What's Next?

I am officially in "off season".  Or as badass coach Jen Rulon calls it: "the Season of Improvement".  I think that's a better way to look at the down time between the last race of your season and the time you start to build for the following season.  Off season kind of implies that you're taking time off.  That being said, I suppose you could say you're taking time off from structured training i.e focusing on hitting certain paces or power numbers.  This is the season to re-charge mentally and physically and not put a bunch of pressure on yourself to tick all the green boxes in your Training Peaks account.  In fact, ideally there are LESS boxes in your Training Peaks account.  This is not the time to be concerned about volume.  You want to do enough to maintain a good base of fitness.

This is the perfect time to focus on your limiters.  The things that need improvement.  If it's your swim, then maybe you drop a run workout and replace it with an extra swim workout that is technique focused.  This is also the time to bring strength training back into your life.  You don't have the heavy training load, you don't need to worry about DOMS affecting your ability to hit certain paces or numbers.  There couldn't be a better time to start working on your strength.

This is also an excellent time to go out and do things that you may not have tried during race season.  I'd say that's part and parcel of re-charging mentally.  It's nice to take the focus away from structured training and just do things for fun without worrying about hurting yourself or if the whatever it is you're doing will affect your training.

I've got a few plans for my "Season of Improvement".  Firstly, I'm planning on adding one day of swimming a week that is purely a drill and technique based swim.  It won't be too long, maybe half an hour to 40 minutes max.  I really need to work on the entry and catch phase of my stroke.  When my hands go in the water, they just sort of hang out until they get to my waist and then I feel them pulling the water.  So, I foresee a whole lot of sculling in my future.  Time for me to figure out how to use the drill function on my 920xt.

Next on my list of "things to work on" is my run form.  There are a few small tweaks that I'd like to make.  My cadence is good (anywhere between 176-192 depending on how fast I'm running) but I'm not driving my knees up enough so I feel like I'm missing out on some of the gait cycle.  I also need to work on keeping my shoulders back and up.  I'm still rotating a fair bit at my shoulders and that needs to stop.   I believe that these things are muscle and mobility related so before I can tackle new movement patterns, I need to work on my mobility to allow those movement patterns to happen.  This is something I've started to work on daily.   A few minutes a day of dedicated mobility work with a yoga strap, some bands and a lacrosse ball, usually when I'm watching TV.  Hopefully it pays off when I start to build my mileage again for 2018.

While I'm not a huge fan of riding in the cooler fall temps (which don't seem to be happening right now - YAY!), I do love touring around country roads on two wheels and checking out the foliage.  So there will be a lot of that this fall.  There will also be some time spent working on my skills.  Just because triathletes race generally bikes in straight lines, doesn't mean you can't benefit from bettering your bike handling skills.  It will make you a more confident rider when you're around other people and in traffic.  Bettering your skills means riding outside.  My bike handling skills have improved immensely since riding with Morning Glory but I do think there is some room for improvement.  So, I've bought myself an entry level cyclocross bike and  I'm planning on going to the Midweek Cycling Club Tuesday night races starting in October.  Nothing like learning how to handle a bike on GRASS and dirt.  I'm a little scared, but this year has been all about doing things that scare me.

Speaking of things that scare me, I will be bringing strength training back into my life in the form of TEACHING classes.  Yup.  Scaredy cat me is leading a lower body conditioning class at Pur Energy Wellness Lofts on Thursday mornings at 10:30am.  I will be leading other classes as well once the strength studio opens up.  So, not only am I getting a workout in, but I get to work out with other people AND get paid for it.  I taught my first class yesterday and it was SO AWESOME.  I was super pumped after.  I am pretty sore today.  My Garmin told me it was going to take me 21 hours to recover from that workout so yeah, I kicked my own ass for sure.

My first day greeting! 

I love this time of year because you have usually just finished your triathlon race season and can take the time to reflect on what went well, what you might change and what you need to work on while all of it is still fresh in your mind.  I think reflection is important in your growth as an athlete and this is the best time to do it.  It's also a great time to start thinking about your 2018 goals and looking for someone to help you get there.  As a coach, I've noticed in the last 2 years that October and November have been busy months for me.  I have some athletes wrapping up their racing season with fall races and other athletes (usually triathletes) that want to start working on their base fitness for a build to a big summer race.  If you're looking for either run or triathlon coaching, I will have limited spaces opening up at the beginning of November.  Hit me up if you want details or you can go to my coaching website.

G and I have been taking full advantage of our down time.  I've started volunteering with the Morning Glory Grass Tracks program on Wednesday evenings and we've been out pretty much every night this week at various social gatherings.  We've really dialled our workouts back.  I swam on Wednesday and it was probably one of the best swims I've had in a while.  So the bit of time off we've taken has helped us recover so we perform better.   Come the beginning of October, we'll get back into something a bit more structured.  For now I'm enjoying doing what I want, when I want.

