Hills, hills, glorious hills…

I totally dropped the ball on the cookie story at Yellow Lake.  Ally and I were riding to the top of Yellow Lake for cookies.  Imagine our disappointment when the place we were looking for wasn’t at the top!  Apparently the good cookies are at the start of the climb… Disappointing!  So when you ride the IMC bike course look for the Bear fruit stand on the left just outside Keremeos.  Apparently the cookies are amazing.

Last week was all about hills.  Hill repeats on the bike on Tuesday.  It started raining while we were out there and I kept hearing a squeak, squeak, squeak.  Angie heard it and tried to replicate the sound which only seemed to happen when someone was riding the bike.  Turns out it was my rear wheel that had slid forward slightly and was rubbing on the bike frame.  It is a lot easier to ride up hills when your rear wheel isn’t rubbing.  It also turns out that I am a complete scaredy cat riding downhill in the rain.

On Thursday I had a 90 min run with 3 x 2:00 hill repeats with 1:00 of squats at the top.  I wanted to knock the run out early as it was supposed to cool off and rain later in the day.  My run went fairly well.  At one point I looked down at my Garmin though and I saw that my heart rate was reading 240 bpm.  Seriously?  I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be running so well if my heart rate was that high.  After reading through a few forums this seems to be a common problem with the new soft strap.  I’m not keen on the idea of going back to the old strap as it causes some really bad chaffing, but if the heart rate data is so erroneous there isn’t much point in wearing the strap.  Despite that one thing the rest of the run was good.  I picked a tough hill for my hill repeats and my legs were mad at me…

On Friday I had my longest swim ever…3500 meters.  Welcome to Ironman training!  It was long, kind of boring, but it went well.  I was reminded by Ryan to just take it stroke by stroke and that I would make it.  It actually wound up being my best swim this week.

On Saturday the plan was to ride 110K but we woke up to snow.  Snow at the end of May!!  I guess it really wouldn’t be Calgary is it didn’t snow at some point in May.  There would be no riding outside on this day.  I swept out the garage, cued up a DVD of the IMC bike course and Tara and Ally came over to knock out a 2.5 hour ride on the trainer.  2.5 hours is a long time on the trainer, but thanks to great company, great conversation and some good tunes it actually flew by.  Thanks for coming over ladies!

Thankfully the snow stopped and I managed to get in a fairly pleasant run on Sunday morning – a 60 min hilly run around my neighbourhood.  All of these hills!  My legs were toast but I still managed to feel strong and steady.  I found some good hills to run too…

And so that was last week in a nutshell!  This week?  We are bringing back the early morning workouts…

Oh, and go check out Rainmaker, he’s giving away a very fancy scale!

Beginner’s Night?

Tonight we had the option to ride indoors at Crestmont or to meet at Edworthy to ride hill repeats.  With highs in the low to mid 20s it is hard to pass up an opportunity to ride outside on a weekday in April.  Off to Edworthy I went!  Tri shorts, a tank and a short sleeve jersey was all that was needed!

Repeat #1 – 6:00

Something was wrong with my bike.  I could hear something rubbing and it felt like I was pedaling through sludge.  What was up with that?  I hadn’t even reached the tough part of the hill yet!  I pulled over at a safe spot and found that the side of my wheel was rubbing.  After that…what a difference!

Repeat #2 – 5:56 and Repeat #3 – 6:51

It started to feel like amateur hour out there!  I was having a lot of trouble clipping in on my left foot.  I started up the hill and I couldn’t shift from my big chain ring to my small ring.  Then I couldn’t shift anywhere in my back ring so I had to get off the bike to do it manually.  Stopping I’d almost fall over to the other side.  What on earth was happening out there??  You’d think I’d never ridden a bike before!  On the third repeat I was pondering that my legs were moving so slowly, but the folks around me were pedaling at a much faster clip.  Were they just that much stronger, or did I just need to turn my legs over faster in an attempt to keep momentum?

Repeat #4 – 5:26

Pedal faster, keep pedaling, don’t slow down, keep going….  I didn’t feel any more fatigued trying to pedal faster than on my previous repeats and I made it up the hill faster.  Woo hoo!

Repeat #5 – 4:57

At the bottom of the hill I ran into Sarah and she told me she was going to ride this final repeat with me.  As we went up she told me to think about focusing on something different every 10 strokes.  10 strokes – focus on pushing down with the pedals.  10 strokes – focus on pulling up and utilizing different muscles.  10 strokes – focus on your left leg.  10 strokes – focus on your right leg.  It paid off and my final repeat was also my fastest!

And what about the road?  The last time I rode repeats at Edworthy there was still quite a bit of gravel on the narrow road in and out of the park that we ride.  Today it was obvious that the road had been swept, so that was nice!

And don’t forget about the brick!  Even though I had already knocked out my 30 minute run earlier in the day Angie still wanted me to do at least a 10 minute brick run.  I packed the bike away in the car and ran with my friend Nola.  We spent so much time chatting that the 10 minutes over before I knew it.  Somehow or I other I made it through one gong show of a workout!  Phew!

Two Hours, Take Two

Happy hump day!  I am making my way through this busy week, one step at a time.

Monday was originally supposed to be a rest day, but I had to move my Wednesday swim and Monday was the only day it would work.  I did this of course with Angie’s blessing.  I went off to the Y and was in the water at 11 am for an 1800 m broken endurance set swim.  The swim went well.  I had a couple of set of swim golf in there and I’m still not noticing a ton of progress on those numbers but I just have to keep at it.

Tuesday I knocked out an easy 30 minute run over lunch.  Well, it felt easy but I actually had a bit of speed, which was nice!  I was hoping that this would only be a sign of good things to come for this week…  In the evening it was spin class and it was not an easy night!  We ran through a bunch of :30 hard/:30 easy intervals and later a 12 minute time trial.  Crazy stuff!  I pushed hard, although I do admit that I did dial the odd set back by one gear knowing what I had in store for me on Wednesday.  It definitely wasn’t sandbagging, I just needed to make sure the legs would have a bit of juice.

