Changing up the scenery

This morning I met my friend Pam for a run.  We are both racing the Last Chance Half next month so getting a long run in together seemed like a good idea.  Plus Pam has two dogs that like to run and need a lot of exercise.  Perfect!

We met up at the Eau Claire Y.  It was sunny but pretty brisk.  Nice in the sun, but it is definitely cooler in the mornings around here!  Pam suggested running eastward towards the zoo and Inglewood which would be new scenery for me.  Let’s go!  We started along the north side of the Bow River and made our way to the zoo.  At first we were following a 4:1 plan but I found we were getting in a groove so I lengthened the run intervals out a bit.  When we hit the zoo we crossed the river and made our way into Inglewood.  Such pretty houses!  New pathways I had never been on before!  At times it can be a little sketch so I’m not sure I would run here on my own, but with Pam and the dogs it was good.  We continued back along the south side of the river, past Fort Calgary.  I discovered a cute place – Deane House Restaurant – for brunch and lunch.All in all, it was a great run.  The company was great and it was nice to be out enjoying the sunshine and seeing new parts of my town.  1:15 run, done!

After that Pam and I grabbed a coffee and then I made my way over to the Eau Claire Y.  I had a little business to take care of.  Cancelling my membership.  I put my membership on hold until November 1st, but that was as long as I could put it on hold for.  I’m not planning on swimming for awhile so this seemed like the right decision.  I can’t keep a membership at the gym downstairs at work and at the Y at the same time.  So…I’m sticking with the gym downstairs for awhile to keep up with strength training and Friday yoga!

Taper Time!?

Well, after a major case of the “I don’t wanna’s” last week…I survived. 

After my trip and fall on Thursday I felt like I’d been hit by a truck on Friday.  My entire upper body was stiff and sore.  Discomfort in my ribs (from where my heart rate monitor strap likely pushed into my body on impact) made it painful to cough and I was unable to sneeze.  A sharp intake of air was uncomfortable enough that it would stop a sneeze in its tracks.  Given all of that I opted not to swim that day as things just hurt too much.

I did survive our final 180K ride though!  The ride started out as a bit of a gong show.  We were planning on riding Highwood Pass, however more than one person told us we were crazy for attempting that route – with so much climbing – on an already hard day.  On Friday night we made the call to ride closer to Calgary instead.  We didn’t have a specific route in mind, just places to go.  We broke the ride up into chunks – a 50 km out and back to Springbank Airport, 30K out to Bragg Creek, another 10K out to Elbow Falls, return to Calgary and ride the 50 km out and back again.  This helped me to not focus on the entire distance and just think of the ride in smaller pieces.  It is the strongest mentally I have felt on a long ride so far this summer.

On Sunday I finally got that 4000 m swim in.  It actually went pretty well.  It was boring…but I survived.

And now we taper!!!!!  (If you can consider that a 14 hour training week versus a 16 hour training week is tapering….)

Stomping through the weekend

Wow, what a weekend!  I hope you guys all had great ones!

On Friday I did my longest…swim…ever!  I had a 4000 m swim on tap.  It was a great workout of 3 x 400 m, 3 x 300 m, 3 x 200 m, 3 x 100 m, plus a warm up and cool down.  Having all the little sets broke the swim up and I didn’t feel like it was that long.  The workout called for me to swim at IM pace and take 10 seconds between each 100, 1:00 or rest between each set.  I decided to bag bits of rest and just swim straight through.  The whole swim went really well!

After the swim was over it was time for my one and only Stampede related event of the year – the Oxford Stomp.  The Stomp is a private function that brings in some big named acts and you get a concert, beef on a bun with coleslaw, baked beans and fruit salad.  This year Steven Page (formerly of the Barenaked Ladies) and Blue Rodeo were playing.  I love Blue Rodeo, they truly are an iconic Canadian band.  They put on a great show, plus I even got to meet the lead singer after the show.  Such a fun evening!

Saturday dawned bright and early.  160K ride out in the mountains planned!  Kelly, Tara, Ally and I met up just outside of Canmore in Harvie Heights.  We rode along Highway 1, through the Banff park gates, past Banff, then slipped on to the Bow Valley Parkway toward Lake Louise.  I just swapped out my rear cassette of a 12/25 with a 12/27 earlier this week, so I was keen to see how the hills would feel.  The swap was recommended by my coach to give a couple of easier gears for IMC so my legs don’t get so trashed on the bike.  Swapping out the rear cassette is a much cheaper option than switching out for a compact crank.  I felt great on the hills and I’m definitely glad I made the switch.