Is your season done or do you have fall races planned?  What do you want to work on in your season of improvement?

TGIF Gang, enjoy your weekend!

~ Coach PK

Monday Musings: T-Minus 3 weeks

Oh hello June!  Here we are half way through 2017.  Time is just whizzing by.  We have THREE weeks left until Tremblant!  THREE.  Holy crapamole.   We've been occasionally checking the water temperature in Lac Tremblant and a couple of weeks ago it was a balmy 6 degrees celsius.  Thankfully it's now gone up to 15.2 which means that hopefully in another 3 weeks it's closer to 18 degrees which would be perfect.

Not to sound like a broken record (I'm going to) but the weather really isn't helping in terms of warming things up!  The Caledon Quarry that we normally swim at delayed it's opening slightly because the water temps were still quite cold.  It finally opened earlier this week and we opted to head out there Saturday morning for our first open water swim in Ontario.   Luckily the weather was in our favour (thank you Mother Nature!)  It was sunny, with very little wind and it was 14 degrees.  So not totally balmy but not cold either.

There was a small group of us, pretty much all women, save for G, ha ha.  We got ourselves suited up appropriately.  And by appropriately I meant with booties and a neoprene cap for good measure.  I had stuck my hand in the water when I arrived and it was FRESH.  So I could only imagine what it would feel like when I fully submerged myself.   Pro tip:  to help keep the cold at bay, I was told to wear ear plugs.  Apparently your ears have receptors in them that are sensitive to temperature so if you wear earplugs, it helps keep your temperature regulated in cold water.  I tried this on Saturday and it worked.  So much so that I ended up having to take my neoprene cap off part way through the swim.  It also helped with my balance when I was getting out of the water.  Normally I feel a bit woozy after an open water swim but I felt totally fine.  I'm a CONVERT.

G and his Angels and his fancy new Zoot Wetsuit

We waded in and took our time getting used to the temperature.  It did take your breath away for the first little bit.  I walked in to just past my waist and then dunked my head.  That really made me gasp but I was ready to start swimming so I swam out to one of the buoys and then swam across to the start buoy.  I was going to stick close to shore so I could swim in quickly if I got too cold.   As you can see by my Strava map, I did NOT manage to swim in any semblance of a straight line.  I swam back and forth for a bit and then stopped to adjust my wetsuit.  I hadn't pulled it up high enough so the range of motion in my arms felt very limited.  Once that was fixed I was good to go.  I swam two
400m loops before my hands felt like they couldn't really do much anymore.  My arms were tired and it felt like I was swimming in slow motion.  I had covered just over 1200m total so that was enough for me.  The best part?  ZERO panic.  None what so ever!  I think I'm finally getting comfortable with this open water swimming thing.  :)

That was the big adventure this week!  I'm hoping to get a few more OWS in before we head to Tremblant on the 22nd.

I'm heading into my last big week of training this week as well so here's hoping that it goes as smoothly as this past week went!

Last Week's Workouts

Monday:  43.5km ride.  Normally I take Mondays off as a rest day but G had the day off (Memorial Day) and it was so beautiful and sunny out that we decided to go for a ride.   We drove out to Guelph Line and did a little rip around Campbelville.  It had been a while since we'd ridden out that way.  My legs were still feeling a bit tired from the weekend but I wasn't about to turn down an outdoor ride with G in the sunshine.

Tuesday:  8km run - hill repeats in a.m. and 22km ride - TTC hill clinic in p.m..  Since I rode on Monday and I knew I'd probably riding that night, I opted NOT to ride with Morning Glory and I slept in.  I don't think my legs could have handled the beatdown they would have gotten doing 5 laps of Edenbridge.  Instead I opted to do running hill repeats at lunch.  Holy sweaty.  My hamstring was still proving to be bothersome so I made the call to Pivot to go see my ART guy.

Wednesday:  2200m swim.  I actually felt pretty good today despite the fact that it was short sets of sprints.  I'm definitely not a sprinter but I like trying to go fast.

Thursday:  8km run with my friend David.  My hamstring was still kind of bugging me even after some dry needling the night before so we kept the effort fairly easy.  David was still pretty wiped out from the weekend and the previous days workout.  My legs actually felt really good other than my hammy.

