And so it ends…

The Olympics are over…what an end to an amazing 17 days!

On Friday I packed both my running gear and my swim gear to work.  I needed to knock out my long run over lunch that day.  Since this was a cutback week my long run was 59 minutes with 3 x 8 minute steady state intervals in the middle.  It was beautiful and sunny out, and an astounding 5C out.  Amazing!  The run went really well and I was able to hit my pace goals with no problems during the intervals.

After the run though?  I was bagged!  Runs like these during the work day seem to make me quite tired.  So…sadly I didn’t make it to the pool after work like I planned.  No swims for me all week.  Oops.  I did make it to Costco to pick up lift tickets for Sunshine on Friday night though, then home to take in the nail biting and amazing Canada vs. Slovakia men’s hockey game.

You see I had to run on Friday because I planned to spend all day at Sunshine taking a semi-private lesson with a few folks and my XC instructor (who also teaches downhill at Sunshine on Saturdays).  While it wasn’t very sunny out at Sunshine it certainly was warm and I was looking forward to attempting to conquer the slopes.  We spent the morning on the magic carpet running, working on turns, attempting parallel turns.  Well, I never actually made it to parallel turns as I just kept working on my turning skills.  We stopped for lunch and then it was time to master traversing across slopes.  The traversing went okay until I tried to combine that with turns.  I just wasn’t able to trust my right foot to help me turn left, despite the fact that I was able to master right turns.  My friends took off for a green run and I…stayed on the magic carpet.  I tried not to be dejected.  I wanted to be picking this up a lot faster but I knew I wasn’t ready to head out on a run just yet.  Learning to ski as an adult is hard stuff.  I’m not sure if I just have a tough relationship with winter sports or if I’m letting my fear of hurting myself in my Ironman year get in the way of things.  I do want to persevere, although I think it will be tougher to find the time to hit the slopes between now and the end of the ski season.

On the way home I popped into the Grizzly Paw in Canmore for a bit of dinner.  The place was hopping as the men’s curling gold medal game was on – Canada versus Norway!  I have to say that watching curling in a pub is a whole lot more fun than watching it at home.  The atmosphere was electric and everyone was so excited when Canada won the gold medal.  I sat next to a fun couple who have been learning to curl recently.  The lady was cheering for Norway (quietly) because she thought the Norwegian skip was cute.  I personally was a fan of Norway’s pants, which are so popular that they even have their own fan page on Facebook with 574,137 fans.And with that, Sunday was a rest day!  I knew how sore my entire body was after my last ski day so that was another reason why my long run on Friday was key.  I slept in, ran some errands, and parked my behind on the couch to watch the men’s Olympic gold medal hockey game.  I fully believe that Olympic watching should count as an official cross training activity.  After all, there is an element of having an elevated heart rate to watching the games!  The hockey game was amazing, a nail biter at times, and yay for Canada winning the gold medal!!

If you watched the games, what did you think?  The US did an amazing job in the medal haul, and Canada definitely owned the gold medal podium.  I think there were so many inspirational stories about the athletes at these games and it was amazing to follow along.  It truly felt as though the games united many of us across the country and inspired a definite feeling of national pride.  Now what am I going to do with all of those extra hours in the day that won’t be spent watching the games though??  Maybe catch up on blogs? :)

The Time Suck

My writing has been sporadic at best lately.  After all, it took me almost a week to write about my skiing experience!  I’d like to blame the Olympics.  The winter Olympics are my favourite and it seems to be sucking most of my time.  After all, they only come around once every four years so I think I can justify this.  So let’s recap the week so far, shall we?

