Rainy day Plan B

You know the weather has been less that stellar when the pool is overflowing. At least it saves me from topping up the pool on the water meter :)
Given the weather I didn't want to risk a long bike ride so we made a trip to the pool instead. I wasn't too impressed that I can't get any pic/video of the pool area as they ban picture taking devices. Maybe I could understand that they dont want pervs shooting children, or maybe they dont want a video record of a lifeguard saving someone and messing up. Regardless of the reason, if they are going to have a rule then they should damn well enforce it. After getting into the pool area I think it was the last day of swimming lessons or something because parents, about 7 of them, were clearly taking pictures of teh children in the water. I think I'll bring the vid camera and just take my chances. I wouldn't mind getting video of my stroke, it might help with technique to review it.
My entire life I've always breathed to my left side only, but at long distances it takes a toll on my neck. And I was begining to see the muscles on one side developing more than the other. Anyhow this was the first time I go into a comfortable rythem breathing to both sides. Ironman Muskoka is only about 2000m so I'm feeling pretty confident about my pace, bar any kicks in the head. I've never had my goggles fall off in the water yet so I don't know how calm I would stay. The one thing I was thinking about today was that it will be a welcome break to get out and walk a short bit halfway through the IM Lake Placid swim loop. You have to walk over the timing mat which means my arms will have a short break. I don't need much but it will be welcome! I know it!
My run was less than stellar. My calves are extremely tight and I could feel the light pain from 'shin splint' immediately. Apparently Thursdays longest run of my life has taken it's toll. I kept my pace short and sweet and knocked a few km off the planned distance. No sense over-doing it now. I'll try again Monday.

Next week is SUPA' HARDK0RE MOUNTAIN BIKE vacation. We're hitting the most technically demanding trails in Ontario, plus we're pre-riding IM Muskoka road course. It'll be a week of pain. I'm hoping we come out injury free, these trails are very dangerous. Because of this, I won't get a swim in and I doubt I'll do a run so Monday's run can bring the pain as I have time to recover. As tight as my calves are, or painful the shin splints are, they do not affect my cycling at all. Completely different muscle use. Thankfully. Mountain biking takes highest priority of any of my activities. Interfere with my mountain biking and I stop running completely. I'll adjust those priorities when the snow comes.

Rest Day

Friday rest day was much needed. Fran built a fire out back and we drank ceasars, beer and baked potatoe chips. I've been fighting hunger all week. I've been trying to snack healthy but it's just so hard. As a PFG (Previous Fat Guy) I am used to greasey potatoe chips and cola. I've changed my diet dramatically in the past 12 months. For once in my life I'm actually eating fruits and vegetables. I still eat alot of pizza, but I doubt that will ever change. I grew up on pizza. I could eat pizza 7 days a week and never get bored of it. As long as the scale doesnt start tipping the wrong way, I'm going to continue with my snacking. At work I'll have coffee to 'fill' me up, but I have a hard time concentrating as the effects of caffeine are strong. I dont know if decaf coffee fills you up the same or not? Regardless, for the days I didn't want to have a coffee rush I've been eating fruit salad and peanut butter wheat bagels. Hey, it's better than chips! :)

It was cool out, and with my feet by the fire I got a nice outdoor sleep in under a blanket. It's so quiet in this city! Now, if only the rain would hold off I can get a bike ride in today (Saturday).

Too good to be true...

I appreciate that I have such awesome running trails within a short distance of our home. There's alot of trails by the river and alot of railtrail that make for good running. I haven't hit much of them with my run, but they're definitely a good quick workout on the mountain bike. A quick hop on the highway and I can be to perfect running trails in exactly 7 minutes.
On the other hand, we have a lousy area to run on our streets. There are no sidewalks for the most part in our subdivision and where there are - you're likely to twist an ankle on them. Even worse, they are all very very dark in the evenings. I'm still working on getting my joints used to pounding on pavement so I'll stick to the trails for now. I have bad knees and according to my surgeon if I continue running I will not be able to walk by the time I'm 50. That's so far away though, so I'll worry about it then. I'm hoping trail running gives me an extra couple years.

So I turned in the longest run of MY ENTIRE LIFE! Did I mention I suck at running? Well, an 11km run is a huge accomplishment for me. I felt great, and am astonished by my pace! Any pace with a 6 in front of it is acceptable pace for me (6:xx Min/Km) so to do this at a 5 something is spectacular. Sad isn't it? I can only improve from here though! This was just a run, and I know if I put a bike in front of it I will add at least a minute to the pace/km. I look forward to getting stronger with experience. I love a challange. I never lose. :)


This VLOG might show sideways. I couldn't figure out how to rotate it, I didn't have time to mess about this round. I'm still new at this :)

