Tuesday April 14

Run and Strength

I had a fairly easy straight forward 45 min form run today.  I like these form runs because they remind me to run properly from the core, light feet, hands and unclench the face.  It was a good run but either I did too much riding on the weekend or my legs are still feeling tired from ATB - it was slow that's all.  There was a pretty strong wind about so that increased my heart rate.  The plus was that I was in shorts finally.  Here comes the spring. 

I was excited to get back to Claudia again.  It had been almost 2months off  from her and although I had been doing some work on my own - it wasn't the same.  She motivates, pushes and beats strength into me.  I never sweat as much and I leave feeling worked...  The good thing was that this time I got Claudia to write down the workout for me so that I can do it a second time.  Any takers in joining?  Greg? Willem?

Sunday / Monday April 12th and 13th

Sunday April 12

90 min run 

The problem with this sort of cold / sort of warm weather is that it's tough to figure out what to wear and then finding the motivation to get out wearing the wrong clothes.  Because I had two big days the days before, I opted to pass on the run today - partly because I just wasn't feeling right about the run and I think I was tired a little from the hard work before.  

I'd better be careful I've missed a couple long runs now and that could add up...

Monday April 13

Easy spin - I was really excited today that I got back out on the bike in the morning for my 3rd 3hour ride of the weekend.  I was happy to get out again because on a regular week, I would never get close to 260 kms.  The job was to really spin today - not watch the watts, HR and just spin.  Make sure that I was between 90-95rpm and go.  I saw Peter there and we decided to ride together.  It was great to see him again and he looks like he's right on track for RAAM.  We were able to chat, catch up and just ride.  I'm really happy for him and Adam for getting such a successful business going in these rough economic times.  

Because this was around the first outdoor ride of the year, I've built sort of an unofficial tradition of going out with Peter around the beginning of the year.  Every year I go out with him and every year he demolishes me.  This year was slightly different.  He was still stronger and definitely faster but this year he was waiting for me much less and I was staying strong much longer.  

What I was really proud of was that I was truly riding by feel but I was able to keep an avg of 29 over 3hrs and stayed very true to my cadence of 90-95rpm.  I was also happy that I still felt really strong after.  

I'll really be able to tell how things are going this weekend when I have a four hr ride at 150avg watts and then a 1hr run.  I should be fresh afterwards..... 

Saturday April 11

Bike and Run

Today was a really cool day! I had been out riding with Lisa Bentley before when I was in Florida over christmas but today was different. The original plan was to meet up with some of their other athletes (I think I was going to be the only other "non pro") and go outside for a a hill workout and run. Well the weather was too cold and Lisa would have frozen so Lisa and Dave invited everyone over to their house to do the bike ride inside. Everyone else cancelled... so it was just me (I really couldn't bare doing three hours in my basement) and Lisa riding together. The really neat part was that we were able to just "Chat" - she asked questions about my family and I was able to pick her brain about a couple of those "I'd been meaning to ask someone, but never got to it questions" - hill riding technique, salt pill useage etc.

The workout was fairly straight forward - 3hrs, with 3x 20min at 200watts with 20min rec in between. The first 2 were good but the third got me... I think my avg watts over the 3hrs was in around that 150-160 range... (I didn't really look but guessed based on the ergo mode of the CT).
Dave joined in after for my 40min run off the bike. He took me onto this great trail near his house that was naturally rolling. My HR was definately in a tempo range but nothing killer. It was manageable and I was still able to want to be part of the conversation.

I feel really lucky to have the opportunity to train with them every once in a while. The tips and encouragement really push me and make me want to be proud of my hard work.

Thursday / Friday April 9/10

So it's been a busy couple of days with Passover and visiting family and that stuff....

Thursday 3.8 km swim
I was really excited to do an ironman swim today - it wasn't really a straight 3.8 but more like a 400m warm up with 4x800 and 200 cool down. There was 30 sec rest between 800 and when all was said and done I finished at 1hr 13min. With a couple min of rest, that puts me in a great spot now a little less then four months away.

Friday easy ride...
Well this was supposed to be an easy spin with the Yonge and Sheppard group today but it was anything but...
It started out early since the night before Douglas had put out a plea for an extra tire. Luckly I had one so I drove down to his house to help him change it so he could get out with us. I thought I would be out 2 -2.5hrs but that turned into 3 and 1/4 hrs covering 96km. I now remember why I love to hate this group. I love it because they force me to really work but hate it because I feel really "slammed" afterwards. I know for sure that this early into the season, I shouldn't have seen some of the numbers I did. Oh well - that's life....