• Monday: I had a 45 minute run on the schedule so I hit the pathways over lunch to knock that out.  Despite having dead legs on the bike on Sunday my run felt pretty good on Monday.  Like my legs were back to normal.  I was going to swim in the evening, but ultimately I decided that watching the women’s semi-final hockey game of Canada versus Finland was a much better use of my time!  Oh, and not to mention the historic gold medal performance by Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir in ice dancing.  This was the first time a North American couple has won gold in ice dancing and their performance was phenomenal.
• Tuesday: Spin class!  The Canadian men’s hockey team had a qualification date with Germany that just happened to be on right in the middle of spin class.  The workout on the bike was insane though, so I spent most of the class with my eyes squeezed shut, grimacing in an attempt to make it to the end of the interval.  This was our last class at Bow Cycle (next week we move elsewhere until the end of April) so we went out for some post-class beers.  I always love the chance to hang out with my teammates and I feel very lucky to be a part of such an amazing group of people.  We chatted, made some cross country ski plans, and watched Joannie Rochette skate her amazing short program.  I don’t think there was a dry eye in the group as we watched her.
• Wednesday: I met up with Kelly for a run over lunch.  I was only planning on running for 30 minutes, but it was a beautiful day out.  Kelly had a 45 minute run on her schedule that she was going to run 4:1 intervals on.  I figured a 45 minute run with company sounded way better than a 30 minute run on my own, so we ran, chatted and enjoyed the warm day (6C!!).  I was then home in time to watch the Canadian men’s hockey team take on Russia in what I thought was going to be a much closer game.  You could tell Canada wanted it and they dominated the game.  During the third period I wound up flipping between hockey, bobsleigh (where Canada took gold and silver!!) and the women’s short track speed skating relay where we also won a silver.  Add that to another long track bronze from earlier in the day and it was one big win day for Canada!
• Thursday: What a day!  I had planned to swim over lunch but I wound up having to go to a business lunch instead.  So…then I was going to swim after work…until I realized the women’s hockey gold medal game started at 4:30 pm.  To make sure I could get my workout in before I got too caught up in the Olympics I figured my best bet would be to spin while watching the game.  Except I don’t want to spin in my living room as I’m worried that it would wreck my flooring.  But…no cable in my garage either.  I found a video cable to hook my computer up to my TV though and streamed the game live on the internet.  Sadly the sound had to be streamed via the computer speakers, but oh well!
  Finlay and I settled in to watch part of the second and third periods while I ran through my workout.  The spin went well, and I got to see the Canadian women win gold.  Yeah!!!  Then the rest of the evening has been spent watching the men’s aerials and women’s figure skating.  Go Joannie, go!!!

Tomorrow is my long run…plus hopefully a swim in there somewhere since I’ve missed that so far this week.  I hope everyone has a great Friday and a great weekend!!

The Aftermath…

I learned just how much work skiing is after my big downhill and cross country day on Thursday.  On Friday I was one big ball of sore muscles.  I felt like I had done a full body weight workout on every single muscle with the exception of my abs.  Yowza!

Needless to say that when I got out on Saturday morning for my long run I was a little nervous as to how it would go.  Luckily I had company though.  I met Tara out at Edworthy Park at the rather early hour (at least in the winter time!) of 7:30 am.  Our plan was to run from Edworthy to Eau Claire and back, something that would take us just over an hour and a half.  I don’t run with other folks very often, but I hadn’t seen Tara for a few days so it was a great chance to catch up.  Most likely the conversation took my mind off my fatigued body.

I’ve been doing my long runs closer to lunch hour to take advantage of the warmer parts of the day.  I think it was probably about –12C when we were out running?  I can’t quite remember.  I felt comfortable while running, but when we stopped for a bathroom break at the Eau Claire Y I realized that my legs were actually pretty cold.  Hmm.  Tara and I ran into our old Bikini Boot Camp instructor Sheena at the Y, chatted a bit, then headed back.  Near the end the run I was starting to tire, but I was motivated to keep going since it was cold out!  At least the sunshine felt amazing even if it was cool.

Once we were done Tara and I bid a quick goodbye, then I took back off to Eau Claire for a swim.  The pool was a bit of a gong show though as the training pool was closed.  Half of the lap pool was cordoned off for parent and baby swim classes.  I was happily sharing a lane with a guy until he grabbed his six year old daughter and started playing around at the end of the lane instead of swimming.  I made it half way through my workout and I figured that was good enough.

I also made it through a spin on Sunday but I had to dial back the intensity as my legs were still shot from my ski day!  Who knew that skiing was such a workout?

A Day Full of Skiing – Part II

I was pretty tired when I got back to Calgary from my day long downhill lesson at Sunshine.  If I hadn’t already paid for my XC lesson I would have opted to hang out and just watch the Olympics.  Instead I quickly changed, took Finlay for a walk and headed out to COP. 

Once I got all of my gear I talked to my instructor about what happened out on the hill.  He also teaches at Sunshine on the weekends.  I was hoping that the time on the XC trails would help me to move past what happened and that I’d finish my big ski day on a positive note.  When asked what we wanted to do I volunteered that I’d really like to ski the tracks around COP.  In case I wanted to come out on my own, rent some gear and ski I wanted to have an idea of what the terrain was like.

