Starting Fresh

Last week was busy at work so I didn’t do a very good job of keeping up with my prescribed workouts.  Thank goodness things are different this week!  I had a big presentation to give on Monday, and once that was done I took off for the pool.  I had my first ever 3000 meter swim on the schedule.

I had about 45 minutes before the masters swim group came in and the public swim lanes would drop down to two.  Things were pretty quiet in my lane, but about 5 minutes before the master swim group I hopped into one of the other lanes.  Slowly but surely as the work day came to a close those two lanes got busier and busier.  All of a sudden I found myself in the medium/fast lane with four other people in it.  Things were moving pretty swiftly and I didn’t have too much left in my workout.  I threw the rest intervals out the window and just swam and attempted to hang on to toes.  It wound up being an intense cool down, but it was really fun to push myself and try to hang on.  3000 meters done.  The first of what I’m sure will be many long swim workouts!

Our final spin class at Crestmont was on Tuesday night.  It was one intense, head bobbing hard workout and I was grinning (or at least making a squishy face) the entire time.  I’m excited to ride outdoors but I will definitely miss the slightly more social aspect of indoor riding.  We typically have a pot luck after our final indoor class, so as we were cooling down Angie’s husband started passing beers out for us.   After we finished up 90 minutes of riding we hopped off the bikes, hung out and chowed down on salad, fruit, cookies, brownies, Nanaimo bars….good stuff! 

Sadly while the calendar says spring, the weather in Calgary says winter.  It has been snowing and cold all week.  The average temperature for this time of year is 15C (59F) so we are definitely below seasonal.  Fingers crossed….hopefully….it looks like things should improve by the weekend…

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…

Spinning Naked = No Fun

I promise, I’m not turning my blog into an adult content one, nor am I talking about some strange training related dream.  Before I get to that though…

I had a 30 minute run on my schedule today.  I already had lunch plans, so I had two options: run early before work or run in the afternoon before spin class.  I did get up early enough to run, but I opted to push the run to the afternoon so I could take advantage of the warmth and sunshine.  For lunch I got together with some girlfriends at Milestones.  Yum, a burger sounded like a good idea.  As I started running that burger felt like a rock sitting in my digestive tract.  Blech.  And with about half a mile left to get back home I was very worried I was going to barf…so I had to do the walk of shame back home.  Total epic fail.  Spin class should be fun, right?

I got to class and set up my bike, chatted with friends, then finally decided to turn my Garmin Edge 305 on and hop on the bike.  Except the welcome screen came on, but then it turned off.  Ack!  I must have forgotten to turn off on Sunday!  Uh oh, so no Garmin to tell me my cadence or heart rate.  Naked spinning!  I grabbed a Suunto heart rate monitor so I could at least see my heart rate up on the screen at the front of the class.  While I think it is good to shed the devices from time to time, when you are spinning indoors those devises are guides to ensure that you are pushing properly, and doing the workout as you are supposed to since workouts are so driven by different cadences.

I still tried to push myself even without my aides.  My stomach was still feeling off the whole time though as I was burping and felt like I was growing a big ol’ gas baby inside my stomach.  In fact, we did some 30 second super high intensity intervals at the end of the workout and I was a little worried.  I think Tara was also a little worried that she was riding next to me for fear that I would barf all over her!  Well, luckily everything stayed down!!  And luckily no weird knee pain on either workout today as well.  Fingers crossed!

So what have I learned?  No burgers within 4-8 hours of a workout…although maybe that is really a no brainer?  :)

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!!

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!!

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!

Keep strong, keep standing.

Tonight’s workout at Bow Cycle was another doozy!  Just when I think that Angie couldn’t find new ways to push us she does!  We had another strength based workout tonight that was based off of standing and surging.  Lots of single leg and a whole lotta standing.  We did a simulated hill climb with 2 minutes of low cadence then a minute standing.  We also did 3 x 3:00 standing intervals.  My legs were shaking!  All said and done it was about 1:45 on the bike.  I was worried I would fall into a crumpled heap on the floor when I tried to get off my bike.  Tomorrow is going to be interesting going up and down stairs!

