Showing posts with label triathlon group. Show all posts
Showing posts with label triathlon group. Show all posts

Thursday, February 25, 2010

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! DSCN2845 DSCN2846
    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!!

Friday, September 5, 2008

A New Chapter

So...exciting times are ahead my friends. One of the reasons why I didn't want to continue with boot camp was because I wanted to leave more time for cycling and swimming, plus leave me some more free time in the evenings to unwind. I figure with being home a bit more I can focus on my nutrition which I still know is one of my downfalls. Because I was always running in and out the door it was far too easy to call it an Edo night for dinner this summer. I'm surprised that the girls in the restaurant didn't see me and immediately spit out "combo number one with extra veggies and extra sauce, right?" as soon as I walked into the place.
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Anyhow, this fall I want to focus on swimming and cycling more (and still running). Plus I have some big goals for next year's racing season so I thought it was time to stop trying to do everything on my own and look for some support. One of my coworkers is a triathlon coach for the YMCA in a different part of town and he's pretty familiar with all the coaches and teams out there in Calgary. He gave me the name of someone who would push me hard in a supportive team atmosphere. I wanted supportive, not competitive, and someone who cared about technique in their athletes. Last night I finally a chance to sit down and chat with coach about where I've been and where I want to go and I'm really excited. When we talked about my marathon time at Quebec versus my PRs for a 5K/10K/half marathon she got really excited about how much room I have to improve my marathon time come January. I spend most of my runs at the same easy pace and I'm pretty bad for trying to push myself hard on my own. With a little direction and a group setting I know I'll be able to push to run faster and to train at a higher intensity rate to see results. Let's be honest, I've been running for awhile now so I think it is time to strive for some improvement. Where this is all going, well, we'll see. But I'm looking forward to being a part of a group and taking my training to a new level.