Monday Musings: Birthday Week & A Sneak Peek

Hey hey hey, it's Mon-DAY and I cannot believe that we've been here for a MONTH already!  February has pretty much flown by.  Normally I'm not a big fan of February but I'm not gonna lie, I'm LOVING February this year.   We're really enjoying the weather, the people and the fact that we can hop on our bikes and ride right from our front door.  G said he thinks he could live here.  I'm not sure I could, as much as I love the warm weather, I know I'd miss the changing of the seasons.   Not to mention my family and friends.

Speaking of my family,  my amazing sister made it on local TV to talk about a project that she has been working on for the last year.   To say I'm proud would be an understatement.   And I realize that it's been a while since I've mentioned my dad.  His heart attack back in November was quite serious but he's finally in cardiac rehab and he's on the mend.  He's changed his diet and he's now allowed to play some badminton and he's in the gym lifting weights.   So things are moving in the right direction!

We didn't get up to much this weekend as G had to jet off to Paris for work so there were no tourist escapades this weekend.   He's gone for the entire week and won't be back until late this Saturday.   So, I'm going to play tourist without him.  But I won't be going solo.  Nope.  It's my birthday on Friday so a few of my girlfriends are flying in from Toronto for a long weekend and we're road tripping to Clearwater Beach.  WOOOHOOO!  Nothing like a beach weekend with your gal pals to celebrate another trip around the sun.   I can pretty much guarantee that the only thing that will get a work out will be my dancing shoes.   Dancing counts as cardio right?  Ha.

And in other BIG NEWS, I'm finally getting ready to launch my website!!!!  We're getting so close and I'm SUPER EXCITED.   For now,  you can check out my Facebook page and you can get a sneak preview of my logo there.  WHEEEEEEEEEEE!

Ok ok, that's enough squealing.   Let's get to how this last week of training went down shall we?

Monday:   57km bike + 5km run G and I met up with my friend Deirdre and her hubby Jonathan as well as our friends Ruth and Keith for some TT intervals, followed by a run off the bike.  We drove out to Silver Lake in Leesburg and proceeded to create perfect circles in Strava, ha ha.

We did a really good warm up (3 laps) then hammered one lap all out so Jonathan could get the Strava KOM (he AVERAGED 48.5 kph.  BEAST!).  Then we did a couple more easy laps and did a one lap TT.  Then another couple of easy laps and then a 3 lap TT.   Given that it's only February and I haven't really put in a lot of high intensity interval work on my TT bike just yet, I'm SUPER happy with how that all went down.  To see those speeds this early makes me happy.  My normalized power (NP) for this part of the workout was 192W and my 20 minute power average was 215W.   My average watts per kg for each lap of the 3 lap TT were, 3.70, 3.60 and 3.86 respectively.   I'm pretty pleased with that and hope to improve on that over the next few months.

By the time we finished riding it was 12:30 and it was scorching hot.  But I had said I wanted to do a brick so G and I laced up.  He took off like a shot.  I shuffled out of the parking lot, legs and knees hurting.   I wanted to stop.  I figured it would probably take about 1km before I felt ok.  Sure enough just past the 1km mark, everything stopped hurting and I got into a groove.  I caught G and proceeded to bang out a 23 minute 5km.  Not even remotely close to what I used to be able to run off the bike but, you've gotta start somewhere.  It wasn't pretty that's for sure but I was pleased with the effort.

Target acquired!  

Tuesday:  Swim 2377m + 60 minute strength workout.  I knew I was going to need some serious recovery time after that workout so I skipped the Centre Hill ride.  I swam and went to the gym with Dee.

Wednesday:  This was supposed to be a big ride day with Dee but Mother Nature decided to pour rain for most of the day so we didn't ride.  I figured I'd switch things around and run but I missed my window of opportunity to get out.  And I really wasn't feeling that great so nothing happened.

Thursday:  22.5km bike. I hardly slept on Wednesday night so I missed my morning swim.  I was still pretty sore from the gym on Tuesday so I had figured I'd do an easy ride vs. doing the Centre Hill ride.  I got up and ate breakfast but felt so crappy I went back to bed (thank you "Aunt Flo")  It was raining in the morning and then cleared up around lunch so I went out at that point.   Not the best idea, I still wasn't feeling awesome.  But at least I got outside.

Friday:   8km run.  I slept much better Thursday night and had big plans for Friday but we ended up cleaning the house in the morning, then going to see another rental place that we might book for next year.  By the time that was done it was just past 11 so G and I laced up our shoes and went out for a run.  It was 32 degrees celsius.  I was a big sweaty mess by the time we finished.  But I was glad we did something.

Saturday:  77.5km ride with the Cycling Hub group in some crazy dense fog.  We climbed Sugarloaf Mountain again this week.  My legs were definitely feeling these last few weeks of bike time.

Sunday:  76.9km ride with Epic Cycles + a 5.8km easy run off the bike.  I love that there are two different group rides we can choose from!   The Epic Cycles group is a big one. They have a race team so there were some very speedy guys leading the front of the pack.   But the point of this ride was to put in some base miles so it was a nice easy pace.

Swim:  2377m ( I really need to work on improving this, ha ha ha)

Bike:  234km

Run:  18km

Total time:  12h 13 minutes

This week will be a very nice scale back week.  I had a deep tissue massage yesterday and I'm actually quite sore so I will be taking to the pool today which means I should be able to get 3 swims in this week!  I will have a nice 3 day break from training which should have me rested and ready to tackle another big week.