I was also trying some new stuff for nutrition.  I had a peanut butter and jam sandwich in the morning for breakfast.  I carried 4 bottles of Infinit with me.  I also had pretzels and a Flat Out Wrap with peanut butter and jam inside.  I brought a banana with me, but I never really felt like eating it.  I think the pretzels and the peanut butter wrap were great and I’m going to continue working with them for nutrition on the bike.

We lucked out with a fantastic day in the mountains.  The weather was beautiful!  We also saw a fox and some big horn sheep along the ride (but unfortunately no pictures of either).  The 160K went really well.  I started feeling a bit uncomfortable around 140K as we pedalled into a headwind, but otherwise I tried to be really mindful of keeping my shoulders down and arms relaxed and it paid off in the end. 

On Sunday I had a long run of sorts to do.  The left leg/hip/knee is feeling better, but there was no way I was going to put it through a 2.5 hour run, especially the day after riding 160K.  I started from the Y and ran a nice 33 minute loop outside and felt great.  Then I popped inside to finish things up with 2 hours on the elliptical.  Wow, that is a long time to be on a stationary piece of equipment!  Have you seen treadmills and ellipticals lately though?  They have come a long way!  The one I was on had a jack to plug your iPod into so you could manage your tunes directly through the elliptical’s screen, plus you can see how your distance equates to you running around a track or an island.

Yes, I am pretty sure the guy next to me thought I was nuts for taking pictures of the screen, but you gotta do what you can to keep yourself entertained!  The 2 hours was mind-numbingly painful and all I could think about for the last hour was how I really wanted a burger when this was all over, but I made it through.  Fingers crossed that I’ll be able to do my long run outside this week for I fear that the novelty of the flashy elliptical screen will wear off soon…

Swim/Bike/Run Thoughts for the Week

Swim:

I have not been a good little swimmer for most of June.  I didn’t realize it, but I’ve been averaging one trip to the pool a week this month.  Except for this week!  I got in all three of my swims this week – 2800 m on Wednesday, 3500 m on Friday and another 1800 m on Saturday.  The 3500 m swim was great.  I swam consistently the whole way through.  There were no drills, no pull, no paddles, no kick.  Just swim.  Surprisingly I wasn’t bored, but that may have been because I had to pee so badly I was concentrating more on making sure my bladder didn’t burst!

For Saturday’s swim I got there and the only lane with no one in it was the fast lane.  OK, well I’m not fast, but I decided to go for it anyway.  As the swim went on floaters would come in and jump into the medium speed lanes, then hang out and chat at the edge of the pool.  I guess you don’t have to be fast, but if you show up with a lot of pool toys you look serious!  Unless of course someone who is actually fast shows up…

Bike:

On Thursday I had a two hour ride to take care of.  The weather has been so crazy here in the evenings – warm and sunny during the day, showers and thunderstorms in the evening.  I was really hoping I’d be able to make it for two hours without the weather turning.  In addition some of the team was getting together for a time trial workout later in the evening.  Kelly also volunteered to keep me company for part of my ride.  I did a quick loop through Bearspaw, met up with Kelly and did another quick loop before meeting up with Angie and the team.  Their plan was to ride a time trial out 1A from the edge of Calgary to Cochrane, then coming back along some quieter country roads.  Most of the team was still warming up.  I wanted to do the route, but not the time trial, so we took off ahead of the team and vowed to try and stay ahead of them the entire time.  The winds were getting crazy!!!  We had one heck of a headwind out along 1A so I don’t know how the time trial went for everyone else out there.  If I had pedaled as hard as I could and if I had pedaled any slower I would have been going backwards!  Once we turned off of 1A we got to feel those winds as a crosswind.  Wow, I’ve never had my bike blown around so much before and it was a little scary!  We turned another corner and now we had a tail wind and just booked it!  That was fun.  Luckily I made my 2 hour ride in before the heavens opened up.