Often Richelle asks me for song suggestions for spinning class.  Lately she’s had a few good ones, but she hasn’t sent me her list.  I kept my iPhone handy and every time a song came on that I liked I tagged it with the super handy Shazam app.  My friend Kelly was also wanting me to note any songs that she liked.  I’m not one to play around with my phone during exercise but it came in handy at a few points tonight (including updating my FB status as soon as the workout was done…sorry Angie!).

On a completely different note, something strange and weird happened as I was loading my bike into my car before heading to spin class.  My garage door was up and a lady driving a minivan drove around the roundabout outside my house and stopped.  She got out and wondered if she could ask me some questions.  She was wondering if people in my area had kids or not.  She said she was leaving her husband and she thought she could afford a place around here, but she has three kids.  I didn’t really know what to say since I was pretty shocked that she was so forthright.  I chatted with her briefly then wished her luck with her decision.  She told me that, yes, she had to leave because it wasn’t safe for her or the children and she really needed to get out.  I didn’t really know what to say.  If I would have known her I probably could have given her advice but I didn’t know what to say to this stranger that just revealed this to me.  I feel like I maybe dropped the ball here.  I hope she and her family will be okay…  What would you have done?

I left my legs at Bow Cycle

Tonight was spin class at Bow Cycle.  Our group seems to have gotten bigger in the new year as people are keen to get back at it in preparation for outdoor riding.  Tonight’s workout was a serious doozy!  Angie must have had some caffeine before the class or something!

We started with a warm up of a cadence pyramid.  I knew it was going to be a workout when I hit a heart rate on the warm up that I normally only see during the hard parts of a typical workout.

We rolled through some pretty intense hill workouts on the trainer.  We did low cadence, hard gearing for two minutes, then geared down slightly (but only slightly) but kept the effort strong like we were cresting the hill.  We ran through 8 of those and I really pushed it.  It was good stuff!  After that we ran through…what I think was…1:00 hard/2:00 easy.  The gearing was tough during the hard set and we were supposed to push all out.  It was nearly barf inducing!!  Hmm, this is starting to look like a theme for this week!  I rode next to a guy who was there for his first spin class.  Talk about an initiation to Angie’s class!

I’ve got to say I love these low cadence strength type workouts!  I feel like I work really hard on them and that it will help me out once it is time to get back outside and ride!  My legs were toast…it was difficult to pry myself off the couch when I got home in order to go upstairs to the kitchen to get a recovery snack.

Mike had asked what the temperatures are around here these days.  We’ve been really lucky here in Calgary lately and it has been really nice – around the 30 deg range.  There is still a ton of ice and snow around though, even though we haven’t had snow fall around here for a couple of weeks.  It looks like we are in for a slight change in the next few days though…

Stay tuned later this week.  I’m trying something completely new and off the wall for me.  Gulp…I just hope it goes well!!!!  I’m a little nervous…

Working Hard!

Wow, is it really only Tuesday?  Now that January is here I need to be sure I hit my workouts so the game plan at the moment is me getting back in the groove of working out regularly.  I definitely didn’t do enough in December, but its a new year right?  Time to get back on track!

The Run

I had a 30 minute run on the schedule for Monday.  The chinook weather continues here in Calgary so it was another perfect day for a run in capris, a long sleeve and my favourite new jacket.  The legs were a little tired from Sunday’s spin-a-thon but I still managed to crank out a nice 30 minute 5K. 

The Swim

I debated between swimming Monday night and Tuesday morning.  Initially I was pretty keen to swim downtown Monday night just so I can get in the groove of evening swims.  I had to run errands after work though and by the time I made it home I had about half an hour to cook dinner and eat.  Ultimately I didn’t want to be rushed to make it to the pool so I decided to relax and get up at 4:30 am for an early morning swim. 

Can you believe that I just used the words “relax” and “4:30 am” in the same sentence?  Haha!

I tried something new to make sure I wouldn’t sleep through my alarm clock.  I actually have two alarm clocks.  One is a radio that goes off and I wake up to the morning show on the UK’s BBC Radio One thanks to XM Radio.  The second is a really obnoxious and loud Mickey Mouse alarm clock.  I put that alarm clock up on my dresser so that when it went off I would have no choice but to get up and out of bed.  And it worked!  I actually made it to the YMCA five minutes before it even opened.

