problem finishing the week out strong.

POGO news:
I finally got the 50/50 off the ground at work- yea 2 weeks later than I orginally thought... office politics, ya gotta love it. The good news is for the inaugural draw $120.00 was collected. Let's just hope it lasts. So current collected total is $220.00, with almost $200.00 in pledges to be collected. Hey, it's a start.

Hmm.. not much else is happening. I'm still waiting on my Computrainer, though with things pretty much shutting down next week, I probably won't receive it until January. Waiting, it's the hardest part.

That's all for now. Don't forget what Christmas is really about, give a loved 0ne a hug and raise a glass for everything we have to be thankful for. Cheers!

Monday weigh in

Picture this. It's December 17th (yesterday), one hour north of Toronto, a mere 4 days before the official start of winter... it's a gorgeous sunny day with temperature just shy of 10C. If that's not shorts weather I don't what is. Yup, smart money says it'll be a green Christmas. The 'angel' on the right shoulder says "global warming = bad!" The 'devil' on the left shoulder says "get outside and enjoy that global warming!" I kinda feel guilty for running shorts in the second half of December.

The tally for last week:
Run: 87.5 k
Spin: 5 hrs
Weight: 163
Met my goals for the week - all is good. This week I'm thinking of giving myself a Christmas present - a running mileage PR. Yup, going for triple digits next week and maintain the same amount of time on the bike. I figure go for 100 running K's next week, then take the last week of the year real easy, with January 2/07 bringing in a new training phase. So there ya have it. Cheers!

LT test and getting clocked.

Standard warning: Do not attempt this test without the consent of a physician. I'm being serious, the last thing I want on my concious is being responsible for someone else's heart attack.

So what is an LT test? LT stands for lactate threshold which is the level of exercise intensity when lactate starts to accumulate in the blood and you change from a primarly fat burning to a glycogen (carbs) burning metabolism.
Methodology: Get yourself good and warmed up ending with a few stride repeats to jack up the heart rate. Once warmed up run a 30 minute time trial. At the 10 minute mark, hit the lap button on your heartrate monitor, your LT will be your average heartrate for the last 20 minutes. You should give the time trial 100 percent effort and be pretty well spent at the end of it. Ideally, you want a hard, but consistent pace throughout the whole time trial.

Ok, so that's the nuts and bolts of the matter. Tuesday seemed like a good time for a LT test, my prep work for next year is almost done, I've logged some decent running K's, and the roads were fairly dry (well the paved ones were, the dirt roads were pretty muddy). Might as well embrace some pain and get this test done. Here's the numbers:

0-10 minute mark: distance: 2.51k heartrate: 181 bpm
10-20 minutes: distance 2.54k heartrate: 183bpm
20-30 minutes: distance: 2.49k heartrate: 183 bpm
Average heartrate for last 2o minutes: 183 bpm.

So my LT is 183 bpm. I was able to maintain pretty much the same pace throughout and by the end I was sucking wind pretty hard. I believe I got an accurate reading, which is what matters. So what does this number mean? Well from my LT we can determine correct trainings 'zones', (using Joe Friel's method)

Zone 1: easy / recovery workout: <155
Zone 2: endurance training: 155-164
Zone 3: 'intensive' endurance training: 165-173
Zone 4: Threshold training: 174- 180
Zone 5 Threshold training 181-184

Personally I think these values are a little on the high side, maybe 5 beats. I'll experiment during my 'build phase' and zone in on what I think is appropriate - but at least it gives me a starting point.

So yesterday I ran through a speed trap and the officer clocked me at 13kph. Now I 'know' I was only at a max of 12 kph, my internal speedometer is quite accurate I assured him. However, he'd have none of that as his laser thingy clearly clocked me at 13kph. Fortuneately, it was a 40 zone, so I didn't get a ticket. Luckily I was just 'warming up' and he'd didn't catch me during Tuesday's LT test. :)
Cheers!

Monday weigh in

Today, I'm a kid. Why? Just ordered a new Computrainer, through Mike Plumb at Tripower Multisports. Mike, is doing a large bulk deal and is able to get a substantial discount which he graciously passes on to us. So, if you are in market for a Computrainer, do yourself a favour and contact Mike asap. I think he's wrapping things up in about 1 week.