How was your week of training?  It's been a while but I'm linking up with Tricia and Holly for their weekly wrap!  Head on over and check out some of the other posts!

"It's Monday, don't forget to be awesome!"

Coach PK  

Where It's At: An Update + A Weekly Wrap

Heyyyyy....

I'm still alive.  This has been a very strange and emotional two weeks.  I went from going a million miles an hour to a dead stop at work, which is nice as I feel like I can breathe again.  Things were starting to feel like they were getting a little out of control so to have some calm back in my life is a good thing.

To add to the strange and emotional vibe, last week, it was announced that Gord Downie, singer of the Tragically Hip has terminal brain cancer.  He's only 52.   The Hip have never been one of my favourite bands (I should probably be kicked out of Canada for that) but they are Canadian icons.  For some reason, this news really upset me.  I'm not really sure why.  Perhaps because he's not much older than G.  And perhaps because his passing will mark the end of a band (and a voice) that helped shape the landscape of Canadian music.

On the injury front I have been wavering back and forth like a yoyo in terms of my race.  A week ago I had decided that it wasn't worth stressing over and that I wasn't going to do the race.  Then I went up north last weekend, got on my bike and rode 96km of hills in the scorching heat and thought, maybe, just maybe, I could do it.  This weekend, I slogged out 88km brutal km's on my tri bike and lamented my loss of strength and speed.   So right now I'm still not 100% sure what I'm going to do.  I think a lot will depend on what the ultrasound I'm having done tomorrow shows.  And, I still can't run so there's that.  I tried earlier on this week and the pain was still there.  Which leads me to believe that I have really done a number on myself.

Getting ready to tackle 96km with a whole bunch of other like minded folks.

These last 7 weeks have not been easy.   At the start of all of this I figured I'd be out maybe a couple of weeks but as time went on and the pain with running didn't really stop, I became concerned.  To make matters worse, my two chief health care practitioners don't agree on what the issue is.  My physio believes that what I have is proximal hamstring tendonopathy and my chiro still feels like this is all stemming from my piriforimis muscle.  The not knowing is killing me.  Everyone I've spoken to is shocked that I haven't had any imaging done.   Thanks to an amazing friend of mine who made some inquiries for me, I managed to get in to see Dr. Tony Galea on Friday.  Dr. Galea is one of the top sports medicine doctors in Canada.   He listened to my symptoms, had me get on the table and promptly poked my hamstring insertion point, which in turn made me almost fall off the table.  The pain was excruciating.  He manipulated a few spots further down from the insertion point and asked me if they hurt and I said no and that seemed to be a good thing.   Perhaps I tore something and it hasn't healed properly, who knows.  All I know is that I just want to get better.  

Injuries have a way of breaking you down mentally and I can honestly say that this injury has broken my spirit.  I haven't been myself for the last several weeks.   It kills me to sit on the sidelines and it kills me to watch the fitness I worked so hard for slowly disappear.   Everyone is getting excited for our upcoming race in Tremblant and I'm trying to keep my shit together and not break down in tears every time it comes up in conversation.  I'm sure I'll feel better once I have some definitive answers.  I'll get those on June 15th when I go in for my follow up appointment with Dr. Galea.  In the meantime,  I'm keeping up with my physio exercises and I'm working on strengthening my core and hips.  I haven't stopped swimming and I'm continuing to ride as my body will allow so there's that.  

Since I'm actually able to do some things, I figured I'd link up with Holly and Tricia's Weekly Wrap.  And, it's given me an excuse to get back on the blog.  I haven't felt very motivated to write to be honest.

Anyway....this is how my week went down!

Monday:  OFF.  I really needed sleep after two days in a row of cycling but I did my physio exercises!

Tuesday:  20km ride.  My legs were still feeling the weekend so I cut this short.  It was a beautiful morning for a ride though and I'm glad I made the effort to get out.  Physio work in p.m.

Wednesday:  2800m swim in the a.m. and then I laced up my shoes in the p.m. and went out for a short jaunt to celebrate Global Running Day.  3.88km.  Not pain free.   :(

Thursday:  40 minutes of strength training / physio work.  I was going to ride but my glut was still sore from the shockwave treatment I had the night before so I went to the gym instead.

Friday:  2350m swim + physio exercises

Saturday:  88km ride + physio exercises

Sunday:  2500m swim + physio exercises

Total time:  7h 40 minutes.  Most of that was spent on the bike, ha ha.

I know things could be worse but being a very focused and goal oriented gal, I sometimes find it difficult to get back on my feet and re-focus - when you invest so much of your self and your time into something you love, only to have it go sideways, well, it really sucks.  This is definitely the biggest set back I've had in all my years of racing so this is new territory for me.  I've never missed a goal race and now that's looking like a strong possibility.   But that's all I'm willing to say right now - a "possibility".  It's not definitive.   It ain't over till it's over, right?

How has everyone been?  It looks like summer has finally arrived in Toronto which is FABULOUS.  We've had fantastic weather for the last few weeks and it's only going to get better.  Bring on Summer!

In Limbo - Weekly Wrap

What. A. Week.  Can someone please stop this emotional roller coaster?  I'd really like to get off thankyouverymuch.

