Tuesday May 12

Monday Swim take two...

Since I felt like I was swimming through mud yesterday... I decided to do it again.

I was glad I did... the 200 was 3:26, 400 was 7:11, 600 was 11:13, and 800 was 14:40.  This all means that I'm staying very consistent on 1:50's regardless of the distance.  That feels good because I'm not slowing down as the distance gets longer....

Greg posted a funny thought today:  It looks like we’ve only got about another 45k swim, 1,800k bike and 280k run left of training to do! 

It feels like a lot when you think of it that way...

Weights tonight...

Monday May 11

Morning Swim

Today nothing worked... I was dragging what felt like through mud... The set called for fairly easy 200 on 4min, 400 on 8min, 600 on 12min and 800 on 16min.  I should have been able to get through it no problem... However, half way through the 600m set I bonked... so I got out and went for coffee and called it a "bad swim".  I'm going to try this one again tomorrow... I might be thinking that the ventilation at RHCC is poor and thus very humid in the pool which might be why I feel so terrible finishing... However, I don't want to start making excuses... it was probably just a tired morning...

Sunday May 10

2hr Ride

I was excited to meet up with John this morning.  I hadn’t seen him in forever and I really did miss not getting together for rides.  John had somewhat of a back issue at the end of the summer last year and was out of commission for close to 4months. 

We had agreed to meet at 7:30 this morning and ride for a couple of hours and be home in time for the Mother’s day festivities.  Man it was cold this morning… probably close to 3 or 4 degrees.  I dressed in my early April attire and I needed all of it.  John lent me an extra pair of gloves to shield that wind. 

We thought about going North/South but the wind was killer, so we went Elgin Mills to the York – Durham line and back.  On the way home we misjudged the wind and found it pretty strong. 

In 2hrs and a bit we covered close to 58km.  Given that it was cold and the company was good, I had a good ride. 

As it turned out I got home and by about 11am the sun was out and the weather was great… Too bad I had to leave at 7:30am.

Saturday May 9

Morning Swim with Tereza

I signed up for Tereza Macel’s swim clinic today and I was really excited given that Greg had attended 3 of them and said that it was well worth it.  The forecast for the day was pretty terrible so I was glad to have worked in a swim day today.  Given that I have a somewhat decent stroke I was really looking for that tip to keep me from being flat in the water and roll my body more. 

One neat drill she had us do was during the recovery phase when your arms are moving out of the water – instead of making a high elbow and moving the hand along the water, she had us go as straight as possible and as fast as possible.  When we did this, we naturally didn’t straighten our arms, but created some sort of flick in our hips to roll the body – helping the arms get higher.  It was tiring but it definitely worked.  Another was thinking about the hands as they go into the water and how close the legs are together when kicking making sure the back isn’t arching.  I reaffirmed my decision to work with Dave because working with the pull at the ankles was already one drill he gives me. 

The clinic actually reminded me of Murray Drudges clinic he gave to the NYAC group back in December.  It was good, I probably wouldn’t do it again, but I did benefit from it.

Friday May 8

The plan was to take today off and ride Saturday and run Sunday.  However, I noticed that A) the weather was going to stink on Saturday and B) Sunday being Mother’s day wasn’t going to be in my best interest for working out…

So… I decided that Thursday was going to be off and Friday after work ride and brick, Saturday Run, Sunday Ride the ride I missed on Thursday.

3+ hour Ride and 30min Run

I now know better then to arbitrarily just change the plan and do what I feel like.  I started out my ride feeling great!  Food was right on and water was good and my legs were moving.  I decided to follow up Bayview as far as I could go and then turn around – hopefully at the 2hr mark.  However I’m riding up Bayview and suddenly Bayview wasn’t there anymore.. As it turns out Bayview turns into Propect in Newmarket and to make this adventure better, Propect ends just after Davis Dr.  So back I went to Davis Dr.  By now the clouds are getting quite dark and not looking so good.  I crossed the 404 at Davis and went as far as Warden hoping that the clouds were more central to Leslie to Yonge.  No… It started pouring and I wasn’t going to continue going north as the rain clouds were following me.  So, if you can’t beat’em, ride through em.  I turned south on Warden and figure it would be better to be closer to home if the rain really started and it did.  For the better part of the next hour and a bit, I got drenched.  I didn’t feel comfortable riding in my aero position because I could barely see but my nutrition kept on going well and I was pleased with that..

 

Once I entered Richmond Hill, the rain did slow and I was happy about that move south.  Along Elgin Mills the Sun actually came out and there was no way I could turn home a) because the clock read 1:45 and B) the sun was out so why not ride on…  I turned up Leslie and then turned again at 19^th and followed 19^th to Bathurst and then North to King back to Yonge.  I stopped for a quick second to say Hello to Doris but it seemed that she wasn’t home.  I then followed North Lake to Bayview and then south to home.  The Clock read 2:55 and I covered about 84 km.  I was pleased with that… Sometimes riding in the rain – no matter how much we hate it, is good character building to build good training. 

 

Within 10min I was out the door and running back to my school to pick up my car.  It was about a 7km trip to school and the run called 15 min strong and then 15 min choice.  I felt really good and wanted to beat any further rain.  However my HR was on the higher side but the effort felt strong and I was happy to be moving.  I got to the car at 34 min and for 7km that was close to 5min pace if not a little faster….  I love it when that happens.  

Wednesday May 7

60min run

I hadn't been out the running room in a really long time for one of their group runs and see the old gang that I started running with.  They all knew that I started triathlon and was training for the ironman but it's really funny because all of the old gang just expect you to run with the group, join the clinics or they think that you're not training anymore...  That can't be further from the truth - in fact running with the group prevented my training by not allowing me to train MY training because I feel that with the group - you're either not working hard enough so others can keep up or you're working too hard to keep up with others.  I've realized that if you're supposed to do a zone 2 but you're doing a zone 4 to keep up with others you're only preventing yourself from getting better and possibly inflicting yourself with an injury from training too hard...

My run this eve went well it was 60min with some hills thrown in for good measure..  I really hate that 10 and 1 meathod - too much stopping and starting and hard to find that rhythm.... but it was fun to see the old group and get out with Chris the manager there... he's got a pretty good running background and we're pretty similar in terms of our thoughts about running...

 

Monday May 4 / Tuesday May 5

Morning Swim

Monday's swim was good, I guess I'm feeling the need for a recovery week because I was very sleepy getting into the pool this morning.  The main set was 6x100m of that GOLF swimming where you add your time plus your stroke count to get your score.  On 25m I can't really get anything much better or consistently faster then 16/17 strokes.  My time really dogs and what I've realized is that if I go faster I add 2 strokes to make 18/19 an I really go faster.  I think I'll take the added strokes and speed.  Then I had to do 12x100 on 2:10 going one hard and one easy.  I was very comfortable going 1:40-1:45 on the hard sets and easier on the easy ones.  

Tuesday's Swim this morning was great!  I was still sleepy but I'm really enjoying joining up with the group to get a little swimming atmosphere in....

The main set today called for 5x200m with 30 sec rest and swimming these strong and smooth.  I swam them all in the 3:38-3:42 range.  I may have dogged a little given that the next set I had 5x100 but swimming it faster then the half mark on the 200m.  Steve really pushed me on this because my plan was 1:45 per 100 which would put me faster then the 1:51 of the half of the 200m.  He challenged me to 1:40-1:45.  The 1st one I came @1:37 and then next were 1:40-1:42.  I was pretty pleased today...