We started off doing a few loops along the easier terrain, just to get a feel for gliding through the tracks again.  Then we took off going up some of the bigger hills.  The lady in front of me was having a tough time going up in the track, so she had to shuttle to the side to go up the hill using a herringbone pattern with her skis.  I found the best way to get up the hills was to jog up, staying in the tracks, and then I never felt like I was slipping back.  Plus I got a great workout going up the hills!

Well…we all know that what goes up must come down, and all of a sudden there were some big downhills to contend with.  I tackled the first downhill…but not well.  It is really icy out at COP right now, so I picked up some good speed going downhill. 

Commence freak out over feeling like I can’t control myself…

I put my poles out and started dragging them along beside me in an attempt to slow myself down.  Well…that probably isn’t the best idea as I started wobbling.  I told myself to suck it up and pick up my poles.  I made it down the hill, then it was time to go back up.  There was a fairly sharp curve and then another downhill.  I really managed to psych myself out on this little hill.  I watched everyone in my class go down.  Some stayed in the tracks, some snow ploughed their way down the slope.  I stood at the top, trying to convince myself to go, but my body wasn’t responding.

I told myself that I couldn’t just stay at the top of the hill, I was going to have to get down somehow.  So I attempted to snow plough down instead.  Snow ploughing on cross country skis is a lot harder than on downhill skis.  I made it maybe 1/3 of the way down the hill before I fell over.  Honestly, I just wanted to cry.  I was frustrated that what happened earlier was becoming difficult for me to move past and it was now affecting my XC ski experience.  This was my last XC ski lesson and I was supposed to be enjoying it…but all of a sudden I really wasn’t anymore.

My instructor skied back to me and asked me how I was doing.  He could tell I was shaken, so he told me that it is okay to take the skis off and walk.  I walked down the next hill and met up with my classmates a little further on.  I skipped out on one hill, but did tackle another downhill.  Yes, I wound up falling, but at least I gave it a shot.  Sadly when the lesson was over I really felt like I had taken two giant steps backward.

But, not to worry!  I have a plan in the works to try both downhill and XC again.  I do not want this to be my last ski of the season and to carry this lack of confidence forward with me into next winter.  And thanks so much for all of your great comments on my last post.  Yes, the lady in the group was quite the drama queen, but oh well, these things happen.  I’m going to keep trying!

A Day Full of Skiing – Part I

Last week was an extra short week because not only was Monday Family Day, but on Thursday my coworkers and I took the day off for a little team building.  We went out to Sunshine Village in Banff for a day of downhill skiing.  All of my coworkers are all pretty good skiers…most of them ski pretty regularly, my boss goes backcountry skiing all the time, and one of my coworkers used to be a ski racer.  But…I don’t know how to downhill ski!  Luckily our co-op student doesn’t know how to ski either so he and I signed up for a full day downhill ski lesson.

It was an absolutely amazing day on the mountain.  The sun was out in full force and it felt really warm out.  We had six people in our group, but there was a distinct difference in how quickly people were picking the skills up.  For me…sure, I’ve taken one downhill lesson, but I needed to get more comfortable on slopes.  I spent the morning perfecting my snow plough on the bunny slope while our instructor concentrated mostly on the other folks.

We met up with our coworkers for lunch and swapped stories of our adventures on the slopes.  After lunch it was back to the bunny slope to learn the art of turning.  I was grinning from ear to ear as I was having a great time.  I could actually understand why people enjoy downhill skiing!  With an hour left our instructor had decided that three of us had mastered turns well enough that we could hop on the chair lift and try an actual run.  Our instructor went ahead with one lady, and my co-worker and I were in the following chair.  All we were told was to raise the tip of our skis and lean forward when it was time to get off the chair lift.  What he failed to mention was the huge down slope as we’d get off the chair lift!  I grabbed my co-worker’s arm as we attempted to get off the chair lift and we wound up falling to the ground in a big heap.  We had to scramble out of the way as there were people behind us.  I felt a bit better as the next two groups after us also bit it as they got off the chair lift.  Phew!  It wasn’t just me!