Run:

This has been a bit of a cutback week for running in anticipation of the Great White North half Iron distance triathlon next weekend.  Short with lots of intensity.  Half marathon pace intervals on Wednesday, and 1 minute hard intervals on Friday.  My calves were super tight after the Wednesday intervals and the fire drill, but luckily they felt good while running.  The 1 minute intervals went fairly well but my stomach was really acting up.  I made it through the intervals but by the time I made it to the cool down I had to walk as my stomach just couldn’t handle running.  Wow, what is up with my digestive system??  I’m hoping I can really figure this out…

IMC Prep Camp – Day 2

Day 2 dawned on our IMC prep camp.  I hadn’t swum since my race the weekend before so I was keen to hit up the pool.  I also had a 90 minute run on the schedule.  Originally I would have like to run part of the IMC run course.  We had ridden part of the run course on Friday and the shoulders disappear as you run along the lake.  Given that we were getting honked at on our bikes a run didn’t seem like a great idea.

I suggested running along the Mission Creek Greenway instead in Kelowna.It is one of my favourite routes to run there!  We wanted to knock out our swim first though, so our first stop was H2O Aquatics.  H2O is an amazing facility.  It has a 50m pool that is divided into 25m at points in the day, has a hot tub, wave runner, floating river, wave pool and three water slides and gym facilities.  We paid a daily drop in fee and knocked out a swim.  I ran through 2000m while the pool was open for 50m, most of it just with a pull buoy as I didn’t want to tucker my legs out too much.  We showered, changed, then ran to the green way.  My legs were pooped and after the first mile I let Ally go on.  I thought I would run one mile and walk for a minute, then repeat.  At 45 min I prepared to turn around, but I saw this guy: He was pretty big, so I think it may be a beaver?  I also downed my first Jet Blackberry Gu and it was pretty tasty!  When I turned around the legs perked up and my speed started dropping.  I was feeling great!  I wound up running for a total of 9 miles back to the H2O. 

After the run was done we met up with the boyfriend for a little cross training fun at the pool.  Water slides!!  Seriously, I wonder if I can count those hours as cross training?  For a long weekend the facility was fairly quiet and we had a great time testing out the water slides, floating down the river with a noodle and jumping off diving boards.  Afterward?  I was completely zonked!  There were initial talks of driving the rest of the IMC bike course and going for an open water swim but no one was too keen to go anywhere.  Instead we took it easy at my parents’ place, plotting our big ride for tomorrow and getting our nutrition sorted out.  Sunday it would be time to do a little more IMC bike course exploring!

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…

Monday Musings

Does it ever feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day?  That was my Monday.  I have a big presentation I’m working on for next week.  I got to work early so I could leave early to swim, but I just didn’t feel like I was in a place to leave when 3 pm rolled around.  Instead I put the back up plan into effect - the 9 pm swim class in Cochrane.  Except I also had a lot to accomplish at home including laundry.  My tax return (very important). 

And a little bike maintenance. 

The Cervelo went into the shop yesterday for a tune up and won’t be ready for pick up until Wednesday.  I needed to get my road bike ready to ride at spin class tomorrow as it has basically been sitting dormant in my garage since early November.  By the time my tax return was done and filed it was 8:20 pm.  I had 10 minutes to make a decision – swim or fix up the bike.

I opted to fix up the bike as I knew there wouldn’t be enough time to do it before spin class tomorrow.  I still feel guilty about not swimming and there is no time this week to make it up.  Oh well…

All of your comments to my Three Things Thursday post gave me a good chuckle.  22 pairs of shoes at work is a lot, I know!  They all go inside one of the drawers of my large filing cabinet at work, along with some body spray and baby wipes for days when it is a little hot over my lunch time run.  22 pairs of shoes doesn’t even begin to approach the total number of shoes I own though as I haven’t counted how many I have at home!  I blame my genes (my mom loves her shoes too!) and years of watching What Not to Wear while living in close proximity to DSW and an Aldo outlet.

Oh, and Rock Star, they are all briefs.  Every single one of them.

Get used to it!

On Sunday I had a 90 minute run on my schedule.  I met up with Tara at Edworthy early in order to knock it out.  Tara was keen for company so I was more than happy to oblige.  As soon as we got going I could tell my legs were flat.  The worst part is, as we headed out we had a tail wind and my legs just weren’t coming around.  Oh well, it has been quite a busy set of training, including some tough hill repeats on Thursday so I guess I’m not surprised.  I told Tara that I’d be perfectly fine with turning around early, so 30 minutes in we headed back and now into the wind. 