Pool Etiquette

As the old woman snarls at me "I've been coming here for over 20 years and never had to share a lane, not even once!". That's what she said to me when we were n00bs at the local pool here in Brantford. All lanes were taken, and she was the only one doing my speed so I THOUGHT I could share a lane with her. I don't know what surprised me more - the fact that she was such an ignorant old prune, or the fact that she was right about NOBODY ever shares a lane at our pool. Ever. Growing up in the city and working as a lifeguard I've swam at many pools over the years and everybody automatically swims in a circle within a lane. It's expected. However, out here the pool is so under-used in this city that everyone gets a lane to themselves. And if all the lanes are used - you still don't share. You suck in your gut on the pass and swim BETWEEN the lanes. No circles, just a back and forth 'between' lanes. I've never seen this before.
So everytime I get to the pool, this woman is here and the first thing we 'jokingly' say is "Get outta mah lane!". Then my wife and I find a lane to ourselves and SHARE the lane together. The days when all lanes are taken are interesting - instead of a half of a between lane, we're down to a 1/4 of a half of a between lane. Just dont have a head on colision with the Mrs.
This was long swim night. 2KM give or take warmup, cool down. I tend to lose count after 1000meteres. So I just go by time. I swim non-stop freestyle for 45 minutes no matter what the distance is in the end (cuz I dont know how far I really went). I am certain its at least 2000m as I swim well under 2min/100m. I never push off the wall, I refuse to do flip turns. I just touch the wall and turn around. Pushing off the wall is not what you get in open water so I don't do it in practice. I see people doing 'drills' and such but I'll reserve those for one day when I get bored of just going back and forth non-stop. If I feel my technique getting sloppy due to fatigue, I'll rest a minute. This doesn't happen anymore though.

Catch up & Kick it off!

So I figure my 'week' goes from Monday to Sunday, or at least that's what my training plan says. Seeing as how today is Wednesday, I have a few workouts to post.

If I wasn't clear in my opening blog-post, I'll repeat it again and again... I CAN'T RUN. no really, I suck at it. period. So my run was only 3KM but that's a Marathon to a guy like me. It wouldn't be so bad since I have 12 months before IMLP but I am ALSO signed up for Ironman Muskoka 70.3 which is in one month's time. Yup, I'm screwed. Running is a little tougher than it looked :) So my goal is to run every other night no matter what for as long as it takes. So far, I'm injury free!



A very short run post ride with Fran to keep the running legs loose. First time on pavement in weeks, I could definitely feel the difference. I'm used to always running railtrail.



Tuesday night MTB cruise with Fran(My Wife)



Monday Night - I know it says tuesday, but I had to change the date to make it count towards a GC 'goal'. It's a GC thing....

So it begins...

My first blog post EVAR, and I'm still stitting here staring at a blank screen wondering where I should start.

Still staring...

Ok well, I guess I need some objectives. Obviously I want to chronicle my training. Something to look back on a year from now, no wait, 360 days from now - OH MY GAWD - mini anxiety attack just kicked in. 360 days is too soon! So. Much. To. Do. *PANIC*

Well, I never thought it would happen. I managed to get registered ONLINE for Ironman Lake Placid. I thought at the time, that's impossible considering the number of people trying to get into the event hammering the website at the same time. Sure enough the site crashed a good four times before I got to the payment screen. The questionaire on page two is a joke. They ask MANDATORY questions like "who's my local newspaper(what's newspaper?!) and "Closest Television broadcaster" is. I made sure I answered all mandatory questions with.... THE LETTER *N*. I didn't want to waste time answering dumb questions so I just populated the field so it would leave me alone. I didn't know if it meant missing out on being the first to hit the submit button. I wish they were more clear as to whether I was *IN* at the questionaire, or *IN* after payment. Regardless, until payment took - I wasn't taking a chance.

WIN.

So stage 1 of Ironman Lake Placid was the race to the registration line. It was a tough race, I would like to thank all those who lost. I'd like to thank QoS & Traffic shaping for ensureing my PC had the highest priority and bandwidth available for registration. I would also like to thank Active.com for allowing me to open four different registration screens before the main page link crashed and burned. I was lucky to have already been past that crashed page when the site hung on me so I could just start again. :) Ok, so I got lucky.

After I got the message confirming registration, the first thought that went through my mind was "OH MY GAWD, WHAT HAVE I DONE???!!". Seriously.


So back to my objectives:
- chronicle of my training
- something to keep my training honest, others are 'watching' if I miss workouts
- weekly posts at worst
- ignore the spelling nazis
- keep it mostly tri-themed. I've always contemplated starting a tech blog (I'm an I.T. Pro) but there's enough self-proclaimed geniouses out there, the world don't need another.
- Not spend 2hrs writing every blog post. I tend to analyze every email and written communication... ok so I failed this round but cut me some slack, its my first blog post EVAR!
- Need to learn how to use blogspot. Not user friendly, or maybe I'm just dumb.
- Not write so many objectives.

Ironman Lake Placid, here I come.