We carried our skis and walked a short ways to our run.  I was nervous…this was a long run!  Our instructor assured us that it wasn’t all of that different from the bunny slope, it was just longer.  The other lady in our group was freaking out and I tried to calm her down.  She was crying and wondering what she was doing up here.  Yikes.  She took off ahead with our instructor.  As I took off I tried to remember what I’d learned on the bunny slope and put it into action…shifting the weight to initiate turns and slowing down with the snow plough.  In the beginning I was doing okay…but then a ways down the run I got a little out of place and I wasn’t able to control myself.  I couldn’t turn left and I couldn’t stop with the plough.  I didn’t even think to fall (as I think I was leaning downhill).  Instead I kept going…straight ahead…and I crashed into the other lady in our group!  The one who had just been freaking out a few moments before.

It was pandemonium.  We lay on the mountain in a heap and I did a quick check and nothing hurt.  All of a sudden the lady I ran into yelled out…”My knee!!!  My knee!!!”

Oh no.

She looks at me and yells, “What are you doing up here if you don’t know how to stop?!”

Now….it was a complete accident.  It wasn’t like I was gunning for her, and I felt terrible!!!  We were helped up and everyone was okay.  Her knee was just fine.  Phew!  And our instructor tried to assure me that he knew it was an accident and that these things happen.  Can I reiterate that I felt absolutely terrible?

It was as if in that collision though there was a complete transfer of energy.  She took off down the hill and wound up having a pretty successful run down.  After that my confidence was shot and I felt as though I forgot everything.  I didn’t trust myself to turn or slow down properly.  I was so frustrated because I was having so much fun before…then I lost that feeling.  And because of the time I didn’t have a chance to work past that lack of confidence.  The one run down was it.  Sigh…  I’ll have to make another attempt at downhill skiing before the end of the season as I don’t want to carry this lack of confidence for too long.

At the bottom of the hill I ran into my coworkers, we enjoyed a beverage and shared stories, and then it was back to Calgary.  I would have loved to go straight home spend the rest of the night relaxing (this downhill skiing is tough work!), but I had my final cross country ski lesson to get to in 45 minutes…

How about a little hockey with that spin?

Spin class tonight was another tough one!  We keep pounding out the strength sets.  I’d tell you what all we did, but truthfully I can’t even remember what we did!  The one thing that sticks in my mind was a wicked standing set: 3 min stand, 30 sec high cadence sitting, 2:30 standing, 30 sec high cadence sitting, 2:00…1:30…you get the idea.  Part way through Angie mentioned that if we lived in a house with stairs we may need some help getting up those stairs.  I’ll see if I can recruit Finlay to help, but I somehow doubt my 15 lb dog will do much more than lick my face in encouragement.

The guys at Bow Cycle have a TV set up over the checkout register and it was set to the men’s Canada versus Norway hockey game.  It was great inspiration to watch them win convincingly 8-0.  I know a few folks have commented that both the men’s and women’s hockey team have really pounded their opponents.  True enough, but I think they really want to send a message that they are here for gold…so be it.  Core after class was a total gong show as a few of us were trying to watch the men’s figure skating (including Angie) so we haphazardly made it through 10 minutes, then called it quits.

Are you watching the Olympics?  I am soaking up as much as possible.  My office is even broadcasting the games in our foyer during the day.  Now that I’ve tried a few of these winter sports lately (curling, skiing, skating) I have an even bigger appreciation of the events. 

And in case you have ever looked at a speed skater’s thighs and thought…”wow…those are huge!” you’d be right.  Jeremy Wotherspoon’s thighs each measure 70 cm.  Wow.  I’m going to go measure mine right now to see how they stack up.

Alright…being that it is 10:00 pm I guess I should attempt to tackle those stairs in my house and head to bed.  Hope everyone is having a great week!!

Family Day Long Weekend

Hey folks, I hope everyone had a terrific weekend!  Monday was Family Day here in Alberta, so it has been a long weekend here.  It has been full of workouts, friends and family, and of course, the Olympics!!  I’ve been soaking up as many events on TV as possible and I am so proud of all of our Olympic athletes!  Anyhow, let’s recap, shall we?

Saturday

Time for a long run!  I waited till around lunch time to knock out this run out, but it stayed a bit chilly at –7C (19F).  I had an 1:15 run on the schedule, but I arbitrarily decided to aim for 8 mi instead which would take me just a bit longer than that.  I ran another out and back from downtown and west along the river, just like last week.  The major difference was that the entire run went really well though!  I carried water and a gel with me, and I downed a Gu Roctane pomegranate blueberry gel at the halfway mark.  This was my first time trying out this flavour.  It wasn’t my most favourite, but then again I tend to not care for berry flavoured gels.