If you've been reading along you would have read this post on Friday.  About an hour after I published that post, I had a call with my chiropractor for an update.  The conversation didn't go the way I had hoped.  He told me he wanted me to take a week off.    That sent me into a complete tailspin.  I hung up the phone and started crying and I stayed in a funk all day.  I already feel like I'm behind the eight ball.  This has been going on for FIVE weeks.  My training has been haphazard to say the least.   I've given up on my top five goal and I feel like I'm dangerously close to having to give up on the idea of even starting the race.  I still can't run and my cycling is falling behind big time.  I have lost a lot of fitness.

This weekend was going to be the test.  If I could ride for 2.5 to 3 hours pain free, then I would have known that I could get in a couple more long rides and be good to go for Tremblant, even if I had to walk the half.  But that didn't happen and now I'm left wondering if I'll even make it to the start line.

What's bothering me the most is that no one can figure out exactly what's wrong.  It's been 5 weeks of treating various symptoms.   Granted I had a BUNCH of different things that were bothering me and with each treatment, various things have gotten better.  The one thing that remains is my hamstring issue.  I haven't had any imaging done and I think that needs to happen in order to eliminate any more guess work and come up with a clear plan of action.

G has been trying to cheer me up and he's been very supportive but I can't seem to get out of this funk.  He even bought me this amazing cycling kit.

It doesn't help matters that the weather has been nothing short of spectacular this weekend - FINALLY.  With all my spare time, I finally dealt with the garden in the back and did some planting.  It's nice to see some flowers in there vs the bits of weeds that were there last summer, ha ha.

I didn't get up to much this week but I'm still going to link up (a day late) with Holly and Tricia for their weekly wrap.

Monday:  OFF

Tuesday: OFF.  I was still really sore from my ART / Acupuncture treatment and I worked a long day.

Wednesday:  1600m swim

Thursday:  31km ride outside

Friday:  4.2km run - not good + 2000m swim

Saturday:  OFF.  Did some gardening.   That has to count for something?

Sunday:  OFF.  I even skipped my swim as per my chiro's orders.  I don't get why he wants me to not swim.  I'm going to see if I take my legs out of the equation (i.e use a pull buoy) if he'll let me in the pool.

Total time 2h 49 minutes.

I really hope that this week is better.

How was your week?  If you're in Canada, how did you celebrate the long weekend? 

#OperationTop5 Week 18: The Roller Coaster Ride

It's amazing what a difference a week can make.   On Monday I was thinking that my season was over and that I wouldn't be able to do anything except swim for the next few months.  I left my appointment with Lauren in tears because I was so uncertain.  She reassured me that I would be fine but I went down that dark hole of self pity.  By Wednesday I was starting to feel better about things, especially after my Osteopath appointment.  My back had stopped bothering me and the sciatic pain I was experiencing was gone.  I was still having some weird hamstring pain but after I visited my chiro on Friday, he did a full assessment of me, tested me for any disc issues (there were none) did some ART on my cranky hamstring and adductor and told me I would be fine.  Those words were music to my ears.  Especially because I was actually starting to FEEL fine.

Since I had so much free time on my hands this past week,  I took the time to take care of myself.  Lauren said it was important to bring my stress levels down so every night I'd have a nice hot bubble bath with some lavender epsom salts and I'd read.  Needless to say I slept like a baby every night this week.  I really needed that.  I also started using the Headspace app.  I've wanted to try meditation for a while and I had heard a lot of great things about Headspace so when I heard they were conducting a month long experiment in exchange for a years free subscription, I thought, why not, let's give it a go.  I've only been using it for a few days now so I can't really report back on anything just yet, but I will post a review in about a months time.

I also went and had coffee with a  friend of mine who had some serious back issues.  I had reached out to her earlier in the week to pick her brain about what worked for her and we made plans to get together.  I hadn't seen her in ages so it was really nice to sit down and catch up.  No Saturday long ride also meant I had time to do some shopping.   I hit up Sherway Gardens bright and early before it got busy and went to Lush to get more bath goodies.  I wanted to get out of the house because our contractor had arrived at 7:00 am to start working in the basement.  He's at our place 7 days a week working away in the basement.   Which is awesome but it makes for a very noisy home.  Thankfully he'd given us a few tasks to deal with this weekend.  We had to go and pick out flooring for the basement as well as a vanity and mirror for the bathroom so that got us out of the house and away from the noise.  He's made pretty amazing progress in a week though!

Sunday I was able to get on the bike to test things out.  While I didn't feel 100% - my back was still a bit tight, I didn't have any hamstring pain so that was good.  I managed 45 minutes on the trainer and probably could have ridden longer but I had to get ready for swimming.  Sunday was a pretty low key day.  We did some grocery shopping and then I did some meal prep in the afternoon in between dealing with our contractors.   All in all a nice relaxed Sunday, other than the banging around in the basement.

So, I do feel much better about things now than I did this time last week, however, I don't know that I'm out of the woods just yet.  I'm still very tight through my back, gluts and hips and I don't feel like I'm in alignment.  I feel like my pelvis is slightly twisted which could explain the tightness and slight tingling I've been feeling on and off.  I did a fair bit of mobility work after my swim on Sunday and that seemed to provide some relief.   So here's hoping things are moving in the right direction.