It will probably take 2-3 weeks until I actually receive it and naturally when I get it up and running I'll want to ride the snot out of it. I better be getting my cycling legs back in a hurry. So the plan for this week is to increase my spinning time by an hour and get about 80 running K's in. This week's outline is: Tues: run 1 hr, spin 1.5hrs. Wed: run 40min, spin 1 hr. Thurs. Run 1 hr, spin 1.5hrs. Fri: run 40, spin 1hr. Sat run 1.5 hrs. Sun run 2.0 hrs.

The weekend saw the last of my cold go bye-bye and I was operating at a respectable 90%. I did an 18k run on Sat and a 22k run on Sun. The weekly totals are:
Run: 63.5k
Spin: 4 hours.
Weight: 163 (down a pound)
Running K's are low due to the fact I bailed on two runs - for which I blame my cold. On the other hand, I'm happy I got >60k's in 4 runs. I'd love about 2 more months of consistent 80k weeks.. but I know Jan/Feb will be particularly challenging in the mileage department. Which brings me to swimming...

Swimming is still very much on the back burner, at least for another month, maybe two. I'm not looking forward to going back to the pool - just yet. Although watching NBC's coverage Kona on Saturday gave me goosebumps - it made me at least start to think about swimming. Hey, thinking about it is the first step, now I just have to move to the 'doing' part... Cheers!

Cough... cough..

Had a bit of a cold this week, I should have know something was up last weekend - during my run my heartrate was higher than normal and I wasn't just feeling 'right'. Turns out it's a bit of cold, it's been so long since I've had one, I almost forgot what it's like. It wasn't too bad, a couple of restless nights and a stuffed nose - at least the bugger didn't migrate to my lungs.

I erred on the side of caution and ditched two of my runs this week and opted for additonal zzzz's instead. Focus on getting back to 100% health then focus on training. I still did my bike workouts, so I wasn't in 100% slacker mode - just semi-slacker.
The good news is, I had a great sleep last night and was able to get a run and bike workout in today. Hey, if cold only buggers up two runs, I sure the hell won't complain.

As you know, I'm still in a pre-season/base phase. ie: during all workouts, heartrate is not allowed over 145 and is usually kept between 140 - 142. The one thing I have been working on is my run cadence. My natural cadence seems to be dialed in at 88 strides/min (176 steps). The goal is to increased that to 92. In order to do that, every so often during a run, I'll do real quick increase in cadence for 20 to 30 sec. The theory being, that eventually running at 92 strides will feel natural.
Anyway, this got me a thinking. (yea it happens every so often). Increasing cadence from 88 to 92 = 8 an extra 8 steps per minute. Big deal you say. Well extrapolate that over the course of a marathon. 1 step =1.25m (it's propably more), so that's 10 extra meters travelled in 1 minute. For arguments sake, let's say you run a 3 hour marathon. That's 180 minutes, at 10 extra meters/ minute, that's 1800 meters, or 1.8k. A 3 hour marathon requires a 4:16/k pace, so by merely increasing your cadence, in this case you could shave over 7.5 minutes. Points to ponder. Now all I have to do is break that elusive 3 hour barrier for a marathon - something that is at least a year away...

Have a great weekend!

Monday weigh in

The i's are dotted, the t's are crossed... my sponsorship proposal for Canada Post is officially completed. Now just have to wait a month or two until I receive word back. Fingers are crossed. I understand HED Cycling sponsors amatuers, so some inquiries are in order, hey I have nothing to lose, right? As usual, I'll keep you posted.

Let see, what else is happening.. oh right, I should update you on my fundraising for POGO. Good news. In conjunction with the Brampton Post Office, a regularly scheduled 50/50 draw should generate a good $400.00 /month towards this worthy cause. The first draw is scheduled to start this coming Friday -woo hoo! Between, Debbie (a co-worker helping me) and myself, we've already got the ball rolling with over $200.00 in pledges. I'll update the total on the left after I actually receive the pledge and send it in. So things are starting to roll in that department, which is good news indeed.