Friday:  37.5km ride - High Park Hot laps in a.m. and 2100m swim at lunch.  I had originally planned on doing the Real Deal Thursday night Time Trial but just couldn't get my ass out of the house so, I got up early with G on Friday and we met up with the Morning Glory development ride.  Holy crap was it ever a big group.  I managed to hang on to the first group for about 5 laps and then I caved.  I was pretty pleased with myself.  I did 12 laps in total.    I missed my masters swim because I went and rode instead so I made up for it with a swim at the York Rec Centre at lunch.  I felt really good today and swam about half my workout with pull and paddles, which is not normal for me but I need to work on my upper body strength so those have become a necessity.

Saturday:  1200m open water swim, followed by a 75km ride, followed by a 4.2km run.  This was the BIG day.  I actually felt really good for all of these elements, with the exception of the end of the ride.  I have been complaining to G that my hamstrings seem to be doing all the work even when I'm on my tri bike.  I honestly can't seem to get my quads to engage.  I have seen someone about that and there will be a post about it in the future.  But towards the end of the ride, I really felt that my hamstrings were fatiguing.  On the run, my legs felt a bit better, it felt like I was using all of my muscles but it took a while for that to happen.  Very strange indeed.

Sunday:  3000m swim, followed by an 18km run with 8km at Z3 building to Z4.  This was hard but I felt strong and my pesky hamstring was no longer bugging me.  The only thing that was bothering me was my left glut.  And even then, towards the end of the run, I didn't really notice it until afterwards.  Then it was uncomfortable to sit on that side.  That's my good old piriformis doing all the work.  But I was pretty happy with these workouts and I was definitely ready for a rest day because that was 13 straight days of training.   I'm actually surprised I felt as good as I did these last few days.  I was definitely fatigued on Sunday morning, but once I did my run, I was a-ok.  I slept like a baby last night and got a full 8 hours so I feel very well rested today.  My legs are a bit sore but that's to be expected after a hard run yesterday.

This is the first time in a VERY long time that I've actually done all my prescribed workouts for the week!  Here's hoping I can carry that momentum over to my last big week of training!

Totals:  

Swim:  8562m  <---- Biggest weekly total in a VERY long time
Bike:  178km
Run:  38.5km 

Total time:  12h 30 minutes

How was your week of training?  Anyone else wonder if summer is ever going to show up??   

Have an awesome Monday!

~ Coach PK

Monday Musings: Back into the Hills

This past weekend G and I went out to Muskoka to do Spin the Lakes, something that is becoming an annual tradition with our friends.  Last year, I was just getting back on my bike after about 3 weeks off due to my injury.  I couldn't run but I could ride, so I was happy to be able to do something.  I had signed up for Spin the Lakes well before I got injured and the original plan was to race it.  That didn't happen last year so I figured this year it I'd make up for it.  Spin the Lakes is essentially the Muskoka 70.3 bike course.  It's pretty freaking evil.   So I thought this year it would be a good idea to take my TT bike for a rip through the hills.  Because Tremblant has some pretty evil climbs at the end of the race, so it's best to be prepared.  Right?  No matter that I've only ridden my TT bike once outside since Florida ha ha.

It would also give me an opportunity to test my fuelling strategy as well as my new power zones.  When I did my zone calculations, I was a little surprised at what my race power was supposed to be.  I felt that it was probably a bit too high for the distance I was tackling so I figured I'd aim for about 10-15 watts lower for the first half and see how I felt.

We got to Hidden Valley with just under an hour before the event started so we went up and picked up our t-shirts, meal ticket and raffle tickets and then went back to the car to get ourselves sorted out. I got Tom Sawyer ready to roll.  I went to fill up my aero bottle when I noticed it was leaking everywhere.  I tightened it up and started filling it again.  Still leaking.  So I took it out of the holder and took it apart.  The lip along the inside had started to warp so the lid wasn't sitting flush.  ARG.  So much for using that.  I emptied the bottle back into my regular bottle and put it back on my down tube.  Now I just had to remember to drink.   I had made 3 bottles of E-Fuel, I had GU vanilla spice Roctane and 1 coconut cream Lara bar cut into thirds.  My goal was 57g of carbs per hour (1g of carbs per kg of body weight) so the bottle of E-Fuel + 1/3 of the Lara bar should technically be enough.  I had the gels as a "just in case".

My plan was to ride this solo, meaning that I didn't want to draft off anyone.  I wanted to treat it like a race.  G and I lined up in the start chute, towards the front.   There was a combo of people in road bikes and some people on TT bikes like myself.  I figured the first few kms would be a bit hairy since we descend and climb right away when we're leaving Hidden Valley and there isn't really room to spread out unless you hammer it right from the start, which I didn't want to do.   I knew what that first 10km was like, hammering it was not the smart thing to do.

