Monday Musings: Halfway There

Hello!

I'm still here, I'm just not spending a lot of time online.  Honestly, it's the last thing on my mind when I've got spectacular weather and great people to hang out with.  If I'm not out training, I'm either sitting on the back deck reading or working.  Weekends are spent out and about exploring.  There is always something going on.   It's funny how last year I thought that 2 months was going to be a long time.  It's not.  It's far too short when you've got places you want to see and people you want to visit.

It has been between 28-31 degrees celsius every day for the last two weeks and that is going to continue until this weekend.  It's made for some excellent heat training that's for sure.  I have had to pay extra attention to hydration.  I learned that the hard way on a long run last week.  I'm not really sure what I was thinking but I only brought one bottle with me on an hour and 10 minute long run.  I went out at 9:30 am and ran along a part of the trail with NO shelter.  And it was super windy.  It was like running into a blast furnace.  To say I caved was an understatement.  Strava assigned me an extreme suffer score and my Garmin told me I'd need 3 days to recover.  Needless to say I've learned my lesson.

I've done a LOT of volume in these last few weeks.  More so than last year.  But I came to Florida in much better cycling shape than last year as well.  I certainly didn't think that when I did my first FTP test back in November, but things do come back quickly if you stay the course and do the work.  My body is actually feeling ok.  I've been doing mobility work several times a week, along with my physio work.  I've been getting to the gym more often as well since it is so close.  My cranky SI joint seems to be happier these days.  I've been on my road bike most of the time but I took my TT bike out this past Saturday and I am very happy to report that my back managed to hold up ok.  And it wasn't like I was just spinning my legs.  These were hard efforts with climbing.  I was a bit sore / tight after I got off the bike but once I started moving around, I was fine.  I'm going to keep doing all that I'm doing and hope that things keep improving bit by bit.

I do have a few bits of exciting news to share.  I will be leading a beginners running workshop at the Lole Yorkville store when I'm back in Toronto in April.  WOOHOO!  I will be hosting 4 workshops in total.  The first two are geared towards beginners.  I am working on topics of discussion and I will be giving people a plan they can follow that will get them up to running for 30 minutes straight by the time the group meets again at the beginning of July.  I'm really looking forward to this!

The second bit of new is that I have finally gotten a PKPC kit in the works.  I've gone with Louis Garneau and they've created an awesome design that I absolutely love.  For now I've gotten tri and running stuff done but I may end up getting some cycling stuff made as well given how much time I spend on my road bike.  We'll see.  Next up - HATS!  I want a technical trucker hat and a regular running hat so if anyone has any recos, let me know.

So that's been the update.  Nothing crazy to report.  I've started a few blog posts on some topics of interest but they will require a bit more research so stay tuned for that at some point in the next week or so.

On to the fun part - TRAINING!  After my epic weekend at the Hunter Allen Camp, I took a couple of days off and then got sick, so I ended up taking another day off later in the week.  Needless to say I was well rested coming into this past week.  This is how last week unfolded.

Monday:  35km easy spin to Winter Garden for coffee with G.

Tuesday:  Skipped swimming due to a late night watching the Olympics.  13km long run with 3x2km repeats that completely killed me.   30 minutes of Upper body & core work followed by a 30 minute mobility class.

Wednesday:  30 minute easy swim (1554m to be exact)

Thursday:  100km ride with "Centre Hill Gang".  Nice easy 5km spin to meet the group, followed by roughly another 5-10km at a civilized pace and then the hammer got dropped and I hung on for dear life for the next 75km.  It was nice to actually have to work hard.  I haven't pushed myself too hard since I've gotten here and this ride was just what I needed.  I stopped for a coffee and a smoothie on the way home so I'd have enough gas to take the long way home so I could get my first 100km ride of 2018 in the bank.

Friday:  This was going to be a tempo run but given the previous days effort, I did a recovery run instead.  I then hit the gym for a 40 minute full body session, followed by a 40 minute swim.

Saturday:  Just under 60km TT Fun with the Swim Like a Pro Tri group.  I took Tom Sawyer out for his first outdoor ride of 2018.  I was surprised at how comfortable I was for most of the ride.  I'm not in the most aero position but I definitely seem to be able to crank out the watts on this bike.  I've been contemplating changing my fit to try to get a bit more aero but I may save that for the off season.  I know there is a trade off.  I may get more aero but loose more power.  I'm not sure what's better.  I'm also not sure if my back will be able to take a more aggressive position.  I do know that my neck and shoulders were totally fine at the end of this ride, which is NOT normal for me.  So something has changed in my mobility through my upper back and neck.   The bike was followed by a short run but I didn't know they were running so I didn't bring my running shoes.  After the run we did a short open water swim.  I swam about 1000m I think.  My Garmin said 817m but I went around the 400m course twice and did about another 100m out and back.  So something is up.

Sunday:  90km with the Epic Cycles crew.  This was a SPEEDY ride.  I do find riding with this group to be a bit stressful as no one seems to want to take charge and organize HOW we ride so the pack is a little messy.   I try to stay close to the front where it seems to be a bit more organized.  I did have a 20 minute run off the bike scheduled but that didn't happen.  I was tired and hungry so we made lunch and I did some work.

Totals for the week:

Swimming:  4,567m (I kid you not!)
Cycling:  284km 
Running:  20km <----- NEEDS WORK

I keep saying I need to work on my running and I've been better this year than last year but the bike always seems to take precedence.  My bike V02 max is now better than my run V02 max.  Funny how things have changed.