On to training news... Last week was a scheduled easy week. (ya gotta love those..) Here's the totals:
Run: 44k
Spin: 4 hrs
Weight: 164
The plan for this week is log between 70 and 75 running K's and maintain the spinning time.

In an effort to get into a more aero position I'm currently tweaking my bike setup. Every month, I'm taking a small spacer out of the stem of my bike and thus getting a little bit more aero. So last week I did this and much to my suprise I was quite comfortable. I'm doing very minute adjustments every 2 to 4 weeks and I'm hoping by February I'll be 'dialed in'. I'll get Sally to take a pic and I'll show you my progress.
Cheers!

Monthly mileage report

Well I guess shorts weather is officially over. The mild spell officially left us yesterday and while our weather is not as bad as those poor folks on the west coast, it has turned to a mixed bag of freezing rain, rain and sleet. Oh joy. Fortuneately, I've lucked out as this is my easy week and I can blow off a run workout without feeling too much guilt. However, the cost of missing a run equals increased spinning time, so it's not like I'm being a total lazy ass. So, here's the numbers November:
Run: 310k
Spin: 8 hrs
A gold star to me for busting the 300k in November. I really hope I can maintain a few more months of solid mileage and that I'll live up to my vow of actually trying to becoming a runner.
The running plan for December, starting Monday (rest day), is to do a 3 week build followed by a week of rest. So I'm putting my order in for some decent weather for December now. As for cycling/spinning, the plan is to increase frequency. I'll be starting to do alot more double workout days of 1) running as soon as I get home for work and 2) spinning for an hour later in the day. That's the plan.
This weekend, the low pressure system bringing us this slew of wet weather is moving out, so Sat/Sun is shaping up to be OK. I'm going to run for an hour tomorrow and run for 1:30 or so Sunday. Then it's officially bye-bye easy week.

Lastly, a thanks to Mark. I've pretty much let everyone know that I've been lusting after a Computrainer, and Mark was kind enough to point out a Slowtwitch post that I actually missed! That simple act of kindness of emailing could save me a quite few bucks and it certainly is appreciated. Just goes show you, us tri-wienies watch each others back!
Have a great weekend!

Monday weigh in

So... how about that weather? Whenever it's nice like it has been for the last few days, I always feel I have to go out and run because I know the nice weather isn't going to last forever - so I better bank a few extra K's when I can. That being said, even though today was a damned fine day, it was a scheduled off day. Sometimes it's difficult to force myself to take a day off - but it must be done.
Last week was a good week:
Run: 85k
Spin: 2 hours
Weight: 164
Add my usual 2 hours of stretching and core work and November's mileage is shaping up rather nicely. The last 4 weeks of run totals look like this: 75k, 77k, 80k and 85k. A very gradual increase in mileage and I'm feeling great. I'm happy I'm comfortably over the 80k/week mileage mark and the body seems to be soaking up the miles without any problems. So, since it did what I wanted, it's time to reward it with an easy week. The plan for this week is to run no more than 50k and spin 3 hours.

QOTD:
"Whatever you are, be a good one." - Abraham Lincoln

Sunny happy Friday

Not a heck of alot to report, except that today was absolutely beautiful. To commemorate such a great day I went for a run - in my shorts. Yes, it's November 24 in Canada and it's shorts weather. To cap it off, this weekend is looking even better. Hopefully I'll get some extra running K's in. The week so far:
Mon: off
Tues: run 7.5k spin 1 hour
Wed: run 13.5k
Thur: run 12k, spin 1 hour
Fri: run 14.5k

I'm keeping all my run heartrate efforts in the low 140's. The one thing I've noticed, is that's more difficult to maintain a 140 heartrate on the bike. Aerobically it's no big deal, but the cycling legs just aren't there. So typically, I'm averaging 5 beats less while spinning.

There is a Computrainer on Ebay that's going for 1200 bucks. I talked it over she-who-must-obeyed (Sally) and we figure if used ones are selling that high, might as well get a new one. So I'm working the finances and with any luck I'll score one by Christmas. Yay! I'm excited at the prospect of getting a new toy. I'm such a kid.
Have a great weekend!