What is it with running in the wind?  When you have a tail wind it feels so calm around you.  You run into the wind and you can’t hear anything!  How come it is so different in two different directions?

While I never fully got that jump going in my legs they did start to feel better and I just didn’t want to call it quits one hour in.  We ran to our cars, took a quick bathroom break, then headed out just a bit further to make for a 1:20 run.  We both had places to be soon thereafter so 1:20 was all that was possible.

Angie told me that during Ironman training there will be a lot of workouts where I just don’t feel great.  Welcome to Ironman training!  As I’ll be tired a lot of the time I’ll have to get used to it!  Luckily this week is fairly light in anticipation of the Police Half Marathon this weekend.

Later in the afternoon I hit up the pool for a swim – a 1500m race distance swim, followed by some sprints and a cool down.  I worked to be very mindful of my wrists, keeping them straight throughout my stroke.  As I kept swimming it felt more and more natural.  I did a couple of stroke counts but no real change there, nor on my pace with this technique modification.  I’m sure as I keep it up I’ll start to see some changes soon!

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…

It’s go time!

I just started into a new block of training and you can definitely tell that things are ramping up.  Three swims, three bikes, and four runs.  Things are about to get busy, but I’m excited about the upcoming challenges.  I also feel like a switch has flipped inside me and I am hungry…all…the…time…  Interesting..!!

On Monday I went to the pool over my lunch break to knock out a 2300 m balance swim.  The workout included a lot of drills – head lead kick on my right side, head lead kick on my left side, six kick roll and three kick roll.  On my way to the pool I texted Angie to see if I could use flippers for my drill set and luckily she gave me the go ahead.  I managed to get to the pool before it got really busy and the workout went really well.  Well, up until the very end of it where I started to develop a rather massive headache.  I cut the last 100 m off the workout, and the headache never truly went away for the rest of the day.  Fun times…  But headache aside I felt really positive about my swim and I’m loving this early lunch swim!

Tuesday is normally spin night with Angie, but the community hall that we are spinning at accidentally double booked the building for tonight.  We had the option to spin indoors, or we could meet at Edworthy to ride hill repeats.  I have to admit that I was actually pretty excited about the prospect of hill repeats outside.  Crazy!  Despite it being 7C (45F) it was very windy, quite cold and it looked like the heavens were about to open up.  The beauty of riding at Edworthy is that you are never too far from your car in case the weather changes.  As I started getting prepped in the parking lot I turned on my Garmin Edge 305…and beep…then nothing.  Two weeks in a row of a dead battery for Tuesday rides?  Seriously?  I don’t know if I accidentally left the unit on again or if there is something wrong with my battery.  Hmm, going to have to keep an eye on it…and to test it before leaving the house again!

Oh well, back to the Timex and on to the ride.  Despite the threatening weather there were quite a few folks riding the hill.  For the most part road conditions were good although there was one section on the downhill side with a large patch of gravel.  I set a goal for myself to knock out 6 hill repeats.  I felt good and strong on the hill – I was passed sometimes, and sometimes I passed people.  I’m still a chicken on the downhills though!