We rolled out and I stuck with the group for the first 2km or so.  As the hills started, the group started to thin out.  I climbed the first few hills in my big chain ring, trying to get around groups.   In hindsight, that wasn't the smartest thing.  I worked it through here trying to get around the packs of people.  Eventually things really spread out.  I stayed in aero for as long as possible between groups.  I tried to stay in aero for as long as possible on every climb.  I was feeling really strong despite the heavier bike.  My TT bike is so much heavier in comparison to my road bike and when you're climbing that extra weight makes it really tough.

I settled into a solid groove down Dwight Beach road and onto highway 35.  I stayed in aero for pretty much this entire section unless I was passed by a pack, which happened a few times.  I'd sit up, soft pedal, let them go by and get right back into aero.  Despite my bottle malfunction I was still managing to drink often.  The bigger issue was that I couldn't really see my power meter.  It was below my line of sight so I had to look down to see what my watts were.  Not convenient.  Every time I looked down I was anywhere between 170-190w.  Or well over 200 if I was climbing.  Not good.  I tried to slow things down a bit and I really took things easy on the downhills, I just let gravity do the work.

I rolled into Dorset to the first rest stop.  My plan was to ditch my arm warmers, use the porta potty and hit the road.  I didn't want to stop for long.  The black flies were really bad as well so I was in and out of this stop really quickly.  I had gone through one bottle in just over an hour so I took my 1/3 of my Lara bar, switched out my bottle and hit the road.  I climbed out of Dorset to the 117.  I knew once I got onto the 117, it would be hammer time.  I caught a group just as I turned onto the 117 and they stuck with me for a long time.  There were about 11 of them.  I stayed in my aero bars and trucked along.  It was windy along there so I was working harder than I probably should have.  But, I wanted to see what I could do.   There were a few big climbs along here that I opted to do in my smaller chain ring.  On the second one, the group decided to pass me.  They thanked me for the pull and told me to hop on.  I said no thanks, I didn't want to draft.  Off they went.  On the next downhill, I caught and passed them all again.  On the next big climb, some of the group passed me again.  I let them go.

One of the girls stuck with me for the remainder of the ride along the 117.  I could hear her right on my wheel.  We trucked along for a while.  We saw a beautiful fox run across the road.  That was a treat.  I thought she might stay with me when we turned onto Baysville but she opted to stop at the rest stop.  I kept going.  I didn't want to stop.  This section had a lot of rollers.  I was surprised at how quickly I made it along the 117.  I had a feeling I was going to pay for it.  My legs were still feeling ok but I knew the next 30km were going to be tough.  I switched up my bottle and put a full one on my down tube.

By the time I was 80km in my legs were telling me I went too hard.  I had 17km left and I knew it wasn't going to be easy.  I think had I been on my road bike, it would have been easier but alas I was on my heavy TT bike.  I just told myself I was building strength.  This was exactly the type of workout I needed 5 weeks out from Tremblant.  Those last 17km were absolutely brutal.  My legs were screaming at me.  All the short steep climbs were just killing me.  I got out of my saddle so many times.  As I made that last descent towards Hidden Valley, all I could think of was the fact that I just wanted to get off my bike and that I had ZERO desire to run.  As I came bombing down the hill, I saw G at the car.  I figured if he was waiting for me, I wouldn't be running.  I rode up to the top of the hill and the finish line, spun my legs out around the bend and turned around to come back down to the car.  I was done.  No way was I running.  I''m pretty sure come race day I will regret that decision.  Those efforts make you stronger over all.  Even if I had done 15 minutes of running that would have been better than nothing.  But I didn't.   It took me 3:12:45 to ride 97.5km.  That's an average of just over 30 kph with over 1000m of climbing.  I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed when I finished.  I had expected to be faster, especially with all the riding I've been doing.  But when I sat down afterwards and looked at the course and the fact that I didn't draft at all, I'm pretty happy about it.  For those of you interested in the numbers, my normalized power for the entire ride was 189 watts.  Way higher than I wanted to be but proof that I can ride close to that intensity, I just need to trust in my abilities!

That was the big ride of the week.  The rest of my week was pretty easy compared to that.  This is how it all rolled out.

Monday:  OFF

Tuesday:  19.8km of hills leading the Toronto Triathlon Club ride.  Thanks to Eric D'Arcy for this pic and the for help that day.  Awesome group that came out for my first ever group workout.  Looking forward to more hills tomorrow!!

Wednesday:  2700m swim + 15 minutes of core & physio work.

Thursday:  Since it was totally pissing rain, I stayed inside and did my first ride on ZWIFT.  It was just over 25km in 45 minutes.  Despite the rain, I went out and ran.  I did 6km at race pace and in the process did something to my hamstring.  It was super tender afterwards.  Time to go see my ART guy this week.

Friday:  2600m swim, followed by 45 minutes of upper body and core work.

Saturday:  97.5km ride - see above, ha ha.