It was a quiet week workout wise but I still got my swims in and a lovely morning walk so I'm linking up with the lovely Holly at Hoho Runs and Tricia and Mississippi Piddlin for their Weekly Wrap.

Monday:  OFF

Tuesday:  OFF

Wednesday:  2300m swim.  I got moved up to a faster lane and I just about died.

Thursday:  4.5km walk.  I decided it was time to stop moping and start moving.

Friday:  2600m swim

Saturday:  OFF

Sunday:  45 minute bike ride + 3500m swim

Total time:  4h 5 minutes

I feel like I've kind of been on a taper.  I guess that's not a bad way to look at it but it's not like I'm going to be jumping back into crazy workouts either.  My coach said she only wants me doing easy zone 1-2 bike workouts and I can't run until I get the a-ok from Lauren.  So hopefully this week I can focus on cycling and then next week I can get back into running.  I've got 7 weeks left until race day.  And really only about 5 weeks of solid training time before I have to start to taper.  Here's hoping I make it through that in one piece.  At this point, I just want to get to the start line healthy.  That's my number one goal.

How was your week?  How do you keep yourself from going down that "woe is me" path when you're injured?

#OperationTop5 Week 17: Redefining My Limits

Well, this week wasn't what I had hoped for.   I had hoped that I would be toeing the line of another race with my friends but that didn't happen.  Instead, I was a spectator.  Which was fun in itself but definitely left me with a huge case of FOMO (fear of missing out).   However, I finally got to meet one of my out of town athletes who came to Toronto to run the Goodlife Marathon.   A bunch of us went out for a very early dinner on Saturday night.  It was great to see some familiar faces and meet some new ones!  

photo courtesy of Carmy Do

I had other athletes racing both Goodlife and Mississauga so I was checking Sports Stats regularly all morning.  All of my athletes that raced here had P.R's.  And a good friend of mine qualified for Boston.   So it was definitely a good weekend from that perspective.

Oh and we started our basement renovations so that was exciting.   And messy.  Our house looks like a bomb went off in it.  Everything that was in the basement has been moved to other areas of the house.  Needless to say I think I'm going to need to purge things after the reno is done.

After my appointment with Lauren last week, I had high hopes that I was getting better.  I actually felt really good after I saw her and then I felt even better after my massage that evening.  I thought for sure, I'd feel great by the time the weekend rolled around.  But alas, I did not.  And of course that has triggered an "It's the end of the world" mentality.  I have shed several tears this weekend.  Tears of frustration and worry.  I always go to the worst case scenario and in my mind that is, "I'm not going to be able to race in 8 weeks" because of this disc issue.  Health practitioners always say don't look at Dr. Google but most of us can't help ourselves.  Some of the things I've read have freaked me out and made me worry even more.   So I've promised myself to stop googling my symptoms.   Lauren said that nerves get irritated very easily and they have to be calmed down so that is what I'm going to focus on right now.  

I can swim without pain and I usually feel ok after a swim so that's a good thing.  Cycling is somewhat questionable.  I rode outside on Saturday and that might have been too much.  I think staying on the trainer might be a bit better so I'm not dealing with wind, hills, bumpy roads etc.  Running is completely out of the question.  I ran for 2 minutes today towards the finish line at Mississauga and I'm pretty sure that's probably why I'm having pins and needles all the way down my leg now.  So, no more running until I am cleared to do so.  And honestly I'm not terribly worried about missing out on my running, other than the fact that I love doing it.  I know that my speed is still there and it will come back.  I am worried about not being able to ride but I don't want to jump to any conclusions there just yet.

Moving forward, I really have to watch my training load.  I can't do hard workouts without adequate rest.  I can't strength train on hard days either.  My training now will have to be very finely balanced.  If this disc / nerve issue get sorted out fairly quickly, I'm going to have to be very diligent about taking rest when I need it, and looking after my body.  I'm going to have to learn to ignore my 25 year old brain that still thinks I can do anything.  I think that will be the hardest part of all this, ha ha.

Anyway, despite this setback, I still did get some workouts in this week.  So I'm linking up with the lovely Holly at HohoRuns and Tricia at Mississippi Piddlin for their Weekly Wrap.

Monday:  OFF

Tuesday:  25 minute run.  Leg still wasn't good.

Wednesday:  2650m swim

Thursday:  45 minute ride + a run around the block to test the leg.  Still not great.

Friday:  2650m swim

Saturday:  35km ride

Sunday:  2300m swim

Total time:  5h 31 minutes.  Better than nothing I say!

The goal this week will be about focusing on what I can do vs. what I cannot.   Easier said than done but I'm going to do my best.

Hope everyone had a great week!  Who raced this weekend?

#OperationTop5 - Week 16: Things Were Good, Until They Weren't

OH hey Monday.  What a weekend.  It flew by so fast!  As did most of this month.  Yesterday was our 12 year wedding anniversary.  We spent it at a race, of course, ha ha.  G was racing Paris to Ancaster, this crazy off road bike race that he likes to do every year and I went along to be his Sherpa and cheerleader because that's how we roll.  Honestly, I don't know where the time has gone, all I know is that I wouldn't trade any of that time for the world.  G totally gets me, he's always 100% behind all my crazy plans and he's 100% supportive of everything I do.

Sans Make Up, Pre-Race Selfie!