Wednesday….a crazy day…  When I mentioned that I would be arriving at the starting line of the Glencoe Icebreaker 10K tired.  No kidding.  I had a 90 minute long run on the schedule for Wednesday.  Originally I thought I could run from home into work but then I realized that I wouldn’t actually be at work.  I was scheduled for day one of two for a First Aid course in NE Calgary.  So no running before work, no running over lunch….that left running in the evening at 6 pm.  When I wasn’t successful in finishing my 2 hour run on Saturday I talked to Angie about whether I should make any changes to my schedule this week.  She advised that I run for 90 minutes and that if I felt strong I could add in the extra 30 minutes but to totally play it by ear. 

I got home, immediately changed into capris and a short sleeve top.  I tied an extra long sleeve top around my waist, threw two Hammer gels in a waist pack and grabbed a bottle of water.  I set off on my exact same route, running loops through the various cul-de-sacs around my neighbourhood.  It was still windy out, but it wasn’t nearly as biting as it was Saturday morning.  I was feeling strong!  And my mile splits were fast!!  I went out with the mindset that I was running 2 hours.  The first seven miles were great!  After that the legs got a bit tired as I started to hit more uphill territory.  My espresso Hammer gel with caffeine kicked in and the pace picked back up slightly.  For the final assault on the legs I ran up a big hill just over 10 miles in.  I climbed to the top, then brought it home to finish up the 2 hour run.  Considering that it was my hilliest run, it was also my fastest long run of the year.  I’m definitely feeling well set up for the hilly Police Half at the end of the month!

Tomorrow is Thursday and I wish I could say things slow down ahead of Glencoe…but no…  Should make things interesting Sunday morning!  There may be something to this running on tired legs thing…

A Pyramid of Hills

On Thursday I met up with Kelly for our hill workout.  We both had hill pyramids on our schedule – mine were 1-2-3-3-2-1 minute intervals, Kelly’s were 2-3-4-3-2 minute intervals.  Even though Kelly’s workout involved more minutes of climbing  I wanted to run her workout.  The big question was, could we find a 4 minute hill in downtown Calgary??  That was why I was keen to run her workout! 

We ran a 15 minute warm up around the river and wound up at the base of the Curling Club hill in time for the start of our 2 minute hill.  It was busy out!  We ran up the hill, finishing right at the top as our two minutes were up.  Now where to go for 3 minutes?  We continued on towards Center Street, running down the bridge.  We started near the bottom of the bridge and just about ran out of hill before our three minutes were up.  For four minutes we started on the pathway below the bridge, ran up the bridge and on to a very steep road.  We crested the road at 3.5 minutes so we stopped and the top and did squats for our last 30 seconds.  On our final 2 minute repeat I challenged Kelly to race up the bridge and we pushed ourselves hard!  I love hill workouts.  They are so rewarding and you know that you’ve worked hard when you are done.  Kelly and I really motivate each other too and I know we work harder together than I would do on my own.

Friday was actually supposed to be a rest day…but confession…I had missed a couple of workouts on Wednesday that I wanted to accomplish.  The first was a swim workout, called a swim golf mixer.  I did a 500 m warm up then ran through two 50 m swim golf sets.  I went into the drill set – more arm lead side kicks, head lead side kicks and 6 kick rolls.  These drills seem to show up in a lot of my workouts.  I think Angie is really trying to make sure I’m rolling from side to side during my swim stroke!  I then moved into a 400 m set of moderate and fast paced sets and finished with another two 50 m swim golf sets.  My score only changed by a point or two but I’m beginning to get the feel of things to do to decrease my swim stroke.  Later in the afternoon I went out in the glorious sunshine for a quick and easy 40 minute ride.  I’m getting the feel for my bike and so far the fit is very comfortable.  My way out was primarily uphill but it wasn’t feeling nearly as hard as I remembered.  When I turned around I realized that part of that may have been because I had a tail wind!  The ride was just a simple one through some neighborhoods looking at some fancy houses.  Lots of other cyclists were out there.

And with that, I’ve gotta get going…2 hour long run on tap!  Hope everyone is having a great weekend.

Three Things Thursday

Apparently I need to resort to lists this week, but what better way is there to string together a bunch of random thoughts? :)

1. Boy oh boy, do I wish I could wear sweat pants and yoga pants to work every day.  They are so comfy!  We do have a dress code at work though, so really…that would be frowned upon.  I firmly looked upon leggings with the same aversion that my thighs I had for skinny jeans.  Until I discovered the leggings and dress combo.  I kind of feel like I am cheating the dress code since it is so comfortable.  Given that I held out on the leggings bandwagon for so long I’m sure they will go out of style soon and I’ll have to wait another 20 years to wear them again.
2. I met up with Kelly today to run hill repeats.  It was 2C, overcast and incredibly windy and I swear that I stared out the window for five minutes trying to figure out what to wear.  I opted for tights, a long sleeve shirt and a vest which worked out to be the right combination.  We warmed up with a 15 minute run towards McHugh Bluff by the Calgary Curling Club, then proceeded to knock out our 5 x 2:00 hill repeats.  If one good thing can be said about the wind, it is that it was pushing us up the hill.  We took turns leading – Kelly really knows how to tackle the hills so I enjoyed chasing her, and it was also motivating to pull her up the hill too.  Company made a tough workout a lot more fun.  We did our cool down run and even ran through a few strength moves – squats, lunges, tricep dips and push ups.  These might not have happened if I was on my own!
3. Yesterday my dad called and asked me what day I was planning on leaving the Okanagan for home after Ironman Canada.  Hard to believe it, but I haven’t done any trip planning so far this year!  By this time last year I had all my hotels booked for my Lake Stevens – Washington road trip.  Guess it is time to start figuring a few things out…a trip to BC for the WCOC Olympic Triathlon plus maybe a DIY training camp, our Team Tri Life July training camp, and of course my IMC trip!