Wednesday April 8

Happy Birthday Dan! Yes he loved the Nascar but was afraid to go on anything but the merry go round. Oh well, he's only 3, there'll be a lifetime ahead of driving fast and doing thing reckless.

90min Bike
I had a 90min bike ride today that consisted of big grear work 15 min at 60rpm and 10min at 70 rpm and 20 min to end things at tempo pase. Again, very interesting and I should remember this... It was much easier to control my heart rate when staying in the small ring. I did the last 2 sets in my small ring and noticed right away that I was able to hold the same wattage for the 70rpm as I did for the 60 rpm and my HR didn't go nuts... For the 20min set I chose 205. Although I didn't stay in the 150HR that Dave suggested, It was manageable at 158-160HR.

Tuesday April 7

AM - Swim 2100m

I decided to join up with Steve and his masters group today so that I could get a little group dynamic back.  I was doing Dave's workout but sometimes it's just nice to be with other people to mentally push you along.  

The main part of the workout was 4 times 3x100m with varying degrees of rest.  Each 100 was to be swam at the same speed and I chose 1:45 as my time today giving me an opportunity to push with little rest and recover when the rest is a little more abundant.  In each 100 I was able to hit my 1:45.  What I noticed was sometimes when you're focussing on running as I had been over the past weeks, you sometimes forget some of the little (but important) technique things.  I found myself thinking roll, reach, and push.  Although I was starting to feel "it" during the 7-9 set with 10 seconds rest, I was happy to know that I could just push a little harder and make it through to 12.  

Easy 40 min run this eve... going to have to squeeze this in probably right after work and run home.  Tomorrow is Dan's 3rd Birthday so we're going to take him to Nascar speedpark today given that tomorrow is Passover and we're at my parents for the Seder.  I think he's really going to like it...  I can just remember going to the Monster Truck show a couple months and to see his big eyes go crazy when they came out... I can only imagine what he'll be like when he gets to ride the cars tonight...

Monday April 6

So I've been bad and not posted for a couple of days... It wasn't that I wasn't doing workouts, it was just that I was feeling really tired from last week.  The workouts that I did do were sort of half ass and for some reason I feel like I did more damage trying to push hard during the race and thus as a result my IT and part of my quad felt tight up until Friday.  To make matters worse I was also battling one of those "I slept funny and now I have a kink in my neck pains".  Over all it wasn't such a great week....  

I decided that the weekend was going to be better...  I got my act together to get on the bike for a 2hr ride of the IMFlorida course trying to keep 155watts... Maybe my legs were tired or maybe the pace bunny that I set for 150 watts was having a good day... because I was able to keep up for maybe a half hour and then it took off.  It was funny because my avg watts were in around 160 but as I continue to learn about power, more consistent is better - less peaks, less valleys - more straight lines... I guess that also means more changing gears to keep that straight line.  

I had a 20 min run after and went out for a quick loop around the hood.  It did feel good to run again but my legs were definitely still tired even after 20min.

In the afternoon, I went to the pool to get a swim in... my legs didn't fire again, so a little pulling never hurt - the main set consisted of 800m steady pull and paddles so that was ok and as well 8 by 100m on 2:00min - I did a couple without the pull but I found that I was working quite hard for the time that I was coming in at.  

SUNDAY

I was supposed to get a 1hr easy run in, but because nothing was working yesterday I opted to skip the run meet Oren for an easy bike ride.  I didn't want to go too hard but the wind was coming from the North and Dufferin was all hills going north.  So instead of killing my self I staying in my small ring with high cadence and around that 150watts from the day before.  It took about 1hr and 20min to get up to kettleby (about 30km).  The way home was FAST it took about 55min for the same route just going south with a great tail wind.  

What was really funny was my bike compared to Oren's.  In my Aero position I was about 6inches lower then his bike when he was in the drops on his road bike.  Going down a hill - he was pushing and I was able to tuck in a keep up without peddling.   He hated letting my pull because the wind just flew over me and into him.  Interesting how aerodynamics work..

Monday 

Today is a day off - I considered getting up this morning and getting some exercises in but thought against it in an effort to start a fresh week.