When I turned around I was running into a fairly strong wind, but this fuelled me to keep to keep the speed up so I could minimize my time in the wind.  I finished up at the YMCA in Eau Claire and immediately grabbed a chocolate milk and some cottage cheese.  Before I had finished eating I had really cooled off so I ran to the changing room and had a long, hot shower to warm up.  A great long run!!

Sunday

I’ve been having a tough time fitting in a long run and a swim on Saturdays lately.  This mostly has to do with the fact that I feel so cold by the time the run is done that all I want is a hot shower.  I could try swimming before I run I suppose, but I haven’t tried that out yet.  Instead I tried swimming early Sunday morning.  I was at the pool soon after it opened and I knocked out a great 2000m swim.  I showered, went home, then had a brick workout to take care of.  It was like a mini-triathlon day!

My bike workout was a full of low cadence work to build strength, plus a couple of times where I had to hop off the bike for squats and lunges.  70 minutes of time on the trainer.  Once I was done I quickly changed into running tights, threw on a jacket and went out for a 15 minute brick run.  This was my first brick in ages!  My legs felt wobbly and like they didn’t quite belong to me for the first few minutes.  Bricks are a bit tough in this weather as even though I was warmed up it was still a bit of a shocker to transition from indoors to outdoors in the cold and the wind.  My legs were tuckered after all of that!!

Monday

My only thing on the schedule for today was a drill swim.  I hit up the Y later in the afternoon.  The pool was fairly quiet and I had a lane to myself for probably half my workout.  I ran through some 6 kick rolls, fist drills and fingertip drags for my drills.  I also added in some paddle work to help build some strength.  I definitely love working with paddles.  I feel like it really helps to drive home certain aspects of good form.

And with that…now bring on the week!  This one looks to be busy and fun!

Lunch Swimming?

I’ve always discounted the idea of getting a swim in over lunch.  It is between a 10 and 15 minute walk from my office to the downtown YMCA.  By the time you walk there, swim, shower, walk back…well that winds up being a pretty long lunch!

I really wanted to make up Wednesday’s swim though.  With Finlay back home now it is really hard to leave the house early in the morning.  He needs to get up, go outside, eat breakfast, and then he needs a walk before I leave so that he can take care of everything before I leave him for the day.  Pretty tough to make that all happen and be at the Y for a 5:30 am swim.  These lunch and evening workouts are making more and more sense!!

I decided to try the lunch time swim thing on Friday since it was really the only way I could make it work.  I packed a swim bag in the morning.  I looked at my two swim caps but for some reason neither one made it into my bag.  Oops!  It felt so weird to swim without a cap!!  At first it felt kind of neat to have the water rushing past my head as I pushed off the wall.  Then I looked to the bottom of the pool.  I have bangs that are sort of semi-growing out.  Obviously they weren’t held back and they would get plastered to my goggles length after length.  A little annoying, but not bad enough to really impede my swim.

The workout was a good one that included a flipper set, some drills, some sprints, and some descending stroke count sets (which I was thoroughly unsuccessful at).  1850 metres and it was time to get out of the pool, hurry up and shower and get back to the office.  It did indeed wind up being kind of a long lunch break so I doubt I’ll make it a habit.  It was a nice way to break up the day though, and since it was so nice outside it was a really good walk to and from the Y.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!!

Going Downhill

So…confession time.  I did not swim on Wednesday.  I was mentally prepped to go, but then I started to feel guilty.  My folks left earlier this week and so now Finlay is on his own all day, plus I have to rush off to workouts at night.  I opted to hang out with the puppster and figure out another day that I could swim.

Thursday was one amazing day!  It was 3C and sunny out.  It felt like spring!  I hit the pathways around downtown for a run over lunch.  I have to say, I felt overdressed in capris, a short sleeve and a long sleeve tech shirt.  I should have just opted for the long sleeve shirt.  I went out for 40 minutes and the run went not too badly.  I had a little bit of discomfort in the right shin…one of the tell tale signs that my shoes are nearing retirement.  These Asics Kayano 15s have 330 miles on them and I have had them for awhile.  They took me through Great White North and Lake Stevens 70.3 so we’ve had some good memories.  So…probably time for them to retire.  One other thing…those lululemon Run Swiftly shirts that I’ve been raving about with the silver in them?  I wore my Police Half marathon shirt and another short sleeve shirt instead.  Ahem…they sure were stinky!  My apologies to everyone in my elevator as I went back upstairs to my office!