OK, time to get to the pool!

Enjoying the Sun

It has been an amazing week in Calgary!  With tons of sun and spring like temperatures it hasn’t been too hard to get out and enjoy it.  While I didn’t get off to the best start with my workouts this week I managed to pull up my socks throughout the week.

Wednesday I met up with Kelly for a 30 minute run over lunch.  My legs were pretty tired from my Tuesday night spin class.  I hung with Kelly and we ran a nicely paced loop around the Bow River.  While it wasn’t all that sunny out it really was warm and it felt good to just run and chat.  In the evening I made it out to Cochrane for the first time in a few weeks to swim.  The swim went alright…but boy oh boy am I lacking a serious amount of efficiency in the water!  I did swim golf for the first time and this was a serious eye opener as to just how many strokes I’m taking to get from one end of the pool to the other.  One of my big goals will be to work on that!  I try to not get discouraged in swimming, but it just feels like I have so much to work on.  I think I feel the same way about swimming that I feel about skiing.  Shouldn’t I be picking this up faster?  Why is it so technical?  I know I have slacked off with going to my Wednesday night lessons so I really only have myself to blame for that.  While I know I can do the distance in swimming it would be nice to do it better, ya know?

On Thursday it was time to get reacquainted with hill repeats!  This was my first shot at hills all year.  Kelly also had hill repeats on her schedule, although her workout was slightly different.  We ran our warm up together, arrived at McHugh Bluff for our repeats and got to work.  The hill was crazy busy with bootcamp classes, walkers, lungers, and other runners.  People were really taking advantage of the sun and 12C weather.  I ran 4 x 2 min repeats, and while 2 minutes may not seem like a lot it goes by ever so slowly when you are running up a hill!  I did a great job on running each repeat consistently.  There is something about running hill repeats that really gives you a feeling of accomplishment.  Maybe it is the blood pounding in your head, the burning lungs, or revisiting your maximum heart rate, again and again.  Whatever it was, it was a great workout!!  Kelly and I tried to encourage each other along the way, then we wound up running our cool down run together.  A few tricep dips and push ups later, we were done!  It was great having my friend on the hill for motivation and support.  As our run paces do differ this is one workout that we can accomplish together.

On Friday it was time to make up the swim that I missed on Monday thanks to a massive headache.  I walked over to the YMCA after I finished work…soaking up the sun.  I ran through a great workout with plenty of drills in it to help me improve my efficiency in the water.  Keep your fingers crossed for me that it comes together.

Saturday was long run day!  I wasn’t able to get out until after lunch for my run, so by then it had warmed up to a lovely 11C.  I decided to go out on a limb and run in capris and a tank top.  Initially the wind made it feel a bit brisk, but as I ran on it just felt amazing.  The pathways along the Bow River were quite busy with families on bikes, roller bladers, people out walking their dogs and other runners.  I started at Edworthy Park and ran towards Eau Claire and back for 9 miles.  The run went really well and it was terrific to be out and enjoying this amazing weather that Calgary had.

Sleep Deprivation

Wow….I am pushing the sleep deprivation this week!!  Caffeine is my friend!  After going to see Harry Potter I had to find out what happened on the So You Think You Can Dance finale.  I knew it was going to make a late night though…  After somewhere in the neighbourhood of 5 hours or so it was back up and off to the Y to swim.  Wow, it has been awhile since I’ve been to the pool..!!

I somehow or other trudged to the Y and started swimming.  It felt good to be back in the water.  My 2200m pacing workout went really well.  It was so quiet when I got there initially.  It was only myself and one other person swimming and more people didn’t dive in until I was finishing up my workout.  After I got out of the pool I was ready to crash though…except I had to go to work!  Thank goodness for caffeine this morning.  It was really rough.

The weather has not been terrific today, just grey, misting off and on…  I had hill repeats to ride on the bike and luckily by the afternoon the clouds were breaking.  I took off to Edworthy to ride up and down the hill a bunch of times.  I was supposed to go max effort on 6-7 hill repeats.  After riding up the hill once as a warm up I got going.  There were a few other cyclists out there doing the same thing and one lady kept yelling encouragement at me whenever we’d pass each other on the hill.  I was feeling pretty strong on the hills and my splits were all very close to each other.  I wound up getting 6 repeats (plus the warm up hill) done, then called it a night and took off for a 15 minute brick.

Now that I’ve found out who won So You Think You Can Dance I guess I can head to bed.  Pool tomorrow morning!

Sometimes Smart, Sometimes Not

Sometimes Smart…

Angie prescribed a round of hill repeats for Sunday for me.  The initial thought was to run after volunteering at the race.  After Saturday’s ridonkulous brick run I knew that would be a bad idea.  So I was up super early on Sunday morning to knock out some hill repeats before heading to the finish line of the Calgary 70.3.  I had 4 x 3 min hills on the schedule and luckily there is a long enough hill in my neighbourhood to fit the bill.  It isn’t as intense a grade as the hill I usually run downtown, but it still provided a good workout.  The legs were a little tired, but it all went well.

Sometimes Not…

Sigh, I have a love for pretty shoes.  Sometimes those pretty shoes don’t love me though.  Typically I reserve them for just wearing around the office, but on Thursday I went on a bit of a hike.  A 10-15 min walk one way to meet a friend for lunch.  My feet were completely unhappy with me afterward.  Wanna see why?
Mirror images on both feet.  Hmmm, chances are good that they won’t be completely healed up by race day.  Luckily they don’t bother me while running.  Just while attempting to wear other pretty shoes.  (See the one inch scar above my ankle?  That’s from a shaving incident 10 years ago!!)