To celebrate, we kept things low key and went out to dinner at a local restaurant.  We've eaten out every other night this weekend so we figured why not, ha ha.  We were out Friday night for a friend's 40th birthday, then we went out again on Saturday for another friend's 39th birthday and then we were out last night.  We're also out again tonight with one of G's co-workers from Europe.  4 nights out in a row, I think I'm going to need a day off after all that action!  Well, at least I'll probably get to sleep in a bit this week given that I don't have much in the way of training on my schedule.

My good friend David celebrated the big 4-0 this past week.  I picked out the saying for this shirt, haha.

After last week's stellar week of training, I had high hopes for this week.  I was looking forward to my big weekend ride and another long run.  But my body had other plans.   Seems to be the story of my life these days.  The older I get the more limits I seem to have.  Things that I could do 2 years ago, I can't do now because I end up with some kind of injury or tweak.  I'm trying not to get too frustrated with my body but it's hard not to, especially when I had gotten into such a good groove.   I'm hoping this little issue gets resolved with a few trips to my ART guy.   I had a day off on Monday and then on Tuesday I had an interval workout.  5x1km intervals.  My legs didn't feel great when I started but I had a good warm up so by the time that was done, I actually felt pretty good.  I hammered out my intervals and I felt really strong.  I was getting close to paces I was running 2 years ago (4:17km, 4:01km, 3:57km, 4:02km, 4:04km).  I felt great.  By the end of the workout, during my cool down, I could really feel tightness in my hamstrings, especially my left one.  I stretched well and didn't think anything of it.  I had a massage on Tuesday night at the massage school by my office.  I've been going there a couple of times a month, in addition to seeing my RMT as I feel I need that extra TLC.  The poor girl was so nervous because her supervisor was going to be sitting in on the session.  Needless to say, it wasn't much of a massage.  I swam the next day, hoping that would help my legs feel better.  They felt ok.  In the evening I had a ride and they felt so/so during the ride but not great.  Thursday morning I went out for an easy run and by the end of that run, my left leg was totally messed up.  I could barely walk due to the pain in my leg.  My sciatic nerve was being pinched.  I figured it was my piriformis again so off I went to see my ART guy.   He did a lot of digging around my glut and hamstring and said I'd probably be sore for a few days.  He wasn't kidding.  Friday I still hurt.  Saturday, I was a bit better but still tender in some places.  I managed a short ride.  Sunday I felt somewhat better and thought I'd try to go for a run while Gary was out racing.  I ran 1.5km and had to turn around I hurt so much.  I cried all the way back to the car.  That was not what I had hoped for and it really bummed me out.

I'm going back to see him this afternoon for some more work as I'm still sore and I can still feel a bit of pins and needles in my leg.  I really hope he can get this sorted out because I'm supposed to race the Mississauga half this weekend and I really DO NOT want to have another DNS this year.

I'm linking up a bit late with Holly & Tricia for their Weekly Wrap.  It's a chance for active women to connect and share their training and racing experiences.  Check it out!

Monday:  OFF

Tuesday:  15.km run with 5x1km intervals in a.m.  40 minute strength training session at lunch.  Mostly upper body & core.

Wednesday:  2600m swim.  I felt pretty good.  45 minute zone 2 ride in p.m.

Thursday:  8.5km easy run to test out my new Zoot Solanas.  Everything went to hell after this.

Friday:  1650m swim.  Still sore and very disinterested in swimming stroke work.

Saturday:  45 minute ride on the trainer.

Sunday:  NADA.

Total time:  5h 36 minutes.  I had 12h on the schedule but that never happened.  *Sigh*  One step forward two steps back.

On the plus side, this has helped me figure out what I CAN'T do so moving forward my coach has a better idea of how to schedule my workouts.  At least there's an upside, ha ha.

How was your week of workouts?  Who watched Game of Thrones last night????  I did not, but it's on the PVR so I will be tuning in as soon as possible!

#OperationTop5 - Spring is Finally Here!

Another weekend, gone...but never mind that, we are already halfway through April!!  Holy Moly, time is flying by like crazy this year.  I blink and the weekend is over.   What a glorious weekend it was though.  Spring finally showed up in Toronto.  Just in time for my longest run this year (and in the last two years as a matter of fact.)  Wooohooo!

This week was a flurry of activity.  Work has been busy and I had another full week of training.  This would have been my biggest volume week if I had managed to do all my workouts but I didn't.  A boiling hot pool (90 degrees!) on Wednesday made for a shortened swim workout and a splitting headache on Thursday kept me off my bike after work.  But other than that, it was a pretty successful week.  My coach has introduced speed work back in my life.  Holy smokes.  It's nice to open it up a bit, even if it is for shorter distances.

This weekend started with a visit to a townhouse that our real estate agent sent us.  We've also had two different contractors come by the house to give us an estimate to finish the basement.  So the Florida plans are kind of moving along.  The townhouse we saw was beautiful but priced a bit higher than we really want to be and we figured it would go for even more than what it was listed for.  We're happy to look around and see what's what for the next little while, until we at least get the basement sorted out.  Once that gets going, then I think we'll be in a better position to put an offer in on something.  But for now, we're just checking things out.  Going from a large detached home to a smaller town home will be a change that's for sure.  But if it means no more winter, then I'm ok with it!  As for Florida, Holly (Hoho Runs) asked where we were looking and we're aiming to be in the Clermont area.  Once we figure out how much we have to spend on a place down there, then we'll take a trip down and do some more exploring.