Monday weigh in

I've pretty much slid back into a workout routine, which is good. I find whenever I start to train, there is about a 6 week time frame that goes from "ug, I don't want to do this" to "hmmmm, I want to more." I've past the 6 week hump, so now it's a question of finding an early season balance of pushing a bit more and getting lots of rest.

The running is coming along. Last week I did 80k, which is OK because I'm keeping my longest run to only 1:30 -1:45. Yesterday, I capped off a 13 day in a row run-fest with an 18k'er. I actually dusted off my Garmin and verified my pace, speed and distance. Here's the low down: 18k in 1:33 for a 5:10/km pace and an average heartrate of 143. On one hand I'm happy I can run 5 minute K's with a low heartrate, on the other hand I ask myself why can't I run that fast for the marathon portion of an Ironman? I know, I know.. I need a bigger aerobic engine and running a marathon after you've biked 180k and swam 3.8k is an entirely different animal. But I find running at this pace so easy in training and so frikin hard during an IM.

I'm currently lusting after a computrainer. I've done some minor modifications to the 'boy cave' and I could set one up quite nicely. Now it's just a matter of selling it to Sally (I need this..) and finding a good deal on the used market. This year I've logged about 120 hours on the bike trainer, so I think a computrainer would add some much needed fun to spinning. Hey, it's fun and it's functional! Sally, you're reading this, right? :)

To recap the week:
Run: 80k
Spin: 1 hr
Weight: 164.
Plus my usual 2 hours per week of stretching and core work. That's all for now, happy Monday everyone!

Tardy mileage report, hike-n-run

Hey!
Sorry for the delay, I usually post my mileage reports on Monday, but life got in the way. Hey, it happens.
Last weeks mileage was 77 running K's and 1 hour of spinning. The high point of the week came on Sunday when a good friend of mine made the journey north and we hiked/ran a 24k section of the Bruce Trail. It wasn't the length of the run that made it challenging, it was the elevation. After 24k and a couple of thousand feet of elevation, we were pooched. A good tired though - at least in my mind.. I've yet to hear from Ian, perhaps he's avoiding me now! :)

I had Monday off work and it was a scheduled off day. However, since I didn't have to walk my regular 9-10k on the beat (I'm a letter carrier) and my legs were actually feeling pretty good from Sunday. I went for a short recovery run of 7.5k. Yesterday was 12.5k on the road and today was 12+k on the trails.

This latest running block is going to consist of 13 days of running in a row - I may not be logging huge K's but at least I'm adapting to running frequency. I believe the main reasons why I'm adapting well to the increased frequency is 1) 50% or more of my runs have been on trails. 2) average heartrate has consistently been 140-142. So, by keeping the impact and the intensity low, getting 8+hrs of zzzz's a night = good recovery.
4 days to go....
Cheers!

HRM tales & going batty

Ever since I started to train more 'serious', I generally used 'perceived effort' to gauge a workout level. I didn't want to become one of 'those guys' who if their heart rate monitor broke down in a race, they'd go off the rails. I just didn't want to become too reliant on technology - I'd rather rely on myself first. As time went by, I succumbed and bought a Garmin GPS unit. A geeky toy that keeps track of pace, miles logged etc.. Even though I shunned alot of the gadgets available, the geek inside of me still thinks some of them are cool. I've had the Garmin for a couple of years and now I rarely use it. I just know how far and how fast I've run. Yes, it still has it uses, especially for long runs, lap times or tempo runs but it's by no means a necessity.

Which brings me to the HRM. Each year I learn a little more and vow to train more/better/smarter the following year. Enter the heart rate monitor. I figure if I'm going to set out and build a bigger/better aerobic engine, I should try to be smart about it. Perceived effort and knowing myself has taken me far, but I want to take it to another to the next level. So this week was my first week training with a HRM.
Two major things I noticed. 1) my perceived effort was pretty much spot on. That shoudn't have suprised me, but it did. Well, by spot on, I mean maybe 90% of the time. 2) Even minor hills can cause substantial HR spikes. Ok, this suprised me. Sure I should know this intuitively, but it suprise me on how fast my HR spikes and how small of a grade can actually cause it.