St. Patrick’s Bullet Points

• I swam over lunch on Monday.  Well, it kind of wound up being a “just before” lunch swim.  I was in the pool a minute or two after 11:00 in an attempt to miss some of the major lunch rush.  My swim went fairly well, and it was really nice to have that workout taken care of sooner rather later.  My workout was allowed to vary between 1800 and 2500m, but I had to err on the side of shorter as I had to make it back to work.
• Calgary was forecasted to reach a high of 19C on Tuesday.  That’s 66F, which is on the verge of summer!  What to wear on my lunch run??  I thought about packing a tank top, but I opted for a short sleeve shirt, and the option of shorts or capris.  As lunch neared the sun was still firmly behind clouds.  In fact, it even looked like it was going to rain.  Dare I say it, but a cloudy 10C in capris and short sleeves doesn’t feel nearly as nice as 3C and sunny!!  Oh well, my 30 minute run was a good one regardless.
• Spin class continues to go really well.  Every single workout is a new experience in pushing myself on the trainer.  My legs are absolutely bagged from our power based workout on Tuesday!
• Today called for a 30-45 minute easy spin and a swim.  The only time to get the spin in is after work.  Unfortunately I had some errands to run first – Wal-Mart and Best Buy.  I spent five minutes staring at the various bleaches and stain removers trying to find colour safe bleach.  Then all of a sudden I clued in that the Javex 2 Stain Fighter and Colour Booster really is colour safe bleach…it just doesn’t exactly say it.  Yeah…I felt smart!
• As for Best Buy, I was on a mission to pick up The Princess and the Frog.  I wasn’t sure whether to get the DVD or Blu-Ray version.  Did you know that there is a coupon for $10 off the Blu-Ray and DVD combo pack?  It expires March 21.  Decision made, combo pack purchased.
• I ate dinner, then set up my bike in the garage for my spin and watched the first two episodes of Modern Family.  Have you seen this show at all?  Hilarious!!
• Sadly by the time this was all done there was no time to make swimming.  Seriously…where does the time go?  And how am I going to fit all of this in when IM training gets more intense?  Maybe I’m going to need to work on getting back into my early morning swims.
• Truthfully, I’ve been finding it so hard to get up in the mornings.  When I saw Sun Safety Barbie’s post on her new favourite app, the Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock, I knew I needed to download it.  I’m curious to see if and how this works.  Maybe this will be the key to me waking up more rested!

Working Lunches

I feel like I’m in a bit of no man’s land when it comes to finding the time to swim.  Early mornings just aren’t working and I’m still finding nights difficult. 

9:00 pm is definitely the witching hour for me!  In university I had to quit studying at 9 as I just couldn’t comprehend things anymore.  Going to the movies after 9 pm?  I will, without a doubt, fall asleep.  Talk to me on the phone and I feel like I’m having difficulty holding up my end of the conversation. 

So yesterday I gave lunch swimming another go.  It was a great way to break up the day and my swim went really well.  Loved it!  It does take quite a chunk out of the day (15 minute walk each way, plus the one hour workout and the time to shower and get ready).  Thankfully we do have some flexibility in our hours at work, so it is great to know that a lunch swim can be a great backup plan.

In other lunch workout news I met up with Kelly to knock out a 30 minute run today.  I wanted to test out my legs to see if they still knew how to run sub-10 minute miles.  Luckily they responded and the run in the sun was great!  I have my first race of the season on Saturday – the St. Patrick’s Day 10K – so I wanted to push the pace a tiny bit more than I have in the last few weeks.  I’m not expecting a PR on Saturday, but I think I should be able to crank out a half decent time.

Who else is going to be racing with me on Saturday? :)

Starting the week off…

Well, this week did not exactly get off to the best start!  After the gold medal hockey game on Sunday I was downstairs in my basement and noticed a puddle of water off of my hot water tank.  Uh oh.  My house is only 6 years old so I was surprised that I may have a failing piece of equipment.

Cue much frustration with a plumber and my hot water tank manufacturer all day Monday.  Luckily there isn’t a problem with my hot water tank, but with my humidifier.Calgary’s water is really hard, so it caused deposits within the humidifier that affected the water level float.  The float stopped working and the humidifier just kept filling up and up and up.  It then overflowed and started dripping onto the hot water tank.  Luckily the problem is a really easy one to fix (as opposed to the plumber who barely looked at it and told me I needed a new one for $680).  Come on people, don’t assume that you can pull a manoeuvre like that one on me!

By the time the great water leak debacle was sorted out I developed a massive headache that only got worse as I watched Jake the Bachelor pick Vienna, who then slow danced to a live version of “On the Wings of Love.”  I honestly thought I might be ill after that!  (By the way, if you do watch that show I highly recommend the recap that I linked to!)  Anyhow, with that massive headache there was definitely no going to the pool!  Yikes, not getting the week off to the best start…

Today I had a 30 minute run on the schedule.  Considering that the forecasted high was 8C I was pretty excited for this run!  But as I looked out the window before lunch it was foggy, almost like it was snowing.  And it was actually colder at lunch than when I had driven into work in the morning!  I definitely had not packed for that kind of weather!!  Oh well, at least I had spin class to go to tonight!!

Family Day Long Weekend

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

Saturday

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

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

Sunday

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

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

Monday

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

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

Lunch Swimming?

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

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

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

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

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!!

A Perfect Monday

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

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

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

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…

Negatives

Wow, it is January 9th and I’m still sitting here and looking at my Christmas tree.  I’ve got the boxes ready to start putting the ornaments back in, I just haven’t quite gotten around to it.  Hmm, maybe tomorrow with any luck!