The swim was a good one.  My workouts involve on focusing on technique a lot.  This would explain the overabundance of one armed drills and 6 kick roll sets.  I sure hope I’m starting to catch on!

The Bike

Spin class tonight was awesome and hard!!  It was a strength night, one of my favourites!  We did some single leg stuff and some super intense pyramids.

• Keep your gearing constant throughout a set of 50 rpm, 60 rpm, 70 rpm and 80 rpm intervals.
• Keep gearing constant and alternate between intervals of 70 rpm and 90 rpm. 

Those things were tough!  All in all I was on the bike for 1:48 and followed it up with 10 minutes of core.  I also tried out a new pair of shorts today, a pair of Cannondale Domestique shorts that I picked up awhile ago.  They were pretty comfy despite the fact that my sit bones were complaining about Sunday’s spin-a-thon…

Tri It’s Charity Spin - a - Thon

Just a little FYI for all my Calgary friends.  Tri It is holding a charity Spin-a-Thon on January 10th.  For details go here. 

Where?

Rundel College
4336 16th Street SW

HOW?

Load up the car on Sunday morning with your bike and bike trainer. Come on down and enjoy the day.

Why?

To help support Jordan Bryden and Janelle Morrison in their pursuit of excellence. Additional funds will be given to development athletes in the community.

Cost?

65.00 gives you the chance to ride

FOOD

Spolumbos Sandwiches will be free to all athletes. Bars, gels, chews, drinks and snacks are all included!

How Do I Register?

Email us to register!
Email: triitspin@gmail.com
or come visit us at the Tri It store!

9am - 12 pm: Spin #1
12pm - 1pm: Break!
1pm- 4pm: Spin #2 (athletes from spin # 1 are welcome to stay)

Really sockin’ it to my legs!

Wow…if my legs weren’t mad at me before after yesterday’s stair workout, they definitely are now!  Tonight’s spin class with Angie was intense!!  We had a big strength night.

14 minutes of single leg exercises.
10 minutes of alternating 30 seconds standing, 30 seconds sitting…simulating a big, long hill climb.
Big gear pyramids – 1:00, teeny rest, 2:00, teeny rest, 3:00 all in a big gear.
2 x 4 minutes at a 40K time trial effort.
1 minute big gear intervals.
Somewhere in there we also fit in some squats off the bike.

It was a tough workout, but I loved every minute of it.  In fact, when we were doing the 30/30 stand/sit exercise Angie looked at her sheet and proclaimed that surely she couldn’t have meant 10 minutes.  Tara and I looked at each other and said that we’ll need to be able to climb for longer than 10 minutes at Ironman Canada, so let’s go for it!  I’m sure some of the folks in my class were shooting daggers my way, but honestly that part of the workout was probably my favourite.  Closely followed by 14 minutes of single leg.

Another one of my favourite parts of the class?  The music!  Every few weeks Richelle e-mails me and asks for spin class song suggestions.  We used one of Richelle’s playlists, and it sounded like a Leana’s greatest hits evening!  If I hadn’t suggested a particular song to Richelle there was a 99% chance that I had that song on my iPod already.  I was singing and bobbing my head the entire class.  It was awesome!!  What was on the playlist?

Darude – Sandstorm (taking me back to 2001…), Kevin Rudolph – Welcome to the World, Does It Offend You, Yeah? – Dawn of the Dead, Guru Josh – Infinity, Black Eyed Peas – I Gotta Feeling, The Watchmen – Stereo

…and plenty more that are slipping my mind at the moment… 

And now if you’ll excuse me, I have to attempt to crawl up the stairs to get to bed!

Flats of another kind

Tuesday night = Tuesday night spin at Bow Cycle with Angie!  Except tonight it just wasn’t meant to be!!!  I’m off to Edmonton for work tomorrow so I had to pick up a pool vehicle before heading home.  It is a pretty wicked Dodge Caravan…*cough, cough*  When I got the vehicle the low tire pressure warning light was on.  By the time I dealt with that and made it home it would have been tough to change, load up the bike and make it to Bow.  Instead I set my bike up on the trainer in my garage and ran through a great workout with a little bit of everything – single leg, high cadence and low cadence stuff.