Thursday evening it was back to Canada Olympic Park for my second cross country ski lesson.  We spent A LOT of time on the bunny slope practicing getting comfortable with going downhill and learning how to turn.  Who knew there was so much downhill in XC skiing?  I thought XC skiing was supposed to be relatively flat? ;)  The good thing about practicing all of that downhill was the opportunity to keep going uphill.  One of the ways to get uphill is to jog up with your skis, which is a great workout!  My turning is still pretty awful, but I am definitely getting more comfortable with going downhill.  I only wiped out once!!  Although I did land on that same right hip again..ow!

So…I’m seriously thinking about picking up some XC ski equipment at some point if I can get a good deal on it.  For those of you who may know those sort of things…when is the best time of year to pick up XC ski equipment on sale?  If you live in Calgary do you have any suggestions on where to go?  I know MEC sells equipment, I’m just wondering where else.  Thanks!!!!

Happy Friday!!  Can you believe the Olympics in Vancouver start today? 

Power Tuesday

As an engineer and a triathlete I definitely fall into the type A category of personalities.  I love to plan!!  When I first started training for endurance races I had an Excel spreadsheet that mapped out my entire training plan for the year.  Workouts were colour coded and I had every workout planned..to the day.  Since I hired Angie and joined Team Tri Life I’ve given up that control.  I actually now really like that I only know what is happening within a 4 week block.  When my new training plan arrives there is so much excitement.  What’s next?  What does Angie think I’m capable of?  Invariably there are little changes here and there too.  It feels a little like Christmas when I get that e-mail in my inbox.

With my new training block I’m now running on Tuesday’s over lunch, then spinning at Bow Cycle in the evenings.  My runs are specifically 30 minute runs with 0:30 strides every 5 minutes.  We’ve had some ice frost in town these last few days (check out Keith’s blog for pictures) that has left our city looking like a winter wonderland.  All of the frost on the trees looks so beautiful!  Finally the sun was set to come out today though…and just as lunch hour approached the temperature started approaching 0C.  I went with capris, a short sleeve tech and a long sleeve tech top.  It was a bit windy out but I still found it really comfortable to be dressed like this out in the sun.  I wasn’t the only crazy person out there dressed like that either!  Granted, most folks were really bundled up but there were a few people out in shorts too.  There was still some ice and snow on the pathway which made the strides fairly interesting…but the run went well.

I stopped in at Bow a bit early to get my squeaky bike looked at.  All I needed was to have a bit of lube on the derailleur and it was good to go!  Class was a good one tonight as we really focussed on power a lot.  Angie explained that she really likes to use our indoor training over the winter to work on our power.  We can work on endurance when we get outside, but this is a perfect opportunity to improve our power.  Trying to work on both endurance and power is tiring and it is easy to burn out quickly.  I love these sessions because every week I wonder how it can get harder and how could Angie possibly push us further…but then she finds a way!

All in all it was 1:40 on the bike, followed by stretching and core.  Wednesday is only a swim out in Cochrane so it is going to be a bit of an easier day!

A Perfect Monday

Thanks for all the comments about my chipper attitude towards the cold!  Calgary is an interesting city in that we can experience some pretty big temperature swings throughout the winter.  It ranges from –40C to well above freezing, but it seems to be sitting around –12C (10F) these days.  I’ve been trying to acclimatize to winter.  If 0C feels comfy in capris and a long sleeve, then I won’t mind the cooler temperatures where I have to bundle up more.  That’s my theory and it seems to be working so far!

I only had a swim on the schedule for Monday.  I haven’t swum since…Wednesday January 27th?!?!  I figured a group workout would be great for getting my rhythm back in the water.  I e-mailed Richelle to see if I could drop in on her 9 pm swim class in Cochrane.  I really am getting into these late night swim lessons! 

It was the perfect Monday night.  I chowed down on some of my mom’s homemade Hungarian Chicken Paprika and watched the Bachelor (boy, oh boy, does anyone see similarities between the whole Vienna/Wes situation with our Bachelor Jake??).  I then made it to Cochrane in time to swim.  Richelle had a fun workout for us with a lot of variation – kicking, fins, speed, lowering stroke count.  The hour in the water just flew by as my teammate Trish and I went through the workout.  Then home with some hot chocolate.  Now bed!!