Sunday:  13km run.  This was supposed to be closer to 20km but David and I were both spent so we opted to cut it short.  We ran on the new Muskoka 70.3 run course.  It's definitely better than the old course.  Still hilly but not as many rollers which is nice.

Totals for the week:  

Swimming:  5300m 
Cycling:  143km
Running:  19.7km  

Total time:  9h 20 minutes

Only two more weeks of training before it's taper time!  It's also time to get into some open water!  Here's hoping the weather holds up for the next few weeks so we can head up to the quarry and get some swimming in!

I hope everyone had a great weekend and to all my US pals, have a wonderful Memorial Day xo

~ Coach PK 

Tri Talk Tuesday: Improving Your Swim

It's the first Tuesday of the month, and in addition to it being Tri Talk Tuesday, it's also my birthday!  YAY!  I'm quickly getting closer to being firmly ensconced in my mid 40's.  I certainly don't feel like it most days and apparently I don't act or look like it either.   I'm totally ok with that, ha.

Anyway, on with the business of today's post.  I'm linking up with my absolutely lovely fellow Tri Talk Tuesday ladies, Courtney and Cynthia to talk about my least favourite of the three sports; the swim, and how you can improve it.

Of the three sports, I'd have to argue that swimming is the most technical.  Moving efficiently through water is much more difficult than moving efficiently through air.  At least that's been my experience.  I've had to put in a fair bit of work to improve my swim, most of it focused on technique.  In order to really improve you have to understand what your body is doing (or NOT doing) in the water.  So, without further ado, here are 3 tips to help you improve your swim stroke.

1. Video Analysis with a swim coach.

Yes, this is probably going to be pricey ($100++) but it will be worth it.  Swimming is all technique so to have someone point out what you're doing wrong and show you how to correct it is one of the best ways to improve.   This won't be an overnight fix, it will take some time and effort as you'll have to practice what you learn.   If you don't want to spend the money, you could have a friend video tape you and compare it to video of an efficient swimmer, like Andy Potts.   You should be able to see what you're doing differently and work on correcting it in the water.  

2.  Swim with a Group

I think this applies to all three sports but I found it especially helpful with swimming.  If you can, join a Masters swim group.  Or a triathlon swim group.  Swimming with other people gets you comfortable with having people around you - very important in the swim start of a triathlon.  I've also found that I push myself that much harder when I'm swimming with others than I do when I'm swimming on my own.   I also didn't have to think about my workouts, they would be written up and posted on the board so all I had to do was swim.  I improved a lot when I started swimming with a Masters group.

3.  Mix it up.

Don't just swim freestyle because that's what you're going to swim in the race.  Learn some other strokes and work them into your swimming.  I've found that by learning fly and doing it from time to time really helped with my freestyle breathing as well as pull strength.  Doing other strokes also gives your muscles a bit of a break from the repetitive motion of constant freestyle.  I make a point of doing back stroke and breast stroke during my warm up and cool down.  Sometimes my coach actually has us doing them in the workout. 

Are there any other tips you'd add to this?  What's worked for you?  



 

An InLinkz Link-up

Friday Five: 5 Gut Busting Indoor Workouts

TGIF Guys!  Only one more week till I'm outta here and sitting on a beach.  I'm telling you it can't come soon enough.  Southern Ontario is in a serious deep freeze right now and that means I'm not stepping foot outside to do any sort of workout.   It's times like this that I'm thankful I'm not training for a spring marathon, ha ha. 

Since it's Friday, I'm linking up with the DC Trifecta Ladies (Courtney, Cynthia and Mar) for a little Friday Five action.  Ironically today's topic is Indoor Workouts, ha.  Since I'm a triathlete, I'm going to share a few of my favourite swim, bike & run sessions as well as some other workouts I do indoors.

SWIMMING:

Living in the Great White North means that swimming is something that is done primarily indoors.  I only get to swim outside in the summer.   Getting into the pool in the middle of winter is always challenging for me.  There's something incredibly unpleasant about getting out of a warm bed, going out into the cold and then getting into a cool-ish pool.  However, once I'm in, I'm good.  Thankfully I swim with a Masters Club so that also keeps me motivated to go.  If I swam on my own, chances are I'd skip a lot of my workouts, ha ha.  Our swim coach usually has us on a 3 week build, 1 week recovery cycle and she tends to hammer us pretty hard in our build weeks.   Some of the workouts are absolute killers and this one is no exception.  I like it because it's 100's but it's a lot of them and it really teaches you about pacing.  It's all done on pace times so you need to watch the clock.  This would be the workout for the lane I swim in:

400 warm up:  MS:  5x100 on 1:55, 1 min RI, 5x100 on 1:50, 1 min RI, 5x100 on 1:45, 1 min RI, 5x100 on 1:40, 1 min RI, 200 cool down. 