Bring On the Taper!

How is it that your brain and body just knows when you are two weeks out from a race?  All day my stomach has been sending me signals of “feed me”!!  Not to mention that I’ve been feeling pretty restless all day.  While I didn’t quite break last week’s training volume amount, I sure had a great week of running (19.85 mi) and biking (123.55 mi).  Unfortunately I missed a swim and a brick so I didn’t quite beat last week’s volume, but that’s okay!  Now bring on the taper…long run tomorrow…

A Hot, Hilly Ride

I am pretty sure that my legs are going to be ready to disown me by the time this week is over!  I’ve been working them hard!!  I was on my feet for several hours yesterday at the Calgary 70.3 Expo (which was a blast…more details to come in a later post).  Being on your feet for that long is exhausting though!  That probably explains why I fell asleep on the couch soon after arriving home from my volunteering duties.

This morning I had instructions to ride a hilly 100K, followed by a 45 minute brick run.  It was forecasted to be 30C (86F) and sunny.  I realize that for a lot of you in the south that isn’t very hot…but around here…that’s a scorcher!  Anyhow, this ride was supposed to be somewhat of a dress rehearsal for two weeks from now.  Practice my nutrition, pacing, mental strategies…you name it.  I was able to map out a nice rolling ride that would have a similar amount of climbing to the Lake Stevens 70.3 bike course.  Here’s the elevation profile for the LS bike:
Fun stuff, eh?  It explains why Angie wants me to ride a hill route as Lake Stevens has about 2260 feet of climbing.

I mixed up my Camelbak with Infinit, and carried an extra bottle of Infinit (good for another 2 hours), plus a bottle of water to dilute it down.  I brought a gel along just in case, but I already knew that I could rely on just drinking the Infinit and I’d be in good shape for the duration of the ride.  I hit the bathroom several times before leaving home, then made my way out the door. 

My first opportunity for a bathroom wouldn’t be until about 2 hours into the ride…and wouldn’t you know that I really, really had to go an hour in?  I started scouring the ditches trying to look for a spot with some half decent cover.  Unfortunately the road was busy enough that there always seemed to be a car coming.  It was all I could think about…  Finally I turned on to another road and after going up a hill things seemed somewhat more secluded.  Marginally.  After letting some cars and motorcycles go past I had my chance…  Relief!!!!!!  It is amazing how much more fun riding is when you don’t have a full bladder.

I had mapped out a route that included a turn down a secondary highway I hadn’t ridden down before.  Sometimes you never know whether these secondary highways are paved or not, but considering how long the highway was I assumed it probably was paved.  Turns out…it isn’t!  No problem, I knew there was a parallel paved road just north that would add a bit of extra distance on.  After 2 hours I made it to Bottrell for another bathroom break, a chance to refill the Camelbak, and an opportunity to get a bottle of Coke!  That stuff is seriously an elixir of the gods…it tastes so good at the end of a long ride!

The road to and from Bottrell is hilly…plus I was riding into a headwind.  Ugh…  My speed was dropping and it was getting harder to get up those hills.  As I turned onto Horse Creek road I knew I had some big hills still ahead of me, but that reprieve would be coming soon.  It was some serious slow going up the final hill…  As I made it on to the bike course portion of Horse Creek the traffic started to pick up.  Folks were obviously dropping their bikes off at T1 for tomorrow’s race and then were driving the bike course on the way out.  Luckily that was the point where the net downhill started so I started to pick up some speed.

Finally it was back on Highway 1A for a nice straight shot back home.  I just had to get Cochrane Hill out of the way.  That’s right.  I routed my ride to include Cochrane Hill on the way home, 56 miles in to my ride.  Riding up this hill I realized how hot it was, but I slowly and smoothly made my way to the top.  From there it was a high spinning, super fast ride back home, in aero most of the way.  Turns out that going aero with a Camelbak on isn’t so bad after all.

Once I made it home I changed out of bike shorts into a running skirt and set out for my brick.  I carried a bottle of Gatorade with me.  I haven’t used Gatorade on a run in a long time, but I wanted to see how it jived with the Infinit.  I’m not planning on carrying fluids on the run portion of Lake Stevens and the aid stations are serving Gatorade.  I figured this was a good chance to see how it worked!  It was so hot out…and it was about 2 pm.  I ran slow because of it (partially on purpose, and partially because my legs were bagged).  I was supposed to run for 45 minutes but that seemed like too long in this heat.  I cut it down to 25 minutes as I just hit a Starbucks and thought a nice iced coffee would be good right about then.  I can only hope that it won’t be quite so hot the day of Lake Stevens or it is going to be one brutal half marathon…

As for my elevation profile for today’s ride?  How does this look?All said, 68.56 mi (110 km) and 2343 feet of climbing.  Incidentally, this was a solo ride.  I had a chance to ride with a couple of my teammates getting ready for Ironman, but I wanted a route that would give me good rollers the whole way since I knew it would be good prep.

Busy day tomorrow… I hope everyone is having a good weekend so far!!

Midweek Looonnnngg Bikes – Part II

Wednesday Early Morning Loonnng Run

I was all set to run into work on Wednesday morning.  I woke up at 2 am to the sound of pouring rain.  When the alarm went off at 4:30 it looked like things had dried out, but it started pouring just as I was taking Finlay for a walk.  I didn’t want to run in that! 

Wednesday Afternoon Loonnng Bike

I opted to get my mid-week long ride in this afternoon – 2 hours!  I mapped out a new ride from my house then out on the rural roads towards Cochrane.  That is one of the things I love about where I live.  5 minutes and it looks like you are in the middle of nowhere!  Since this was a brand new route for me (and I have a history of missing turns/getting lost) I decided to upload the course to my Garmin for the first time ever.  You need to add in flags within the course in Garmin Training Center to get a beep telling you to turn though. 