Back in the swing of things

Friday:

I carried my running gear to work every day this week in the hopes that I would feel well enough to run.  Finally by Friday I was ready to get out there!  It was a sunny day, and I eagerly kept watching the temperature on wx.ca throughout the morning.  Finally around noon it climbed to 0 deg C.  Score!  Technically Friday was a rest day, but considering I’d done nothing but rest all week I was itching to get out.

I know a lot of people that find that temperature downright chilly, but 0C here in the sun is amazing!  I took a chance and went out in capris, a short sleeve tech top and a long sleeve tech top.  That’s it.  In the sunshine with minimal wind it wound up being the perfect amount of clothing to wear.  I was testing out a long sleeve top from lululemon, the Run: Swiftly Tech LS.  It is a really lightweight top with silver fibres woven in the fabric so that makes the shirt anti-stink.  The hem is nice and long on it and I definitely appreciate the extra coverage as I often find most tech tops a bit on the short side.  I loved it!  My old short sleeve underneath was stinky but the long sleeve top was in pretty good shape.  Kind of pricey for a tech shirt, but I really did like it.  The run felt good, and it was great to be outside.

Saturday:

I had a 1:15 long run on the schedule, along with a swim.  I have a new motto: “Embrace winter!”

It was –12C out, but luckily the sun was out.  My approach to running in the cold weather now is to note the temperature, figure out what to wear, but don’t stress about it!  I put on tights, a long sleeve tech shirt, a midweight layer and a jacket.  I started out from downtown and headed west along the north side of the Bow River.  Just as I headed out I ran into my friend Kevin who was just finishing up his long run.  He and his friends were covered in frost but he assured me that it was beautiful out there.

As I started along initially my fingers were a bit cold, but it wasn’t too long before the digits warmed up.  When I got going I really felt like I could run forever.  Now…a 1:15 run is on the borderline for where I carry water and fuel with me.  Ahem, turns out I probably should have carried it with me on this run.  Once I turned around things started to feel quite a bit tougher and the final mile turned out to be quite the slog.  I had crossed over to the other side of the river by this point and the pathway was in the shade.  The wind was whipping through and it was the only time that I felt really quite cold.  Luckily it wasn’t too far back to the YMCA from there.

I hustled inside and quickly ate some cottage cheese and fruit.  By the time I was done with my snack I was pretty cold so I opted for a really hot shower instead of going for a swim.  I may have to figure out a new plan for my run/swim combo while this cool weather continues!

Sunday:

It was time to get on the bike!  I had a just over 70 minute workout that included some steady state intervals and some hill climbs.  Something on my bike is making a noise.  I couldn’t figure out the cause so I’ll have to pop into Bow Cycle a bit early before spin class on Tuesday to get it sorted out.  The workout went really well and my legs were tired!  After the workout I hopped off the bike, did some lunges and squats, ran through some core work and that was it!

More Winter Fun – Cross Country Skiing

By the time Thursday rolled around I was starting to feel better, and a good thing to!  I was signed up for my first cross country ski lesson at Canada Olympic Park (COP) that night.  It was absolutely beautiful out Thursday.  I really wanted to run – the sky was blue, the trees were covered in frost but in the sun it felt nice and warm out.  I didn’t want to push my luck in getting over this cold by doing too much too soon though so I settled on a walk to the grocery store instead.

Anyhow, back to the cross country skiing!  I’ve signed up for a set of three lessons throughout February.  Learning to cross country ski has been on my list of things to do since moving back to Canada in 2006.  I’ve finally decided that 2010 is the year to get out there and try.  From all of Laurel’s accounts it is a lot of fun and a great workout.  COP is close to home and with more than 2 km of groomed XC trails it seemed like a great place to go for weeknight lessons.  Angie is super excited that I’m giving it a try, so long as I keep all muscles, bones and ligaments intact.

The set up was so different from my downhill lesson!  That one was full of 25 kids and 5 adults with three instructors.  For our XC lesson there were seven of us with two instructors.  We split into two groups and my instructor figured we should just strap on the skis, go and see how it went.  We practiced snow ploughing, gliding through tracks (like in the picture above), double poling and different techniques for getting up a hill.  Then we figured we would tackle the same downhill slope that we practiced on during the downhill lesson…  I had issues skiing down that hill the first time, but on XC skis it is a whole new experience!  You build a lot of speed on those skinny XC skis and I wound up having to bail twice!  I landed on my right hip both times…and now ow!  It hurts!