When you see "on" a pace time that means you have that much time to complete the 100.  However, you also need to factor in rest so you want to swim at a faster pace to allow yourself to get some rest.  So for the 1:55's, we'd try to come in on 1:45 so we get 10 seconds rest.  The same for the other sets, although usually by the last set, I'm lucky if I get 5s rest.  This is a seriously tough workout. 

CYCLING:

The 3x3:  This a brutal workout that I honestly think is better off being done in an indoor trainer.  If you have a power meter then you're going to be working at above your FTP (functional threshold power).  If you're training with heart rate then this is going to be high zone 5 (anaerobic max).   It's a good one if you've just started doing anaerobic max work.   And it may make you barf. 

Warm up:  20-30 minutes.  Then 3x3 minutes in zone 5 with 3 minutes recovery after each one.  Cool down 10 minutes.  This will definitely get your heart rate up.  As your fitness progresses you can add another set or you can try to drop your recovery to 2 minutes. 

RUNNING:

I am not a fan of treadmill running.  Unfortunately I spent a lot of time on it last winter due to the sheer amounts of ice and snow we had last year but I tend to avoid it most of the time.  That being said, there are some good workouts that you can do on a treadmill that will break up the boredom.   These are two of my favourites:

Intervals:  Warm up 10-15 minutes, then 10x2:00 minutes hard, 2:00 easy.  The goal is to do about 20 minutes of hard work to get the heart rate up.  Cool down 10 minutes

Progressive Run:  These are tough no matter where you do them.   The goal of a progressive run is to end up at your goal race pace or maybe even a bit faster.  If you're racing a half marathon and your goal is 1:45, then you'd want to end up running 5:00 min km's or faster for your last km.  So, if you were going to do a 10km progressive run, you'd warm up for say 3km at a very nice easy pace.  Then you can build throughout the remaining 7km.  Try to drop 10 seconds off each km.  This is what a progressive run for a 1:45 half would look like:

Warm up 3km at an easy pace (5:45-5:50/km's).  1st km: 5:35, 2nd km:  5:25 3rd km: 5:15 4th km: 5:05  5th km: 4:55 km

Followed by a cool down of at least 10 minutes.  It could be walking or a really slow easy jog but you should definitely cool down.

STRENGTH WORK:

I usually go to the gym to do all my strength work because I like having the space to spread out and I like to incorporate free weights into my workouts.  However, if I don't feel like going to the gym, I can do most of my workout at home in the basement because it's all body weight work.  You only need a few pieces of equipment:  a mat, a stability ball, bench or chair and a bosu ball (which is optional).   This is a combination of some of my favourite at home exercises.

2x10-15 mountain climbers
2x10-15 push ups (option to do them on the bosu if you want to really challenge yourself)
2x10-15 jump squats
2x10-15 tricep dips off a bench or chair
2x10-15 side plank with rotation
2x10-15 single leg glute bridges
2x10-15 jackknifes on stability ball
2x10-15 burpees
2x10-15 oblique crunches on stability ball





Well there you have it.  Five sweat inducing indoor workouts that will get definitely get your heart rate up.   Check out the other blogs in the link up...there are some GOOD ones posted!! 

Here Fishy Fishy Fish....

Another week of workouts down.   A week that had ZERO running miles.  Nada.  Zilch.  After being an idiot last week I figured I should just stop trying to do things my body wasn't ready to do yet.   Lo and behold, I've had a week of pretty much pain free knees.  Go figure.  I did aggravate them a little bit with my hard bike ride on Saturday but the pain didn't last long.  Maybe because I swam in a salt water pool after, who knows.  I did a lot of swimming this week.  In fact, I've done a lot of swimming this month.  I've logged 11 swims for an average of 24,700m and the month isn't even over yet.  I suspect I might actually hit 30,000m which will be the biggest month of swim mileage I've ever logged.  I'm turning into quite the fish.  That's what no running does I suppose. 

I've been incredibly diligent with my physio work, even though the exercises take me about 20-25 minutes to get through.  Sometimes I have to split them up and do half of them in the morning and the other half before I go to bed.  But, I'm getting them done and that's what counts.  I'm seeing progress too.  My left knee finally feels like it's almost tracking properly which is fantastic and there is limited pain on extension now.  Sometimes there's even no pain.  YAY!

Glute Med work:  stay tuned for a blog post!