If I learned anything tonight though, it is that if I got a bigger vehicle I’d have less space in my garage to spin!  It was a really tight squeeze next to that Caravan!

**And, just in case you were wondering…Debbie called my pumpkin and butternut squash dal in the top three of all the dishes I’ve made for her so far.  Woohoo!  I’d definitely recommend that you give it a try!

Bringing back the lunch run

It has been a good week so far, and a really busy one at that!  I felt like a little old lady on Monday as I was super stiff and sore from Sunday’s hike.  A recovery run ought to do the trick, right?  Reminder to self, do not attempt to gather running clothes together prior to 5:30 am before rushing out the door for work.  I gathered what I thought were running capris, a long sleeve and a short sleeve tech top.  In reality I accidently grabbed winter running tights from the laundry hamper instead of capris.  I realized my error just before leaving on my run so I had two options: wear the tights and be overheated…or I had a pair of blue Adidas soccer shorts that I keep in my filing cabinet for physio.  I opted for the shorts.  And just in case you were wondering, Jergens original scent body lotion is an acceptable substitution for Body Glide on short runs.  Who knew?

I met up with Kelly over lunch for a great 30 minute run.  Our paces are different, but I wanted to take it easy so we wound up running together.  It worked out really well as I got a recovery run and Kelly got a tempo run in, plus the company was great!

Tuesday night was our second spin session out at Bow.  It was high cadence night…not normally my most favourite thing, but I actually really enjoyed the workout.  Being around the team and chatting with friends, some of whom I haven’t seen in ages, really set the stage for a great time on the bike.  This was my second time trying out my cadence sensor indoors on the bike.  I turned off the GPS function so that it would calculate my speed based off of the sensor instead…and I have no idea what went wrong but it figured I was averaging 4.2 mph???  I know my wheel size has been calibrated within the Forerunner so I’m a bit stumped as to why my speed and distance calcs are so off.  Hmmm…. 

Kelly and I met up today for another run over lunch.  We both had 45 minutes on the schedule so we decided to do an out and back so we could start and finish together.  We wished each other good luck and I took off.  My legs were tired from last night’s spin but a little speed was feeling pretty good.  I ran west along the river and almost made it to Tri-It before I had to turn around.  On my way back there was a girl up ahead in a black and white lululemon jacket and I made it my mission to pass her.  Nothing like finding a little incentive out there!  I caught up with Kelly right at the 46 minute mark.  Another excellent run in the books!

On tap for tomorrow is a swim on my own at the Y.  I feel like I’ve been learning a lot from Richelle and Angie at swim class in Cochrane on Monday nights.  I really need to make sure I get my second swim of the week in, otherwise I feel like I take one step forward and two steps back as it takes me awhile to remember all the little tweaks I have to keep in mind.  After all, this is the time to be working on technique, right?

I hope everyone had a great Wednesday!!

How to ramp up the mojo for winter training

This week did not get off to a good start.  My brain hurts and I’m feeling a little overstretched.  Work stuff…absolutely nothing to do with training.  I think my brain is only capable of handling so many things and it did not feel like handling training.  I fixed my flat on Monday night and knew my heart was not up for a swim.  So I called it a night early, woke up early and got cracking at the office by 6:30 am.  By the end of the day I was starting to wonder where my mojo was for our first indoor trainer session at Bow Cycle.

I have the best teammates and friends.  I e-mailed Tara and told her that I needed a kick in the pants.  She told me that I needed to show up so that I could show her my spiffy new aero bars and so that she could show me her new hair.  Her e-mail cracked me up and if nothing else I knew I was looking forward to catching up with her.

I rolled into Bow and set my bike up.  As my friends came in they all congratulated me on my shiny new PR at the Thanksgiving 10K.  Thanks guys!  I haven’t seen a lot of these folks since the Ironman Canada weekend and just seeing their smiling faces was starting to bring the mojo back.

And then I talked to my friend Kelly…and she signed up for Ironman Canada, as did our friend Mike!  I’m super excited that these two are racing IMC next year too.  I can’t wait to get in some bike training with Kelly as we prepare for our first Ironman!