Today was quite possibly the perfect Saturday.  Although my alarm went off at 6:30 I wasn’t quite ready to get up.  Finally at 9:30 I tore myself away from the covers, made some breakfast and relaxed watching the final Pirates of the Caribbean movie.  After lounging around for awhile I finally got ready to head out and tackle my workouts for the day.  Yesterday a chinook blew into town so it was a fantastic 6C out.  I decided to run downtown along the river.  It makes the most sense at this time of the year because the city is really good about clearing snow from the pathways throughout the winter.  Running around the neighbourhood can be a bit treacherous as not everyone clears the snow from their walkways (or clears very well) and often it will partially melt then ice over.

My general rule of thumb is that if we are above 0C then I aim to wear capri tights.  I threw those on, a long sleeve tech shirt, and my new favourite jacket.  My run was scheduled for 45 minutes and as soon as I got going I had a feeling it was going to be a good one.  My pace was feeling easy even though I was running into the wind.  The scenery was amazing…I really ought to take my camera with me one of these days.  All of the snow and ice on top of the Bow River is so pretty.  I hit my turn around point before I knew it, and then I was running with the wind at my back.  It must have really helped to push me along as my pace started to drop yet it still felt easy.  I managed a pretty nice negative split and all in all had an excellent run!  Gotta love those days when it actually feels almost easy…

After the run I went into the YMCA, exchanged the running gear for a swimsuit and hopped in the pool for an 1800 meter workout.  It was fairly quiet and I managed to have a lane to myself for almost my entire workout.  The workout really focused on technique as I ran through some single arm drills, finger tip drills and 6 kick roll drills.  Between each drill set I’d have a 200m swim set that I needed to try and negative split while I focused on the technique that each drill tried to teach me.  First off, I have to say that 4 x 50m of single arm…with 50m of single left, 50m of single right…I’m surprised the lifeguards didn’t come over to ask me if I was okay swimming!  Sputter, sputter…try not to drown!  But on the plus side, I managed to negative split every set that I was supposed to.  Good times!

Yup, a great day of workouts.  Hope everyone’s weekend is going well!

Exploring Sydney Pools

When I was searching for places to swim before visiting Sydney there was one thing that was immediately clear.  There is no shortage of pools to choose from.  Indoor, outdoor, tidal pools, you name it, Sydney has it. 

Thanks to some yucky weather on Boxing Day I figured that the underground pool at the Cook + Phillip Park Aquatic Center would be my best bet on Boxing Day.  The weather improved a bit around New Year’s, so it was time to scope out some outdoor pools.

Wylie’s Baths at Coogee Beach

The lovely Melanie suggested Wylie’s Baths as a good place to swim, and it was definitely a great idea.  I stopped in on the final day of 2009 for a quick swim. Wylie’s Baths is a 50 yard tidal pool, costs $3 for admission and it is open 365 days a year.  Their website is great and posts up to date times for low and high tide and swimming conditions.

Swimming at Wylie’s gives you the best of both worlds between a pool and the ocean.  You are more protected than swimming in the ocean, but the bottom of the pool is essentially the ocean floor.  It is uneven, rocky, and full of plant life and wee little fishes.

I spent some time analysing the situation – who was swimming versus who was playing around, what direction were they going – then slipped in the water.  I’d be lying if I didn’t have a moment where I thought, “Wow, I kinda wish I had a wetsuit…”  Luckily that idea lasted about five seconds because the water was really warm.  I was reminded that I cannot swim in a straight line without lines on the bottom so I wound up criss-crossing a bunch.  And I tell you what, you definitely notice if you are ingesting water when you swim in salt water…

Bondi Icebergs Club Swimming Pool

When I first saw the Bondi Icebergs Club website I knew I needed to swim here.  A 50m outdoor swimming pool right at the world famous Bondi Beach?  Fantastic.  Admission is $5 and is open to the public.  If you want to get into the club itself you need to have a membership if you live within a 5 km radius, or else you can enter as a temporary member.  The pool is closed every Thursday for cleaning.  The pool was amazing and I definitely appreciated having lines painted on the bottom of this pool.  And I love that you never really feel crowded in a 50m pool, even if you have six people in your lane.