 Saturday afternoon my friend David and I met up with Leanna again for another technique session in the pool.  This time we got to use fins!  We worked on hand position, reach and entry into the water.  I found this session to be incredibly helpful as well.  I don't have very good reach and my hands do weird things when they enter the water.  They just sort of float until I start to pull.   Now I have a better sense of what proper reach feels like and when I do that, my hands actually enter the water ready to pull.  We spent over an hour in the pool.  I was frozen by the time I got out.  A nice hot shower and a few layers of Icebreaker Merino and I was ready for food.  We hit up Bacon Nation yet again and went a little overboard.

David's burger:  The Pork Star and Bacon Porktine that we shared. 

The poutine was too much.  It was delicious but we just couldn't finish it.  Thankfully we had a decent walk back to the car, ha ha.

I had a nice lazy-ish day yesterday.  I had a really hard swim on Sunday morning and spent most of the afternoon lounging around.  I really needed it, I was exhausted.   3 days of swimming in a row really tired me out.

Anyway, this is how my week broke down:

Monday:  OFF - my knees were still kinda sore so I opted to skip swimming since it was fin day. Did physio work in a.m.
Tuesday:  75 minutes of strength & mobility work in a.m. + 35 minute hard-ish ride on the trainer in p.m.
Wednesday:  1800m swim, then worked a 12 hour day.   Did most of my physio work before swimming.
Thursday:  Slept in - did my physio exercises and that was about it. 
Friday:  Hard 2600m swim , physio work in a.m. and pilates in p.m.
Saturday:  1h 20 minute ride in a.m., 900m technique swim in p.m.
Sunday:  2800m swim, followed by a lot of couch time.  So. Good.

Total time:  8h 22 minutes including all my physio work.  8100m of swimming.  At this rate, I *should* have my swimming mojo back by the new year.  

How was your week of workouts?  

G.O.H.A.R.D & Another Milestone

Lately, whenever I go on twitter, I always seem to find out that it's some kind of special day celebrating something or other.   Peculiar People Day (January 10th, in case you were wondering),  Do a Grouch a Favour Day (February 16th) National Goof-Off Day (March 22nd and yes, this has been marked in my calendar) and National Lost Sock Memorial Day (May 9th).  You can see the complete list here.   Not only is October 31st Halloween, but it's also National Magic Day and Increase Your Psychic Powers Day.  Seriously?  I'm dying.

Well, I've got another one to add to the list. 

Today is a day I can truly embrace (pun intended).  It's G.O.H.A.R.D day.  Normally GO HARD is something I'd say when dispensing 5km racing advice.  But in this instance it stands for Globally Organized Hug A Runner Day.

I'm a hugger.  And a runner.  So this is my kinda day.

Thanks to Run the Edge for this:  "Every runner deserves a hug. A real hug. The kind of hug that says, "Even if I don't understand why you do it, I appreciate and recognize your effort."

So, for all of you reading, I'm sending out a virtual hug (because I'm pretty sure you're almost all runners that read along). Those of you that see me on regular basis, don't be shy!!! 

On another note, you may remember (or maybe you don't) that one of my other goals earlier on in the year was to get to the 250,000m mark with my swimming.  The next big milestone (where I get another fancy swim cap and pin) will be 500,000m.  I figured it would take me a while to get there especially since I swam less during the summer.  Well folks, today I hit 400,000m and if I manage to keep up my mileage I may very well make 500,000m by the end of March. 

Only 98,510m left to go!  WOOHOO! 

Make sure you get out and hug a runner or two today!

Goal Getter 2013 Upate: April

It seems like just yesterday I was writing my March update.  It's kinda scary how the time is flying by.  All in all, I'd have to say that April was a good month.  I nailed 2 more of my 2013 Resolutions / Goals.

I ran a sub 3:20 at Boston and I hit the 250,000m mark for swimming.  So yeah, April has been a pretty amazing month.

I have a few things I want to work on for the month of May. 

1) My flexibility.  It's horrible.  I mean seriously horrible.  Everything is in a constant state of tightness, even after stretching, foam rolling and massage.  I don't think I stretch well enough given the amount of "muscle shortening" that I do (weights & running but especially weights).  I need to balance that out with some yoga or some sort of regular stretching routine that is done every day.  Or at least every other day in conjunction with the stretching I do post exercise.  I think this is the major issue behind all my other little muscle issues I've had over the course of this past year.

2) Cycling.  It needs to become a part of my life once again, especially since I've signed up for 6 sprint triathlons this summer.  Looks like the daily doubles will be back in full swing soon. 

3) Aim for at least 2500m every time I swim.  This would be easily doable if I actually stayed for the entire swim.  Most of the time I leave about 15 minutes early.  I don't really need to.  It's not like I'm rushing off to work.  I don't start work until 9:00 am and the pool is only 15 minutes away from the studio.  Given that swimming ends at 7:30, that gives me plenty of time to get ready and get to work.  So, I'm going to start to make an effort to get at least 2500m in per swim.   Or maybe even stay until the very end.  Wouldn't that be something??