Continuing along the theme of using technology to power my ride I decided to put my iPhone to use.  Since the phone can play music through a speaker I loaded up the tunes, put the phone in my Bento box and pedaled away.  This way I could hear cars coming but the tunes provided some additional entertainment along the way. 

The route I mapped out was beautiful.  And hilly!  I took the time to look up and appreciate the scenery.  This new route was great and I’d definitely ride it again.  I rode past farms and tons of horses, plus an amazing stable.  The weather was nice and warm, and not too windy either.  For a little reprieve on the way back I finished up riding along highway 1A from Cochrane towards town.  Slight downhill and a chance to get down into aero and just pedal, pedal, pedal quickly home!  I finished up with 1:56 of riding, just over 32 miles with 1031 feet of climbing. 
Fingers crossed for good weather luck tomorrow for my long run!

Midweek Looonnnngg Bikes – Part I

Welcome to final build week for Lake Stevens!  Every day I get more and more excited about the race…and the whole trip associated with it!  This is actually going to be my big vacation for the year so I’ve been looking forward to this for awhile.

Tuesday Swim

After taking Monday as a rest day it was back to work on Tuesday.  I was at the pool early Tuesday morning for a great workout.  I ran into my friend and teammate Michelle and we wound up sharing a lane.  The company was great even though we were doing different workouts.  I had a 2300m workout with some long hard sets in it.  It went really well!

Tuesday Group Ride – Coming Round the Mountain!

Tuesday night were supposed to be hill repeats out in Cochrane.  As I started driving out there it started raining.  Ack!  I don’t want to ride hill repeats in the rain!  Since I was already on the road I just kept going, but I had already rearranged my schedule around in my head just in case I couldn’t ride.  By the time I got to Cochrane the roads were slick, but no more rain.  I think a lot of us were unsure about riding hills…but off we went! 

I’ve only ridden up the main Cochrane hill once.  My goal was to do all of my repeats up the main hill – 400 feet of elevation gain over 1.17 mi.  The other option is to go up Gleneagles, but the grade isn’t nearly as steep.  I wanted to really knock the harder repeats out instead!  I kept my effort steady and focused on feeling strong the entire way.  I wound up getting “She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain” in my head as I was going up and I spun the pedals in time with the tune in my head.  I got in three repeats up Cochrane hill, with each repeat getting a touch faster.  Boo yah!  1688 feet of climbing over 22.5 mi.
This workout has given me a lot of confidence for the Lake Stevens 70.3.  I might not be a super fast climber, but I know that I can ride the hills smoothly and efficiently.  I’m not sure why I’ve been so scared of riding repeats up Cochrane hill…I loved this workout! 

Productivity!

Productivity and endurance training do not tend to go hand in hand.  Sure, you get a ton of workouts done, but sometimes other things tend to suffer!  Let me round out my week of activities first though.

This week was my biggest volume of training done this year to date.  Probably my biggest week of training ever!  This morning I was finishing the week off with some hill repeats and a swim.  Angie has moved my long run to the middle of the week so I’m not doing a long bike and a long run back to back.  I’m a huge fan of this, although I have to admit it feels a bit odd to be waking up to run hill repeats on a Sunday morning. 

I had meant to get started early but lying in bed and hitting the snooze button seemed just too tempting.  I made it downtown just after 9 am, dropped my gear off at the Y and got started.  I had 4 x 2:00 hill repeats on tap.  As I started in on my warm up I could tell that my legs had biked 120K yesterday.  They just didn’t seem to have a lot of…vroom vroom in them.  Oh well, this was only going to be a 45 minute run.  I could do that for sure, right?

The entire run was embarrassingly slow but I got it done.  After I finished running I checked out the upstairs portion of the Y where the weights were.  I was supposed to run through some post-run exercises after Wednesday’s long run, but I didn’t have enough time before I had to get to work.  I decided to run through them today – assorted lunges, squats and push-ups.  I also got some core work done too.  Then it was time to hit the pool for what was supposed to be a 2400m pull focused workout.

By this time I was tired…  It’s been a long week of workouts and my brain turned off and wasn’t really into the swim.  I made it through 1500m and called it a day.  It was getting close to noon and I was ready to move on to other things.

Not that I had anything really exciting planned, but let’s just say that with all of this working out my poor house has really been suffering.  Apparently it has been so long since I vacuumed that it took me quite some time to find the stair attachment for my vacuum cleaner.  Today I managed to run through all of my laundry, vacuumed, cleaned my carpets (thanks Finlay for making that a necessity!), and dusted my furniture.  You would think I was tapering and had all of this extra time on my hands!  In actuality, here’s what happened this week:

• Running – 17.1 mi, 2:58:35
• Biking – 114.8 mi, 6:59:46
• Swimming – 5800 m, 2:45:00
• Stretch, core and strength – 0:25:00
• GRAND TOTAL = 13:08:21

If everything goes as plan this week I may be setting a new record…  I’m starting the week off with a rest day tomorrow though!  Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Words for the Week

There are two words that can describe my workouts for this week:

Fish

Wow, did I get some swim workouts in this week!  Swim #1 was Monday, 2000m of a mixed swim set.  Swim #2 on Wednesday, a 2100m swim test.  I also got in swim #3 for 2000m on Friday.  It was an interval swim, and I used the numbers I got from Wednesday’s test for my interval times.  Swim #4 was on Saturday, a fun pull focused workout.  I’m really enjoying swimming on my own at the downtown Y as I logged 8300m for the week.

Hills

There was a whole lot of up and down going on this week.  Let’s review, shall we?