Anyway.....how about that training week???  I'm linking up with Holly (HoHo Runs) and Tricia (Mississippi Piddlin) for their Weekly Wrap.  This is how my week went down.

Monday:  OFF

Tuesday:  50 minute weight workout, 60 minutes of hills in the a.m.  60 minute ride in the p.m.

Wednesday:  1650m in a disgustingly hot pool.  I couldn't do the workout it was just too hot.  Our coach said we should just do what we could.  I had to get out every 200-250m to cool down it was just too much.   I did, however get this.  Yup, I finally hit 1 million metres since I started tracking my mileage back in 2012.

Thursday:  9.5km run with 20 minutes at tempo pace.  This was tough.  My legs were feeling Tuesday's workouts.  But I still managed a decent pace for the 20 minute section.   Thursday night I came home to this package of awesomeness from Zoot.

Friday:  2300m swim

Saturday:  89km ride with 2x10 minutes in zone 4,  followed by a 20 minute run off the bike.  Holy moly this was a tough day.

Sunday:  3000m swim, 2 hour run with the last 20 minutes at tempo effort.

Using the GoPro to check my form 

   
Total time:  11h 36 minutes vs. the 13h 35 minutes that was scheduled.   But I'm ok with that!

Next week is my last big week before my mini taper for the Mississauga half.  This coming weekend is going to be a big one, we've got 2 birthday celebrations and it's our 12 year wedding anniversary next Sunday.  ANNNNDDDD....Game of Thrones starts that day as well, ha ha ha.

Hope you guys had a great week!  What sort of fun did you get up to?  Did you have awesome weather?  It was sunny at 20 degrees in Toronto today!  

#OperationTop5 Week 13 - First Race of the Season!

Happy Monday!

I had every intention of writing this post yesterday but my weekend got away from me.  As did much of this week.  If life continues to be this crazy, I may have to look at taking a break from the blog for a while.  But we shall see.

This past week was pretty low key in terms of workouts.  I put in a huge amount of work the week before and I really needed to recover so I didn't have anything on the schedule until Wednesday.  I took full advantage of the no workouts and got as much sleep as possible.  My body needed it.  I slept really well almost every night last week.  No middle of the night wake ups.  It was solid, uninterrupted sleep.  SO good.  Wednesday I went back to my Masters swim and barely made 2100m.  It was pretty sucky.  I felt sluggish and slow.  I worked on my new stroke but that tired me out quite quickly so I had to really break it down and focus on ONE element (reaching forward).  I was pretty tired when I got out of the pool and I think I was in bed asleep by 9:00 pm that night, ha ha.  I had a brick scheduled for Thursday and I opted to do it in the morning.  I got on the bike and did my 60 minutes with 30 minutes at 80% of my FTP.  I'm not going to lie,  It was hard.  My legs still felt pretty heavy and it took them a while to warm up.  I had to work really hard to stay at that 80%. 

My Garmin has a feature called "Recovery advisor" and I do believe it uses the data from your heart rate / power to determine how long it will take you to recover from a workout.  It usually beeps about 10 minutes into a workout to alert you.  During my ride it beeped and it said "Recovery / Good".   Sometimes when it beeps good, I have to wonder what metrics it's measuring because there are times when it says good and I certainly don't feel it.  This ride was one of those times.  When I laced up my shoes to go out for my run, I started my watch in run mode and took off.  I actually felt really good on the run.  My heart rate felt a tiny bit high but not too bad.  10 minutes into my run, my Garmin beeps again and I look at my recovery advisor.  It says "Fair".  Ha.  Ok.  Clearly I wasn't recovered just yet.  Luckily I only had to run 20 minutes so it wasn't too taxing.  After uploading that workout in Training Peaks, I was given the option to skip my masters swim on Friday if I wanted to.  So I did.  I had a 2h 30 minute ride on the schedule for Saturday and my coach had said I could skip that too if I wanted to.  It was all about being healthy and fresh for Sunday.  I opted to ride 45 minutes just to spin my legs out.  That was about all I felt like doing.  After riding outside every day, being back inside on the trainer is horrible.   We had a belated Easter dinner at my parents in Guelph so we headed out there around 2:30.   We didn't plan on staying too late as I had to be up early and there happened to be a snow storm that rolled in.  Thank you Mother Nature.  We got dumped on again last night as well.  Seriously, it's APRIL.  Ugh.  Can I go back to Florida please????

Anyway, yesterday was my first race of 2016.  After 2 DNS, it was nice to finally get a race under my belt.  I did Around the Bay 30km as part of a two team relay.  What a blast.  There will be a race report later on this week but in short, it was EXACTLY what I needed.  I held a good solid pace, even on the hills.  My knees didn't hurt and I felt strong the entire time.  After everything I've been through with this injury nonsense, I was uncertain of what I'd be capable of, especially coming off of the massive week of training the week before.   Having the race I had, gave me a huge confidence boost.  So much so that I signed up for the Mississauga Half Marathon on May 1st.  I've done the 10km twice and the marathon once so I figure it's time to do the half!  And I have a bunch of friends racing as well as two of my athletes.  So it should be a blast for sure.

With all that, this is how my week actually went down - I'm linking up with Holly (HoHoRuns) and Tricia (Mississipi Piddlin) for their weekly wrap (a day late but hey, better late than never!)