4) Get back on the #PlankADay bandwagon.  I did that last year for the month of July and the difference in my core strength and appearance was amazing.   Right now I'm only doing plank work when I'm at the gym, which is twice a week.  Time to change that.

How was your April?  Did you check off any more goals from your 2013 list?

250,000m

I did it.  I hit 250,000m a whole MONTH ahead of schedule.  That's a nice way to close out the month of April.

What's the big deal with 250,000m?

Nothing really except that I'll get a fancy swim cap and a pin from Masters Swimming Canada.  And I'm only 750,000m away from joining the Million Metres club. 

Realistically I know I've swam a hell of a lot more than 250,000m since joining this Masters group almost 4 years ago but I didn't start tracking my workouts with them until October of 2011.  I tracked my workouts for 2 months and then stopped.  Even though I kept swimming with them, I wasn't entering the workouts on their site.  I thought that I could go back and enter everything in but they only let you go back a month.  I realized this in May of 2012.  D'oh!! So I started again in May of 2012.   At that point I had logged 20,600m.  So in one year I managed to log roughly 230,000m.

That's a whole lot of pool time.  I used to dislike pool time but I did it because it was a necessary part of triathlon training.

Then a funny thing happened.  Somewhere along the way I actually began to enjoy it.  And then something else happened.  I started to improve.  The improvement motivated me to keep going and stay consistent.  Funny how that works. 

I find it to be a fantastic form of cross training as well as a great recovery aid.  It's worked out well that my harder training days are on Tuesdays and Thursdays and then Wednesdays and Fridays are either swim days or complete days off.  There's nothing like a good swim to help flush out left over lactic acid from a race or a hard workout.  Obviously it's also an excellent cardio workout as well.  I definitely attribute swimming to helping me keep my cardio fitness at a fairly high level. 

Even if I decide to stop doing triathlons somewhere down the road, I don't think I'll ever stop swimming.  I'm sure it's something I'll be able to do long after my old bones decide they can't run anymore.  Or perhaps it's the key to keeping my old bones on the road.  Only time will tell.

Is there an activity that you do that you don't really love but you do it out of necessity? 

Goal Getter 2013: March Update

It just seems like yesterday that I wrote my February re-cap.  March was certainly a whirlwind of insanity.  I celebrated a birthday, ran a half marathon, worked 13 days straight (5 of which were in Miami, boohoo for me) and ran a 30km a couple of weeks later.  I set PB's in both races I did and I came very close to hitting goal #10 on my list of resolutions on my birthday (breaking 1:30 in a half marathon).   That would have been an amazing birthday present.  I guess the next best thing is knowing that I'm getting really close.  A summer of racing triathlons should set me up nicely for a sub 1:30 in the fall.  What I did manage to do is hit goal #14:  My race time was fast enough to get me a guaranteed entry to NYC in 2014.  YEAH.

One goal I did have that I didn't put on my list, mainly because I wasn't really serious about it until about a month before the race, was getting my gold medal at Around the Bay.  After my result at the Chilly Half, I was pretty sure I'd be able to do it.  It wouldn't be pretty but I'd probably be able to pull it off.  I did it but it took me almost a week to recover from it.  I went much harder than I should have. But I honestly don't think I would have changed anything, other than the fact that I should have booked a massage a couple of days after the race.  That probably would have helped speed my recovery.  Oh well. 

Got the gold!

 I'm still chugging along nicely with my swimming as well.  In fact I dragged my sorry butt up at 5:30 am this morning to get to the early swim so I could get some mileage in before I went to meet my friend for a run.   I managed to swim 2700m in just under an hour this morning.  That brought my total for the month to 11 swims totaling 23,800m.  I'm now at 231,250m which means I have less than 20,000m to go before I hit 250,000m.   I suspect that I'll probably hit the 250,000m mark sometime mid-May. 

My cycling has been sporadic but at least it's not non existent.  I'm really looking forward to getting outside and riding once the weather warms up.  Realistically that probably won't happen until the end of April but that's ok.  I've got the Computrainer to keep me somewhat accountable in the meantime.


The area I need to get a better handle on is my diet.  I was so good during the month of February but this month has been tough.  I think my crazy work schedule, mixed in with the races and G being away has made it tough to stay on track.  We haven't actually done a proper grocery shop in about a month.  THAT is highly unusual for me.  I will be rectifying that tomorrow.  My body is craving good wholesome food.  I am going to toss out all the little bits of chocolate and other junk that have made their way into the house over the last few weeks as I can't seem to control myself once I indulge.  So into the trash it goes. 

Other than that, I'm happy with the way things are going.  Next stop - BOSTON!

How are your 2013 goals shaping up?