Tuesday: Hill repeats on the bike at Edworthy.  1779 ft of climbing.
Wednesday: Bike ride from the car dealership home, 762 ft of climbing.
Thursday: Downhill 2:00 run into work.  -968 ft.
Saturday: 1:00 hill run downtown.  741 ft of climbing.
Sunday: 100K hilly ride on tap.  This ride is so special that it gets it own post!

Saturday’s run was a good one!  One hour of as much up and down as possible.  I wasn’t feeling too inspired for a hilly route, but thanks to my friends on Facebook the suggestions came pouring in.  Since I was planning on swimming the winner was a route around downtown.  I started at the Y, ran up Center Street Bridge, up and down McHugh Bluff a few times and back.  It wasn’t a fast paced run at all, but I knew I worked my legs hard.  After running in the heat and humidity it felt great to jump in the pool for my 2000m pull focused workout!

In other news, I finally tested my BBQ out for the first time tonight!  I grilled up some delicious sausages I picked up from the Calgary Farmers’ Market, along with some fresh veggies.  This BBQ works so much better than my old one!  This is the first time I haven’t completely overcooked sausages on the grill before.  Yay!

Letting Go

Tonight we had hills at Edworthy on the schedule for our Tuesday night group ride.  Oddly enough, in some weird, glutton for punishment kind of way I was really looking forward to it.  So why were my legs not ready to ride tonight?  After all, I didn’t keep up with my scheduled workouts last week.  I mostly relaxed, drank beer and ate pancakes.  As I rode towards the hill I kept looking down to check and make sure I wasn’t in my big chain ring.  Nope.  Tires fully inflated?  Yep.  No excuses, my legs were just not there.

On one repeat Angie saw me and asked what was wrong since I didn’t look like my usual smiley self.  I told her that my legs just didn’t have it today and I didn’t know why.  She reminded me that I did just race a half Iron last weekend and fatigue would still be normal.  Once I said the words aloud to Angie I was able to let go.  Sure, I was tired…but these were hills and they aren’t supposed to be easy, right?  But they certainly are good for me!  The next time Angie saw me she yelled that my whole demeanour had changed.  I was attacking those hills!  Was I faster?  Not really.  But my mind was in a happy place!  Pretty important to find that for hilly Lake Stevens 70.3, eh?  Afterwards I had a good 20 minute brick run.  Now?  Time for bed!

Hills and more hills, redux

There has been one theme this week it seems. Hills, hills and more hills! I rode hills on Tuesday, ran a hilly run on Wednesday…then had more hills in store for the weekend. Originally I had an 80K ride on my schedule but I had an invite out for a ride on Saturday that would be more like 110km. I double checked with Angie that she was okay with me doing the longer ride, and so long as it wouldn’t affect the quality of my workouts later in the week I was good to go! Four of us met out in Cochrane, Pam, Kevin and Susi. Susi was the only one who had ridden this route before so it was going to be a surprise!

We have really lucked out with the weather this week and Saturday was no exception. It was low to mid 20s (low to mid 70s) and amazing sunshine out. Where we didn’t really luck out was with the wind. It was crazy out! We made our way out of Cochrane and on to Horse Creek and I thought there were times that I might get blown over. Kevin and I wound up riding out Horse Creek together and he was trying to give me tips on drafting. Obviously you can’t do it in a race, but he was encouraging me to try and find the sweet spot behind his wheel where you don’t have to work as hard. Which is easier said than done when you have a wind trying to blow you sideways! Horse Creek has some good hills and I was powering up them. In hindsight…maybe a little too hard for the beginning of a long ride…oops! As we neared the spot on Horse Creek that I dread there was a welcome surprise in sight. There is a portion of the road that is just brutal with pot holes and it is so rough to ride. Not to mention that there are a couple of big hills around here… Well, they are in the process of paving it! As this is part of the Calgary 70.3 course that will no doubt make the racers happy!

Kevin and I continued north on Horse Creek until the turn off for Bottrel. We debated between waiting for Pam and Susi here, or continuing on the general store in Bottrel. Just then a pick up truck pulled up to the stop sign. We asked him how far the general store was, and it wasn’t too far…only about 3K or so. Um…he was a pretty congenial fellow…he advised us to find the girl working at the liquor store in Bottrel because she sold great ice cream apparently. The Tiger Tail is supposed to be fantastic. (Tiger Tail is orange with black liquorice swirled through it and I absolutely love it!!) But it was a little early in the ride for ice cream. :( About then Susi and Pam pulled up, so on to the general store for our first opportunity to refill our water bottles and to hit the bathrooms. By this point in time you feel like you are in the middle of nowhere and the General Store is a total hoot. There is a super friendly dog and cat there waiting to greet you. The store’s motto is that if “We ain’t got it…you don’t need it!”

We took a quick break and then we were back on the road. We did a short stint along highway 22, but we quickly turned off and from there on out it was beautiful…quiet…and so rural. Amazing. There were a ton of horses, cows…you name it. And there were some itty bitty baby cows! The hills just kept rolling though…up, down, up down. We hit our second water stop at the Beaver Dam golf course, then turned around and headed back to Lochend Road to make our way back to Cochrane. Lochend Road…Susi said it perfectly when she said that the hills just kept coming. You’d see a hill, climb it and crest it, then see another one just a short distance away. This continued on the entire way down Lochend…about 19 miles! I didn’t really have a lot of oomph to power through the hills, but I was certainly climbing them steadily and that felt really good. I was pretty happy when we hit Highway 1A to head back to Cochrane. That meant the climbing was over and it was just a straight shot back to the finish. I took off down 1A, eager to get back because I had dinner reservations that I was a worried that I was going to be late for. When I hit Cochrane I chickened out on going down Cochrane hill and took the more gentle (but longer) way down into town by Gleneagles Golf Course. Then it was back to the car to load up the bike and hurry up for home and dinner! But first, check out the elevation profile of our ride. 2320 feet of climbing, somewhere around 67.5 miles for the ride.