Monday:  OFF
Tuesday:  OFF
Wednesday:  2100m swim
Thursday:  60 minute ride, 20 minute run

Testing out the remote control app on my phone for the GoPro - nice shot of the Pain Cave!

Friday: OFF
Saturday:  45 minute ride
Sunday: 15km race

Total time:  4h 8 minutes.  

I'm 99.9% sure I will not see a week this easy until my taper week for Tremblant.  My coach just updated my training plan for the next three weeks and it's massive and I have to admit, I'm excited.  I must be crazy but I can't wait to start tackling some bigger distances and some solid running mileage! 

#OperationTop5: Week 10: FTP Test and A Week from Hell

I'm dreading tomorrow.  Absolutely dreading it.  Why?  Because I know what this coming week is going to be like.  This past week was B-R-U-T-A-L it was so busy.   I haven't been this busy at work in a very long time.  I had two shoots happening on the same day, plus 3 others that are happening over the next 2 weeks.  To top it all off, we're heading to Florida on the 19th.  This always happens whenever I go away.  Especially if I'm going away for a race.  It's like the Universe wants to wear me down.  The older I get the more stress really takes a toll on me.   Suffice to say by the time Friday hit, I was done.  Mentally and physically exhausted.  I had my delayed FTP test on Saturday morning.   I slept fairly well until about 4 am when I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep due to G's snoring.  I got up and went to the spare bedroom and fell back asleep for a couple of hours.  I had set my alarm for 6:15 as the plan was to get on the bike for 7:00 am so I could get my ride done and we could go outside for a recovery ride since it was supposed to be really nice.

I made my way to the Pain Cave, got on the bike and did my warm up.  My legs didn't feel great.  I had a feeling that was going to be the case.  I made sure I did a really good warm up.  I hit all my high cadence work but I just felt kinda "meh".  I only had 1 hour total with 20 of it being my FTP so at 40 minutes in, it was go time.  I didn't go too hard at the start.  I've done that before and faded so I built into the pace.  Within 5 minutes I was sweating buckets.  This was hard.  I kept glancing at my power meter.  I wasn't seeing numbers that I liked.  I seemed to be barely able to hold 200w.  10 minutes in and my legs were screaming at me.  I put my head down and pedalled as hard as I could manage.  I had sweat pouring down my face and dripping off my arms.  I was gasping for air.  I finally made it to the end and hit lap so I could start my cool down.  I had no idea how that went other than it really hurt.

When I uploaded my workout after, I saw that I was 3 watts less than I was when I did my first test in January (221 vs 218).  I was pretty bummed out.  You don't want to lose power, you want to gain it.   But, as G pointed out, I did my first test on a different bike and I took 10 days off riding the week before and I've been really stressed out so it stands to reason that things will be different.   And, it's only 3 watts.  I'm sure my next test will be different.   Especially after a week of training camp.

This morning our swim was cancelled due to high chlorine levels in the pool.  So, I lounged around for a bit and then headed out for my run.   I had 1 hour on the schedule, which would be my longest run this year.  It wasn't pretty but I got it done.  I covered 12km in an hour and it was a bit harder than I would have liked but it was SO windy I had to fight to keep moving forward!  I took my new toy out for a spin as well.  I got a GoPro Hero 4.  It's pretty awesome and fairly easy to use.  It's going to get a lot of use when we're in Florida!

Without further ado,  I'm going to jump right into my week of training.  I'm linking up with Holly (HohoRuns) and Tricia (Mississippi Piddlin) for their Weekly Wrap.  Join in the fun or check out what all the other active ladies have gotten up to this past week!

Looking back at my week, I have to say I'm pretty pleased with how it all rolled out.  I actually got almost all of my workouts done.  If the pool hadn't been closed this morning I would have had a nice series of green boxes.  Oh minus my workout with my trainer, which I rescheduled due to my FTP test.

Monday:  OFF

Tuesday:  50 minutes of strength work in the a.m. and 75 minutes of cycling in the p.m.  All hill climbing.

Wednesday:  2600m swim

Thursday:  9.2km run at stupid o'clock in the morning due to work.

Friday:  2800m swim.  And I finally hit the 1,000,000 meter mark!

Saturday:  Double bike ride day:  1 hour on the trainer in the morning 37km outside in the sunshine in the afternoon.  March 12 in Canada and I'm riding outside in shorts.  I call that WINNING!

Sunday:  12.2km + a nap.

Total time:  8h 11 minutes.  Happy to be back at it!

This time next week, I will be recovering in the Florida sun!  Woohoo!

How was your week of training?  Have you entered my Endurance Tap giveaway yet?  There will be 3 lucky winners!!!

#OperationTop5 Week 9: Back in Business

What a difference a week makes!  Last week I was moaning and groaning about my glut.  This week, I've done a complete 360.  My glut is better and I'm back in business.  Not without a lot of A.R.T and rest though.  I think swimming really helped stretch me out so I'm grateful I was able to do that at least.  I decided to test things out on Thursday morning (which was also my birthday - you can read my birthday post here).  I tentatively hopped on the bike and started pedalling.  Nothing, no pain.  I pushed a bit harder.  Still no pain, just a little tightness.  45 minute sweaty minutes later I got off the bike with a huge grin on my face.  Best.  Birthday.  Present.  Ever.