FYI, I'm using the maximum aerobic power calculation to determine my optimal heartrate. If it's good enough for Mark Allen and Gordo, it's certainly good enough for me. :) More on MAP can be read here. The vast majority of my workouts this year, will be solidly in the aerobic/fat burning zone. The HRM is great tool for making me have the discipline to slow down. Whenever heartrate is over 145 bpm, I back off, walk if necessary. I now understand why the HRM could be considered the most important gadget. I'm also looking forward to doing some testing to see at what heart rate I experience 'stomach shut down'. Yea, that sounds like a fun test, doesn't it?

Workout update: Mon: off Tues: run 12.5k Wed: run 11k Thur: run 12k /spin 1 hour Fri: run 10.5k

As I mentioned before, a good chunk of my runs is on the trails. Fairly often I'll see wildlife, which I always think is cool. Hehe, I always feel like nature is opening a window and letting me peek in every so often. I like that. Earlier this week, during a mid-day run, I saw a bat. Odd. I've rarely seen bats even at night, yet here was one fluttering around in the middle of the afternoon. Neat. Two days later, I get to see him again. Same spot and roughly the same time of day. I'm going batty...

Weekly mileage report, Lance, 10 Ironmans in 10 days.

If October was a 4/10 on the workout scale of difficulty, November will be a 5/10. My motto is 'just run'. Get home from work, peel off the work clothes, immediately put on my run gear and head out the door. I was able to do that all week and logged 75k, of which 80% was done on trails. Throw in an hour on the spinner and the week is done. I feel good, I feel healthy.

Tomorrow is a scheduled off day, but the weather is looking very nice, so I may make Tuesday an off day. If I run Monday, that will 8 consecutive days of running - for me, a milestone of sorts. Either way, some very easy workouts are in the schedule for the week ahead.

The Sunday morning running crew met up this morning, this time we ran in Heart Lake park. Dana, who has plantar faciitis, wasn't able to run with us, so she mountain biked instead and was our support crew. Good on her. Next weekend could be fun, something a little more epic is in the works - a trail run/hike - nothing too crazy, a good 25 or 30k jaunt near Hockley Valley or a point A to point B run is on the works. As usual, email me for details..

I see Lance did a sub 3 hour marathon in New York City. Good on him. He sure does raise the 'event profile'. It's good for Lance, his charities and in this case, marathon running. However it does take away from the real marathoners - all the sports casters are worried about is how Lance is doing or following the 'Lance cam'. Oh yea, and the winner was..... umm, you get my drift.
I'd still love to see him do an Ironman though..

Now a moment for the truely insane.. Starting tomorrow, there is an event down in Mexico that is known as 'The Deca'. Participants have the option of competing in 2 Ironman Triathlons in two days, all the way up to the gargantuan, incredibly insane 10 Ironmans in 10 days. That's not a misprint. You know what? I'm just going to leave it at that, I don't know what to say. Oh yea! I almost forgot, it's a closed loop course and each bike portion is 93(!) laps and each run portion is a mere 22 laps.
I'm getting dizzy..

Monthly mileage report..