I rushed home, took the fastest shower ever…and booted it out to southeast Calgary for dinner at Bolero. My sister-in-law and I have birthdays that are just over a week apart, so this was our chance to celebrate together. I’ve mentioned Bolero before – it is a Brazilian Churascurria that is amazing. Guys with different cuts of beef, chicken pork and lamb on swords come by your table to serve you. And one of the highlights is there grilled pineapple… So yummy! I may have had a one night stand with beef last night…but it was so worth it!

As for today, I had a 2650m swim and a 90 minute hilly run on the schedule. I wanted to hit the pool up early before it got busy, but I also wanted a bit of a chance to sleep in too! I got into a lane at 10 am and it was actually pretty quiet. I ran through my 2650m endurance ladder workout and it felt so good. I wasn’t fast, but I felt consistent the whole time. I like having these extra swim workouts on the weekend. If I time it properly at the right pool then it is nice and quiet and I enjoy the chance for quiet reflection in the water. It makes a nice change from my Tuesday/Thursday swim class where I am crazily trying to hang on to the swimmers in front of me all the time.

As for the 90 minute hilly run, I wanted to wait until the afternoon to get that done. I figured I’d give my legs as much time off as possible between yesterday’s bike and today’s run. I headed back out to Baker Park again since I knew I’d hit some good hills. My legs were definitely hurting on the uphills, but I felt strong on the flats and the downhills so I knew the legs were in good shape. I ran out 45 minutes…stopped, had a drink and realized I was almost out of water. It was hot out and there was no way I was going to make it back on just the couple of sips left in my bottle. I detoured slightly to the Shouldice Pool and found a water fountain I could fill up at. Then it was back to the car! All said and done I ran for 8.62 miles. It wasn’t fast, but I ran those hills strong and got the workout done!

As for refuelling…I decided to make good use of my barbeque today. I grilled up some fresh sockeye salmon marinated in a mixture of olive oil, soy sauce, Dijon mustard, horseradish, brown sugar and rice vinegar. I also grilled up some Brussels sprouts and garlic in a foil pouch (maybe for a bit too long, but this was my first attempt), along with some asparagus, eggplant and zucchini. I served it up with some arugula, tomato and balsamic vinegar…so good! Alright, time to get ready for tomorrow… Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Hills, hills and snakes

Last night we were back at Edworthy for group hill repeats on the bike. We went up the hill once and into the nearby neighborhood for a quick warm up. No surprise my legs were tired going up the hill... I figured I'd just ride...see what happened and take it slow. As I kept going up and up the legs felt better. I didn't ride as quickly as last week, and I got in the same number of hill repeats for a total of six.

My brick run was optional but I was feeling good so I took off with my teammate Pam. We were supposed to go out and back along the river for 15 minutes and we hit our turnaround point before I knew it. All in all, a good night of hill repeats and a great brick!

I had an optional rest day today, but since I won't have time to get my run in tomorrow I decided to do it today. I headed out to Baker Park for the first time this year for a 5 mile run. This probably wasn't my smartest decision since the pathway along the river here is hilly. I just sucked it up and made peace with the fact that this run wouldn't be speedy. At least it was gorgeous out and warm! As I was coming down the final big hill with one mile left to go I looked down...just a little too late...and saw a snake!! It was just a little itty bitty snake, but it still scared the crap out of me and I jumped and screamed like a total girl. Yeah, that was enough incentive to get me to pick up the pace for the last mile back!

Edworthy Hill Climb Night

Saturday and Sunday were amazing around here, but the weather completely turned yesterday. We are talking just about freezing and plenty of rain. Sigh... Angie was adamant that we would get some hill repeats in tonight. Rather than planning to meet in Cochrane we met at Edworthy Park in Calgary instead. This way if a downpour started we'd be closer to our cars.We headed across the river for a quick warm up, then went up and down the hill into Edworthy Park. Up and down, again and again. Luckily the rain held off for us, but it was chilly out.I felt good on the hills - but there are some definite strong climbers in the group that would pass me like I was standing still. So the hill repeats went well, but I can see plenty of room for improvement! 12.81 mi done, including 6 repeats, and 1827 ft of climbing.

After that it was time for a quick brick run. My toes felt somewhat frozen and like I was running on stumps. After about 8 minutes or so the blood was flowing to my feet and things started to feel normal. All in all, it was a great workout!

First things first...I have to clear something up! A few folks got all excited when I said I had a swim date with DGB. D is my friend and coworker Debbie. We've done a few races together and she is my partner in crime for the Great Lunch Swap project. So...sorry folks...no exciting date story to share!

Speaking of the swim date...I was tired last night. I had picked out a fun sprint workout that I had really enjoyed the last time I ran through it. Last night the mind was willing but the body wasn't. I just couldn't muster very much of a sprint and I wound up calling it a night at 1500m. Oh well, at least I got out and got something done! It just goes to show that minimal sleep results in sub-par workouts though...

A peek at the weather forecast this morning indicated a 0% chance of precipitation for the day. That's the first time in a week or two that I've seen that and I knew I needed to take advantage. Time to bike into work! It was pretty brisk in the morning at -3C (27F) but I dressed pretty appropriately so it didn't feel too bad. I tried to keep my cadence over 90 rpm as much as possible and the ride was fantastic.