I’m definitely excited to keep trying XC skiing.  It adds a whole new cross training dimension to my workouts and it is nice to break up the swim/bike/run a bit!  Plus it helps me to appreciate the winter wonderland here in Calgary just a little bit more.

The sick ward

Sigh…this week has been a total bust for workouts.  I have done zip, zilch, nada…  I listened to everyone’s advice and took Tuesday off and Wednesday as well.  I talked to Richelle yesterday (as Angie was on her way back from Cuba) and she told me to just rest Wednesday night and be in bed by 9 pm.  I think that as endurance athletes we have a really hard time with taking rest days when we are sick.  Whether we are worried about losing fitness or if it is because we feel guilty for skipping workouts I’m not sure.  I know that I need to be told that it is okay to rest because you are sick.  And well…it seems like people have been sick for several weeks on end around here so hopefully I can avoid that.

I think Finlay had some sympathy pains on Wednesday.  He didn’t want to eat all day…even turning down cheese!  In the evening he was plastered to the couch next to me. 

I was wondering if a trip to the vet was going to be in order, but when we headed upstairs to bed he spied a squeaky ball!  He ran around with it for a bit making tons of noise, then settled in upstairs.  If he is running around with a squeaky ball then he must be okay!

After spending a couple of days in prime shape to belt out Kim Carnes’ “Bette Davis Eyes” since my voice was so husky I think things have finally turned a corner.  Today was the first day I woke up not feeling like I had swallowed a pack of razor blades, so I guess we are off to a good start!  Finlay ate some breakfast too so he must be doing better as well.

One thing I didn’t get a chance to mention, was that we had a Team Tri Life party on Saturday night!  It was great to get together and chat with everyone and to see folks wearing something other than the usual spandex!  Caroline even made a triathlon themed cake which I thought was pretty cool (and pretty darn tasty too)!

The Grocery Store

Thanks for all of the great snack ideas folks!  It seems as though chocolate milk is a definite favourite, and I’ll admit that I love it too, especially after a swim.  My new goal for this week is to focus on upping my protein intake by making sure I consume protein with each meal and snack.  I was shocked to see how low my protein intake was when Beth analysed my food log.  Here I thought focusing on having my “one serving size” amount of fish or what have you in my lunch or dinner would do it, but it turns out I’m way low.  The interesting thing is, I read a nutrition book focused on endurance athletes and it stated to not worry about how much protein you take in as chances are you are eating enough.  Well, apparently not…  I think that if you have specific nutritional goals you want to reach that talking to a nutritionist is a great idea.

With upping my protein intake in my mind I stopped off at the grocery store on my way to work yesterday morning.  I picked up skim milk so I could have a glass with my usual bowl of hot cereal in the mornings, plus I grabbed more cottage cheese and fruit to keep on hand for a snack during the day.  My coworkers tease me that I have a veritable grocery store in my office – copious amounts of tea, cereal, granola, dried fruit, hot sauce, olive oil, vinegar, granola bars…not to mention the milk, cottage cheese and canned pumpkin in the fridge.  Since I eat breakfast, lunch and two snacks during the work day I want to be prepared though and not tempted to run and buy a brownie from the coffee shop.

One little tid bit I did want to share with you is this most amazing hot cereal I made yesterday.  I microwaved up a bowl of Bob’s Red Mill 10 grain hot cereal with some chia seeds and half a banana.  The warm gooey banana smell was amazing when it came out of the microwave.  I stirred in some canned pumpkin (hey, its a chance to get in some extra veggies!), topped it off with the remaining banana half, a couple of semi-sweet chocolate chips (gotta get my chocolate fix!) and it was amazing.

I didn’t make it to the pool last night.  I’ve been feeling just a wee bit icky lately.  Mostly a sore throat off and on, some very minor congestion in my chest and sometimes a bit of dizziness.  So I decided not to go to the pool.  I’m still packing my run stuff for today and hoping to make it to spin class, but given that I felt like I was about to pass out after walking up the stairs in my house that may or may not happen.  What I can say for sure though is, my voice is definitely going.  Sigh.