Maintenance Success

Well that was a successful weekend.
Friday's rest day felt great, I even ate reasonably healthy! That evening we hit an information session hosted by Second Wind Conditioning coach Nancy and Millcroft fitness for a 20 week half-Ironman program. While we live far away and probably cannot participate in most of the group workouts, I thought this could be good for Fran to meet up with other woman and find some training partners. I on the other hand had to make it very clear in my introduction that "I AM a Mountain Biker". Throughout the evening I was asked about my 1/2 Iron experience and the coaches looked to me to share my thoughts on some of the training regiments. Sorry, but what part of MTB'r did they miss? Do NOT take advice from me as I am probably an example of what NOT to do. Even after I made it clear that my training consisted little more than a ton of mountain biking, they still kept turning to me. I had fun with it nonetheless, people were polite and laughed at my jokes. I think the majority of everyone there looked a little overwhelmed at the amount of training listed on the example program. Not a very socialable group as we met up with Adena for drinks afterwards and a few laughs yet nobody from the rest of the group joined us. I suspect my jokes were worse than I thought. :)

Saturday morning we joined a big group of riders at Hydro Cut in Waterloo for a mountain bike ride. Conditions were perfect, albeit I overdressed for the temperature. Everyone was peeling layers off at every stop along the way. It was surprisingly warm out. The group was large, 20+ people of various skills and fitness. Due to the one-way nature of these trails, it turned out quite well with nobody getting lost or dropped. I hadn't been on a mountain bike in awhile and it showed. I was able to set a decent pace, but not without some huffing and puffing. My back was very sore later and I was disappointed that I had to work so hard at trails that were usually quite easy for me. At least I know now that some leg strengthening is needed.
Sunday morning was supposed to be a spin class with aforementioned fitness center. Fran went without me though, as my back was too sore to sit on an exercise bike not fitted properly for a tall guy. My back has been in knots since. We did however get out for a trail run in the afternoon. The upper Dundas Valley trails were muddy and littered with horse dung which made it a challenge. The leaves would cover the 'land mines' and every once and awhile you wondered if that was mud you just stepped in or not. It would flick up on the back of your legs and you just prayed that was mud. Ew. We'll need to find dryer trails to run on, the lower Dundas Valley has a nice gravel bed but too many people in the way. Once it gets colder though, that should fix the traffic problem.

I've been shopping for a Tri-Bike. I think I prefer to buy one used as I can tool on my own bike fine. Anything that needs work can be cheaply upgraded by ordering the parts from the UK. The bigger problem is trusting an online sale. I don't like the idea of sending money to a stranger and hoping they actually send me the goods. Regardless, I hit a couple bike shops to see what we have around here. I'm looking forward to visiting a couple other stores this week to pick the brains of the experts. Who knows, maybe I'll find something I like.

Overall a successful week. I manged to hit every maintenance workout and even kept the eating reasonable!
WEEKLY TOTALS (Maintenance Week, Off Season):
Run - 2:30hrs
Bike - 2:45hrs
Swim- 1:10hrs