Since yesterday's canceled ride was supposed to be all about hill repeats I figured that my uphill ride home would be a half decent substitute. I also thought I'd include some hill repeats on the big hill into my neighborhood...that I normally try to avoid. I left behind my backpack at work, left behind my extra warm clothes (since it had now warmed up) and anything else I didn't need. I didn't want any extra weight, I just wanted to ride. Last year this ride home would just kill me. I found it so hard! Now that I've got a bike computer with cadence on it I'm finding that it is really helping my riding. Last year I was just trying to push big gears which would be okay on the flats, but it would tire my legs out and the hills would be so hard. I really noticed today that if I focused on 90 rpm for as much as possible I was riding quickly and efficiently, and I was taking the hills like nobodies business. I went through three hill repeats and would have loved to do more, but I could see some nasty clouds in the distance (0% chance of precipitation???). I wanted to get home and get a brick run in before things got nasty. Here's the elevation profile for my ride home:

When I got home I threw on my running shoes and headed out for my 20 minute brick run. At first my legs felt a bit wooden but they sorted themselves out reasonably quickly. After the ride home I was floored by my pace - 2.27 mi in 20 min, which is an 8:49/mi pace. That's a bit faster than I normally run! So all in all...a great day for workouts!!

Now off to bed so that I can be up and raring to go for my swim tomorrow morning!

Not So Hot Yoga and More Hills

Good morning everyone! I'm struggling with Windows Live Writer a bit. I love it for uploading pictures and videos, but the paragraph formatting seems to get messed up for me. What looks good when it posts in Firefox looks terrible in Internet Explorer. Has anyone else experienced the same thing?

Thanks for all of the notes of concern about my tweaky ankle. Knock on wood, but it is back to normal. No doubt it was due to running hill repeats in shoes that need retiring.

After the marathon spin session on Sunday I figured I would be best off if I took it reasonably easy and went to hot yoga on Monday. My choices were:

• A 4:00 Moksha class (you run through the series of 40 postures)
• A 5:30 intermediate class (probably more intense than what I wanted), or
• A 6:00 foundation class (which is notoriously busy).
  

I opted to work from 6:30 to 3:30 that day and I high tailed it to the 4:00 Moksha class. Unfortunately they were working on the boiler so the room wasn't fully heated until over half way into the class, but it was just what my body needed. We did a lot of great poses that really helped to stretch out my legs and hip flexors.

Tuesday was a pretty busy day. The triathlon swim clinic at the Y started back up for the spring session. A bunch of new people in the pool and a few of my usual lanemates were gone. I swam with a couple of new guys who were a bit slower than me so it may be time to put on my big girl panties and jump in with some of the faster folks..?? I had a great swim though where I was feeling really smooth and efficient in the water, so good stuff!

I shifted my 30 minute easy run to Tuesday over lunch. I could tell that my legs were still really tired from Sunday. I took it easy on the pace, but apart from the tired legs things felt good. As the run went on my legs felt less tired and my pace sped up and I finished up with just over 3 miles.

In the evening it was back to spinning with Angie. I was mostly worried that my sit bones would be extraordinarily unhappy with me as soon as I got on the bike, but they felt really good! Angie is racing Oceanside this weekend so she didn't ride with us, but she certainly put us through the ringer! We warmed up, then ran through 5 x 10:00 hills. Each hill was different:

• A gear pyramid through our last five hardest gears, with 2:00 at each gear (60 - 70 rpm)
• A rolling hill with varying gears and cadence
• Picking a gear and holding it throughout the 10 minutes, but changing cadence from 60 to 80 and back throughout
• A gear pyramid through the last 6 hardest gears, 10 seconds in each gear, pedaling as fast as you can
• And I can't remember the specifics on the other hill...

It was quite the workout and I was bagged when I got home! I had a quick snack and some chocolate milk and crawled into bed and was asleep early.

Have a great Wednesday all!

Hills and Sprints

First things first...yesterday I confirmed what I pretty well already knew. I won't be lining up with thousands of other women at the starting line for the Nike Women's race in October. I'm a little sad since this would have been a chance for me to see my gal pals from San Antonio, Suz and TK, my cousin who lives in Kentucky, and my best friend who recently moved out to San Francisco. But...I have run the race before...and I can always enter again next year.

Anyhow, back to Thursday. There was no swim class scheduled so I opted to sleep in slightly (sleep in being relative since I was up at 5:30 to get to work) and put my swim off until the evening. I also had a hill workout to do, which was perfect for fitting in over lunch. It was about -4C out and a bit windy in places, but the sunshine was terrific. I headed down to the river and warmed up for 15-20 minutes to start my hill repeats at the big hill by the curling club. I had 5 x 2:00 repeats on the schedule. There were a bunch of people out there with the same idea as me and it felt like they were just blowing past me all the time..! I kept my pace steady and strong throughout all the repeats and even managed to improve the pace on them slightly. Just as I finished off my last repeat and was taking off for my cool down run I ran into my teammate Michelle. She had 3:00 hill repeats on her schedule!

I headed off to the Y in the evening and got in the pool around 8:30. Angie gave me a 2200m sprint workout to do. I figured that since it is supposed to be spring break that maybe the pool wouldn't be that crazy. Hmm... I really need to remember to not swim at my Y in the evenings at all..! There were three lanes set up for swimming and I jumped in the medium speed lane. As soon as I got in the water I was feeling really good - so much better and more efficient than Monday! As I moved from the warm up and into my sets the lane got a bit busier and there were about 5 of us in there. I looked over at the fast lane and there was just one other guy swimming so I decided to move over. The only problem with swimming in the fast lane is that this is the lane next to the open area of the pool where the kids are there to hang out, horse around, play with anything that floats and cannonball into the water. No problem with that, but somehow noodles, kick boards, weights, pull buoys all kept ending up in the fast lane. Tough to sprint when you are dodging debris. I pulled it off though and had a really successful swim...so I'm starting to feel like I might be back to my old self!

I have a busy day today, and I really wish I had time to go to the Outdoor Adventure Show. Samantha McGlone is giving a talk entitled "Ironman Training on a Time Budget: How to Train, Race, Work and Still Have a Life." It would definitely be interesting!