As for the workout?  It was pretty good.  My butt needs to toughen up to the saddle again I think.  Painful!!  Oh well, an hour and a half done on the trainer, plus some core…and a rejuvenated spirit.  Then home for some hot chocolate with marshmallows.  Now off to bed!!

Final Indoor Spin! (hopefully!)

This week I have no scheduled workouts. Whatever I do is up to me! I'll be taking it easy, but I won't be taking it off completely. Recovery is going well. I wasn't feeling too stiff and sore for the most part, but I did have a big knot in my right calf. I went in for some ART today to take care of it and it is feeling infinitely better.

Awesome swim this morning! I had a tough time falling asleep last night and thought that my 4:30 wake up might be tough. My eyes snapped open as soon as the alarm went off though, so it was no problem making it to the pool on time. The two super speedy guys weren't there today, so I swam with three other ladies in the lane. It was nice - we worked hard, but it wasn't some crazy, all out speedfest the entire time. The focus was an endurance swim and I felt strong and efficient in the water. 2200m done.

Tonight was also our last indoor spin class -- hopefully -- this evening. We had a one hour session, then followed it up with a pot luck. Since I raced the Police Half on Sunday I had permission to to take it easy since the legs are still recovering. Hanging out with my teammates after the class was awesome. You can tell that we are all ready and raring to go for training outside and racing triathlons. I feel very lucky to be a part of such a wonderful and supportive group of people!

Thanks for all of your congratulations on my race...and thanks for all of your supportive words about my break up with Beef. I'm going to miss Beef...but I'm pretty sure it is for the best. I've been doing a lot of thinking about nutrition lately, so this is just one step in the process!

Canucks Sweep!!

I thought it might be a long night as the Canucks and Blues looked destined to head to second overtime, but the Canucks pulled out a win with 14 seconds left to go! Woo hoo!! My favourite team are into round 2!!!

Last night I went to bed a bit earlier and the little bit of extra sleep threw me since I first woke up at 3:17 am?!? I was up and out of bed when the alarm went off and into the pool right on time at 5:40. We ran through an interesting set that alternated 4 x 50 drills and 2 x decreasing 150s. I liked the 50 drills because it was pretty darn easy to hold on, but I'm finding it tough to continually bust my ass on the longer sets and I keep getting dropped. I look at my old lane and I know that lane is too slow for me. I'm just hoping that something clicks and it is going to be less of a struggle to hang on...

I had a mini-debate in my head this evening. Stay home and watch the hockey game or go to spin class? I was good and DVRed the game and took off for spin class. This was our second to last indoor session so that meant another tough workout. We did some gear pyramids, some hard efforts and a 15 minute simulated hilly time trial. Followed by an all out, gut busting session of pace line. I was downing the water but the high heart rate workout meant that my stomach was supremely unhappy with anything I threw in there. Luckily I made it through without an unfortunate incidents though! I hopped off the bike, stretched and skipped core to make it home for the rest of the hockey game.

Alright, time to head off to bed since I have an early morning! Night all!!

Spin Ups Paid Off!

It looks like the consensus seems to be Body Glide is required to help prevent chaffing from a heart rate monitor strap. I'll probably poke around Team Estrogen a bit to see if any of there are any other bras out there that might be worth a try though. I bailed on riding with a heart rate monitor at spin class tonight. I think it is going to be at least a week before this little bit of chaffing manages to clear up so I'll have to get over knowing one less number for all of my workouts for a bit. Angie worked us hard at spin class as we went through a bunch of low cadence strength sets. My legs were ready to work though! I am sure that yesterday's spin up session helped to clear up any remaining lactic acid in the legs so I was feeling pretty strong on the bike tonight.

Hmm, what else... I'm thinking...hoping...that I am in for good with the faster kids at swimming. I love having them push me, but I am noticing that my form gets completely shot by the end of the class as I tire out. There was a little bit of drama this morning as one lady wanted to do her own thing which included passing the group as we were all turning at the wall. It got a little messy...probably not the best time to pass... And it will make my friend Angry happy, I tried the butterfly stroke for the first time today!