This week at work was a busy one but we always take the time to celebrate birthdays so on Wednesday, it was one of the photographer's birthdays and we had these amazing donuts.  Thursday it was my birthday as well as another one of the photographers that I work with so of course there was cake.   And yes, that says what you think it says.  I keep things pretty clean here but I have a bit of a potty mouth.   Suffice to say I've eaten my weight in sugar this week.  I think I've had cake or something sweet every day since Wednesday.  Your birthday comes once a year - I say live it up.

We went out with a couple of good friends for dinner last night to celebrate and of course we pretty much closed the place down.  I had two glasses of wine and was ready to fall asleep at the table, ha ha.  I'm such a light weight.  It was a lot of fun and it was great to catch up with everyone.  I didn't get to bed until midnight which is super late for me so I skipped my morning swim.   Once in a while, you need a sleep in.  Today was that day.  Which brings me to the BIG news this week.  I finally hit double digits with my running!  Yup.  I ran 10.5km today before my legs said ok that's enough.  WOOHOOOOO!

I'm linking up with Holly and Tricia for the Weekly Wrap.  This is how my week went downnnn....

Monday:  OFF

Tuesday:  OFF

Wednesday:  2300m swim

Thursday:  45 minute ride

Friday:  2500m swim

Saturday:  2h 15 minute ride on the trainer and my longest ride this year.  I'm BAAAACK BABY!!!  Lots of zone 3 work.  Holy smokes was I ever drenched after that ride.

Sunday:  10.5km pain free run.  I definitely felt the bike ride in my legs but other than that, it was pretty freaking awesome.  It was so nice to be outside running in the sunshine!  I was clearly pretty happy about it.  I suspect my legs will probably be sore tomorrow but I don't care.

Total time:  5h 37 minutes.  It should have been 10 hours.  But whatever, I've got a training camp in 2 weeks that I want to be 100% healthy for so I'm not fretting about what I've missed.

How was your week? 

Don't forget to enter my Momentum Jewelry discount code giveaway!

#OperationTop5 week 8: Another Week, Another Detour

One step forward, three steps back seems to be the theme of my life these last few weeks.  I am beginning to think the Universe is trying to tell me something.  It's definitely testing my patience.  I finish my run rehab, I get sick so I miss almost a week of training.  Just as I start to ramp things up, I ended up aggravating my piriformis muscle in my right glut on Wednesday night at the gym. It was plain stupidity on my part and I should know better.  I didn't do a proper warm up before I started my weight workout.  I swear my brain still thinks I'm 25 when in reality I'm pushing 45.  I did some upper body and then went to do legs.  I was doing a single leg squat to deadlift and it was during the squat where I felt it seize up.  All I could think was CRAAAPPPPP.  It hurt to walk.  I finished up my workout with only upper body work and went home, iced, gently stretched and took some anti inflammatories before I went to bed.  I felt somewhat better in the morning but it was still sore when I walked up stairs.  I skipped my run on Thursday morning and went for a massage on Thursday night.  My SI joint on my right side was also fairly stuck so she released that.  Friday I went to my ART / chiro guy and he did some ART on my hip and glut.  I iced some more.  He told me to take Saturday off.  I was supposed to do my FTP test.  My coach said no way, take the rest.  Saturday I was quite sore and really frustrated.  There were some tears.  I always tend to go down the worst case scenario road so of course I was envisioning my entire season going down the toilet.

I felt a bit better when I got up this morning.  My coach said I could swim so I hit the pool with my Masters club and did my longest swim since my last Ironman in 2008.  I swam 3600m (200m short of an Ironman distance swim!)  I actually felt really good.  My lower back was a bit sore afterwards but I felt looser.  It didn't hurt to walk up the stairs any more.  I spent a few hours doing some meal prep (made some banana bread, because, snacking priorities of course!), and managed to sneak in an episode of Breaking Bad while G was downstairs on the bike, hehe.

I'm going to have a hot bath tonight and take a Robaxacet before I go to bed.  I'm hoping that tomorrow, I'm close to 100%.  Monday is my official rest day so even if I feel good, I'll still take the day off.   I go back to see my Chiro on Tuesday morning and we'll re-asses everything.  I am keeping my fingers crossed I'm on the up and up.  I'm scheduled to race in less than 4 weeks so I'd really like to be able to do that!

Despite my little detour this week, I still got a few workouts in so I'm linking up with Holly and Tricia for their Weekly Wrap.

Monday:  OFF

Tuesday:  45 minute ride

Wednesday:  3000m swim in a.m. 50 minute weight workout in p.m.

Thursday:  OFF

Friday:  2000m swim

Saturday:  OFF

Sunday:  3600m swim.  I SO wish I was able to run today because it was 14 degrees celsius and sunny.  It's the end of February.  That is NOT normal.

Total time:  4h 30 minutes

I have to say I was very happy to see the end of this past week.  It sucked.  Work was irritating, the weather was crappy (until today) and I was just generally cranky.  Such is life.  I'm happy to see the end of February, it's definitely my least favourite month.  On the positive side, I'm heading into my birthday week this week so there will be CAKE.  And dinner with friends.  YAY!

And.......I have a little contest happening on the blog tomorrow to celebrate a few things so make sure you swing by tomorrow to check it out!

That's a wrap!

How was your week?  Have you done something silly that resulted in an injury?