September was the month of sloth. I ate, slept and did absolutely nada in the training department. An entire of month of zero's. (well I ran twice, hardly enough to count for anything.) So after a month of laziness and an extra 5 pounds of weight, I decided to slowly get back to the grind. This brings us to October, which was primarily dedicated to what I call 'loose training' -not structured, very slow running and multiple days off throughout the week. I logged maybe 200k as a conservative rough guess, of which about 70% was done on trails. The goal for October is to slowly acclimatize my body to some serious running that will happen later in the year. So now that October is all but finished, what's the plan for November?
More of the same with the addition of a little more structure a few more running K's and some trainer time. Workouts from Tues to Sunday with Monday's off. Nothing too crazy. Here is a basic outline of my current training 'plan'.
Oct, Nov and Dec: running focused. The goal being to increase my tolerance to muscle fatigue, and build a bigger aerobic engine. Spinning time will be kept to a max of 2 hours/week.
Jan, Feb: add spinning time on the bike in increasing volume, still primarily running focused but shifting to more of a balanced approach between spinning and running. Add a few swim sessions.
March, April. First races - a half marathon in early March and a 10k in April. March is a transition month, drop a weekly run or two and add lots of spinning time. The end of March is a big bike week. The beginning of April is marked by a very easy week, followed by a 3 week build. By now, my swim should be 'normal'.
May- another half marathon race and another 3 week build block.
June- rest a week. Three week build block, with one being big bike week number 2. Probable races are Muskoka and/or Milton triathlons.
July - taper for IMLP. I really want to do Peterborough Half IM, but it's only 2 weeks out from IMLP, so I probably won't.
August- rest and ease back into running.
Sept- a 3 week running build.
Oct- Toronto marathon.
So there you have it, the plan for the next 12 months.. now the hard part begins, the 'execution'. :)
*Cheers*

The holy grail, run club inaguaral run

The holy grail of Ironman racing came and went on Saturday. The live web coverage from Kona was fantastic this year. Full screen, picture in picture, decent commentary, all in all it was very well done. I got back from my run and the swim was already about 20 minutes underway, needless to say, with coverage that good, the rest of my day was largely spent in front of the computer. Of the many highlights, I rather enjoyed watching Caledon's Lisa Bentley run her way from 11th to 3rd, damn that girl can run. Good stuff.

The inaguaral run of the Sunday morning 'run club' took place in rather medicore weather. (sidebar: ok, what is with our weather?? - six weeks of crap and counting..) It was a great social run, it really helps to run with other people, try different routes and run for the sake of the enjoyment and not worrying about 'training'. The next run is scheduled for Nov 5.

My own running schedule since the last update looks like this:
Fri: off, Sat: run 1:10, Sun run 1:20, Mon: run 1hr Tues: run 1hr. Nice, easy, slow paced runs.
That's all for now. Cheers.

Random Kona thoughts

So it's Sat a.m. and I'm procrastinating the day's workout and household chores (as per usual). I'm pondering about the Ironman World Championships that are about to get underway in Kona, Hawaii. The best of the best are there, ya I'm talking about those people who have achieved such high degree of fitness and mental discipline that they can actually race an Ironman. Last year there were 368 people who went sub-10 hours! Awesome. Like every Ironman around the world it's filled with inspiring stories and not just from the pro-level athletes. Stories from the 'ordinary' age-groupers and physically challenged are amongst the most inspiring around. Remember Blazeman? If you aren't part of the scene, you probably have no idea who he is, which is a shame.The sad thing is if you can't shoot a puck or throw a fast ball, you get very little coverage in mainstream media. It's too bad because the real action has always been amateur sport - people who love sport for the sake of sport. I have to admit, there is a part of me that is bitter about the masses who sit like a vegetable and would rather get fat and watch a sport being played on the boob tube, which actually contributes to the disasterous current state of pro sports. Personally, I made the choice to boycott them all. Eep, sorry for the tangent.. back on topic..
Would I do Kona?
Dunno. Get back to me in a couple of years. I'd consider it, if I was in the very best shape of my life and in top form. That won't be for another couple years, so I have lots of time. Kona has alot going for it, afterall it is the world championships. The atmosphere, competing with some of the fittest people on the planet. And it's the frikin Ironman World Championship.
However...
It's ridiculasly expensive. I imagine Sally and I would drop an easy 5++ grand. I guess the best way to sell it to her would be to think of it as a vacation and not 'let's drop 5 G's so Darren can do a race.' I don't know - get back to me in a couple of years. I still have to exact retribution in Lake Placid and want to do IMC again.. so Kona is still a long ways off...
Ok, enough procratinating, I have work to do. Cheers!

Going slow to get fast.

I'm slowly but surely re-entering the grind. Since last Friday, the workouts have been: Sat: off Sun: run 1:10 Mon: run 1hr Tues spin 1hr, Wed: run 1:10.