And finally, here's a question for my triathlete buddies out there. One of my girlfriends wants to prepare for her first tri this summer. She wants to race the Strathmore Women's Triathlon. She asked me if I could point her in the right direction for a training plan. I looked at the freebie ones on Beginner Triathlete and they all looked pretty interesting. Does anyone else have any other places to look for some good, beginner friendly sprint triathlon plans?

Tuesday Wrap Up

I have a little bit to say about a lot of things...so...here goes another bullet point post!

• So far I seem to be adapting to the 4:30 wake up call a whole lot better now that I'm in week two. I woke up straight away and was at my swim class on time. I asked Rhonda if I should move up a lane today. She asked if I wanted to push myself and I got a bit nervous...er...ummmm...yes..?? She thought that was a terrific idea so I hopped in a lane with four speedier folks. The best thing about the workout was that everyone in the lane worked together. We stayed on the same sets and took turns pulling. I now understand what people are talking about when they say that they swam so hard their arms almost fell off. Yeah...that felt like me today! Thankfully we were running short sets, but...whew...anything with some longer sets and I think I may have trouble keeping up. But it was great to push myself!
• Angie had another tough bike workout for us this evening. Lots of 2:00 hard sets. I was having a tough time getting into my big chain ring a few times. Angie's husband Ken took a look and the only way to get into the big ring in the front by the end of the class was to be all the way in my smallest ring in the back. So...I'll have to go back to Bow and get it tweaked because that is annoying! It will be a simple fix though! I also forgot my bike computer at home so I was cycling blind. It is amazing how you start to rely on a tiny bit of machinery after awhile. And despite the rest day yesterday my legs were trashed... Weird...
  
• Angie raced Oceanside this weekend and she got a spot for Clearwater!!! Congratulations Angie, I'm so happy for you!!!
• I'm a winner! Angela at Oh She Glows was holding a giveaway for POM Wonderful and I won! That stuff is fantastic so I can't wait to make good use of my coupons. Thanks Angela!

• Everyone has been talking about their favourite nut butters all over the place. One that hasn't gotten a mention is Peanut Butter & Co. I found their peanut butter at Community Natural Foods here in Calgary and I picked up a jar of Cinnamon Raisin Swirl. Now I understand why people like to eat peanut butter directly out of the jar by the spoonful! This stuff is great with my hot cereal in the mornings, or spread on an apple. I can't wait to try some of their other flavours.
• Tonight my dad asked me what was in the tea I was drinking yesterday... I don't know Dad, but I actually wound up returning it today. I got a bag of Russian Caravan instead - a black tea that tastes nice and smoky. Yummy stuff!
• Holy exclamation points Batman! I counted 17 exclamation points in this post...but it is just after 10:00 pm so there is a good chance I miscounted. Still, that is a whole lot of exclaiming! (Okay, make that 18...) Anyhow, I need to head to bed.

Have a great Wednesday everyone!

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!

Substitute Teacher

Last night Richelle e-mailed me - "Help! I need a few more songs for spinning tomorrow night!"
Spinning with Richelle is always fun since I love the majority of the songs on her playlist (especially since she’s always asking me for new ideas for songs to add).  Angie was out of town so Richelle was filling in for her.  I think when Angie is away she worries that we’ll slack off so she always creates crazy difficult workouts for us to do.  Tonight was no exception, since this was apparently Angie’s hardest workout to date!  We had some long, hard intervals to do.  We ramped up from 3 x 1:00 to 3 x 2:00 to 3 x 4:00, then backed down to some short hard sprints at 3 x 0:30 and 3 x 0:15.  1:36 on the bike.  Good stuff!  Afterwards Richelle put us through a tough core workout.  The kicker was when we had to lie on our back, feet up in the air, and we had to spell out “Why are workouts always so hard when Angie is away?” with out feet.

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In totally unrelated news (and “news” is debatable), I fell asleep on my couch on Friday night.  I woke up at 2 am to videos playing on Much Music.  One from City and Colour was playing, and this is one of my new favourite songs:

If you are a fan of Death Cab, The Tragically Hip or Rilo Kiley then this is worth checking out.