I first stopped in to swim on New Year’s Day.  Although I didn’t realize it at the time, apparently there is a big, super exclusive bash at the club every year.  Music was blaring out of the top level club and I loved swimming along and popping up to hear the tunes every once in awhile.  I went back again on Saturday the 2nd and it was a lot quieter, so this was definitely an unusual experience.

And yes, I loved the pool so much that I went back for a second swim the next day…making for three days in a row of swimming.  Talk about a way to say goodbye to 2009 and hello to 2010!  The swim was even better on day three as I finally figured out how to drink less salt water on the swim.  It started to rain just as I was finishing up my set though, so I quickly ran out of the pool, moved my stuff under cover, then hopped back in the water to keep swimming.  After all, water is water whether it is pool water or rain water, right?

My dad even took some video of me swimming that I want to pass along to my coach.  It is the first time I’ve ever had a chance to see what I look like swimming and it is quite an eye opener.  What my left arm does compared to my right arm is pretty astounding.

Other places I looked at but didn’t have a chance to swim at?  The North Sydney Olympic Pool near Luna Park and the Andrew (Boy) Charlton Pool inside the Botanical Gardens.  So many pools, so little time…

Christmas in Sydney

Thursday – Christmas Eve

On Thursday we flew from Adelaide back to Sydney.  Considering it was Christmas Eve I have to say that this was one of the most stress free flights I’ve had lately.  Speedy check in, a quick zip through security, and then a smooth trip over to Sydney.  We checked in at our hotel then set out to explore a bit.  I got my first glimpse of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, then it was on to Darling Harbour for dinner and fireworks. Christmas Eve dinner in my family is traditionally fish.  This year, we took seafood to a whole new extreme!  We shared a platter of chilli lobster, cold prawns, oysters, a blue swimmer crab, fried fish, smoked salmon, some salt and pepper prawns and calamari.  Between three of us we were not able to finish all of this, although we did give it a good try!  Just after we finished chowing down the Christmas Eve fireworks went off in Darling Harbour.

Friday – Christmas Day

I was up early on Christmas Day and raring to run.  I plotted out a route that would take me past a lot of the important sights around Sydney.  I left my hotel in Darling Harbour and ran north along Kent Street towards Millers Point.  It was probably about 7 am and navigating the street north through town things were pretty deserted.  Until I happened upon two gentlemen collecting bottles…or something…on the street.  One guy was bending over and was clearly oblivious to the fact that his shorts has completely fallen below his rear end.  Ahem, just a wee bit more than I was bargaining for that morning!!  Soon I was right below the Harbour Bridge though, with the Opera House in my sights! As I passed the train station a group of cyclists were out for Christmas morning ride.  Not a bad idea for Christmas morning if you ask me!  After running around the Opera House I passed into the Botanical Gardens for a bit.  Next time I’d definitely like to run around here a bit more.  I ran down Macquarie Street for a bit, past the Parliament buildings, Sydney Mint and Hyde Park Barracks.

And after that it was time to head back to the hotel.  Maybe just over four miles later?  Later in the evening we did the quintessential thing to do in Sydney on Christmas and we headed over to Bondi Beach.  Unfortunately the weather wasn’t that fantastic though as the remnants of ex-tropical cyclone Laurence rolled into town…   Believe it or not, there are actually people swimming in the water behind me! 

Saturday – Boxing Day

Time for something new – I needed to hit up a pool!  I probably haven’t swum in almost a month??  I headed off to the Cook + Phillip Park Aquatic Centre early in the morning, a 50 metre underground pool right in downtown.  Thanks to it being a YMCA facility I even managed to get in for free with my Calgary membership!  They had eight lanes open for swimming – slow, medium and fast, and freestyle only and other strokes.  I had a bunch of workout cards with me, but they mostly depended on using a 25 metre pool, plus various pull buoys and kick boards.  I decided to ignore the swim cards and just swim.  The best thing about a 50 metre pool is that you may be sharing a lane with two or three other people but you feel like you are the only one there.  I just put my head down and swam for almost an hour.  Boy, it felt good to be back in the water!

One thing that I noticed – men here don’t wear your typical jammer style swimsuits.  They tend to favour budgie smugglers instead…  And with that, it was time to leave Sydney!!  We are in the Hunter Valley for a few days, then back to Sydney in time for New Years.  I hope everyone has had a lovely Christmas!