I'm solidly in the "to get fast, I first must go slow phase'. It's humbling at times, to see a monster hill and purposely walk up it instead of tearing up it like a mad man. This engine is going to be a lean mean fat burning machine and in order to do that, I must be disciplined enough to go slow.

I've been doing lots of trail running and have really noticed how much easier it is on body. This is great as it doesn't leave me feeling beat up the next day. The goal over the next few months is to build to 5 one hour, 2 20-30min, and 1 two hour run per week. If I can get my body to adapt to that, it should help my running next season.

Ok, I confess. I'm in the market for a heart rate monitor. You say "what? you don't use a hrm??" Ya, you got me. In the past I've used a strictly old school approach, training by feel and listening/deciphering what my body tells me. I know when I hit my lactate threshold becuase I can feel it. I think I've taken this approach as far as is useful and will now use a HRM as a new tool. Technology, it's a beautiful thing. Cheers.

Re working site & good news.

Hey all, happy Friday. A few things to touch base on. Number 1, I'm starting to re-do the site for 2007. If you haven't noticed yet, '07 will be a charity fundraising year. This year's recipient is POGO -a charity designed for helping children with cancer. Don't worry, I won't hound you, for donations, I really hate doing that... well I may umm.. gently remind you to throw a couple bucks towards the kids. But that's it - I promise. This blog will still be triathlon / triathlon training focused.

I got some good news in regards to fundraising. My boss at work is 100 percent behind the initiative. We did some brainstorming and thought that regular 50/50 draws and the occasional gift basket draw might be a good way to go. I mentioned this to Sally and she said 'hey, I could do one too'. Talk about the snowball effect. I believe most people want to get involved in one way or another - sometimes all it takes is a little spark.

In regards to training. I'm officially in a 'loose training phase'. The primary goal during the next few months is to bring up the running mileage/frequency. The only other 'soft' goal is to spin twice a week during this period. This is not structured, if I feel like taking a couple days off, then so be it.

This week I ran 5 times for a total of ~40k. Distances are approximate because I'm not using my gps and my all running this week was done on trails. See? Nice easy, 'loose' training. Oh yea, I also got on my bike for the first time since IMC. I spun for an hour, which actually felt pretty good. Cheers!

Cancer fundraiser, 4 runs & a swim.

Sure has been quiet around here lately. I noticed the last update was over a week ago, so I figured I better do some catching up. Last week I set the absolutely insane goal of running 3 times this week, well I'm happy to report that I completely overshot that goal. The week isn't even over and I'm already at 4! Four very easy runs for a grand total of ~30k. Good stuff.

On Friday Cliff, made the big trek to Orangeville and we did some stroke work in the pool. It's been a long time since I've taught swimming, abstract phrases like 'the catch phase is critical to your stroke', and 'think smooth' sound fine and dandy, but trying to teach someone these things is a another matter. I'm a big fan of mental visualization, think about somone who can swim really well. Now meditate on it. Slow their stroke down, examine each part, visualize it, emulate it, repeat. Feel the water. Be smooth. So to help facilitate this, Cliff and I took turns examining each others stroke from above the water and from below. We also did some drill work and then called it day.

When Cliff and I were at the pool, we met up with Richard Pady. Rich is a former pro triathlete who has initiated a fundraiser for children with cancer. This hits close to home as Cliff, is a cancer survivor and Richard's own daughter, Elizabeth, is currently under going cancer treatment. She was diagnosed at the age two.
The fundraiser is pretty awesome. Rich managed to secure 40 Ironman Lake Placid spots for which anyone can apply for. In return, over the next 9 months, he asks you raise $2500. ALL proceeds go to POGO. If you are interested in a spot, or want to donate, please check out his fundraising site at:
Race4kids.

The first meeting of the run club takes place in just over two weeks. The weather is gorgeous, so you have no excuse to not run right now. Get out there and log a few miles. Even though these are going to very easy runs, you'll still be expected to log ~10k to start. As it stands, I'm expecting at least four people for our inaugural run, lots of space still available. Drop me an email for details.

Canadian Thanksgiving is today and it's one of the few days I stuff myself stupid. I should probably go for a pre-turkey run, just so I don't feel so guilty. Cheers!