Total Time:  14h 22 minutes.  Total TSS for the week 801.   Which is the highest it's been in a while.  Which is also why I thought it would be a good idea to take today off, even though I felt ok.  I know this week is probably going to be another big one in terms of cycling.  I've got 4 longer rides on tap, one of them will probably be a really easy / fun ride but it's still time in the saddle.   I'm doing a Poker Ride on Saturday in Winter Garden.  It's my birthday and I figured that would be a fun way to get out and do something different.  It also ends at the Crooked Can Brewing company so REALLY how could I say no?  Beer + Bikes = awesome.

Happy Monday!

Has anyone ever done a poker run / poker ride?  I've done a run but this will be the first ride.  It's gonna be FUN!

Monday Musings: Finding my Groove

HOLA!

I can't believe we've been here for a week already.  It feels like longer.  Probably because we're fairly familiar with Clermont.  We've settled into the house quickly.  I'm still working on figuring out a routine as I have friends down there that are on different training schedules so I'm trying to work in company for workouts when I can.  Especially bike workouts.  I'm comfortable riding on the Trail on my own but not out on the roads outside Clermont.  There are a fair bit of bike lanes here but I don't know exactly where all of them are.  That being said I have mapped a few routes on Strava that I think I'd be ok doing on my own so we'll see how I fare over the next few weeks.  I've also got to finalize our camp routes as well.

Surprisingly it was Wednesday before I actually got out on my bike!  Monday wasn't the nicest day so I finished running around getting groceries and house supplies and then went to the NTC to do a weight workout.  Tuesday was chilly and my friend Marianne asked me if I wanted to join her for a run on the clay trail and since I hadn't done a long run the week before I figured I might as well.  I didn't want to miss out on an opportunity to run the trail with some company.  G isn't running right now due to his knee so I wasn't sure when I'd get the opportunity to run it.  Wednesday was the first really nice day of the week so I took to the trail and rode into Winter Garden.  I can't believe how much has changed in the last year.  There is so much new development along the trail it's crazy.  I do think if we are going to bite the bullet and buy a place here, we need to do it in the next couple of years before prices start to get higher.  We did end up spending some of Saturday afternoon driving around looking at houses in some of the new developments.  I can't get over what you can get here for under $300,000 USD.  It's insane.   Realistically if we really want to make this snow bird thing work, we'd really have to downsize in Toronto into a condo.  OR, we move out of the city.  Both not really ideal right now.  So, looks like I need to start buying lottery tickets, haha.

Sunday was a day off for me and G was still taking it easy so we went to the local farmers market in downtown Clermont, stopped at The Energy Lab for the BEST coffee ever and sat on the patio for a bit.  We dropped our purchases off at the house, hopped back in the car and went exploring.  We ended up in Tavares at the worst Wendy's in the world.  From there we opted to head to Mount Dora to check it out again.  We went last year but didn't see anything of interest.  Turns out we actually missed the turn to go into the historic part of the city.  D'oh.  We didn't miss it this year.  As we drove in we realized that this weekend was the 35th annual Mount Dora Art Festival so the town was HOPPING even though it was raining.  We'll definitely be back to explore further.  There looked to be a lot of interesting shops and a bunch of awesome restaurants.  It's only about a 45 minute drive from Clermont so it may even warrant a bike ride out there for lunch or coffee.

Mount Dora Art Festival

Mount Dora Art Festival

I watched some of the Super Bowl, but went to bed with about 10 minutes left.  I was happy wake up  to see that the Eagles won.   Tom Brady has won enough, it's nice to see someone else at the top, ha ha.  My fave commercials of the night:  The Doritos Battle Rap followed closely by the NFL commercial with Eli Manning and Odell Beckham dancing.  SO funny.  All in all it was a lovely first week here.  

This is what went down workout wise:

Monday:  45 minute lower body strength session with a 3km run.  1.5km run to the gym and 1.5km run back

Tuesday:  16km clay trail run, followed by a 30 minute mobility class.  SO good!

Wednesday:  48.8km ride to Winter Garden for coffee.  I went out in the afternoon and it was SO windy.  I had forgotten just how windy it gets here.   It made that ride fairly challenging!

Thursday:  SLAP swim in the 50m pool.  Holy smokes, that was so hard.  I hadn't swam in over a week and this was a tough workout.  I do love swimming at the NTC though.  So awesome.

Friday:  Run to and from the gym - 3km, 60 minute full body workout then a really easy 20km spin with G on the trail

Saturday:  Another ride to Winter Garden with the Cycling Hub.  53.4km  And of course a stop for coffee afterwards.

Sunday:  OFF

Swim:  2500m
Bike:  123km
Run:  22.4km

Total time:  9h 43 minutes.   I was supposed to be on a recovery week this week time wise (just under 7 hours) but I was just so excited to be able to be outside I got a little carried away.  Luckily my workouts were mostly all easy with the exception of my swim so my training stress wasn't too high.

This week, I'll be getting much more stuck in with my training along with working on some other blog post ideas I've had swimming around in my head so stay tuned for that!

Happy Monday gang!  Don't dread Monday - look at it as another opportunity to create something amazing.  Master your mindset!

~ Coach PK

Monday Musings: We have arrived

Hello from somewhat sunny Florida, ha ha.  It's overcast this morning but it's WARM so that's a-ok with me.

We left Toronto on Friday and had a pretty uneventful drive down to the US.  G had to do his visa at the border so we had to stop for a bit.  The process was pretty smooth, I think we were in and out in 30 minutes or so.  The weather was awesome on Friday, sunny and 3 degrees when we started and it climbed steadily the further south we went, so we had a really smooth drive.   We drove into Charleston West Virginia on Friday night after spending the majority of the day on the road.   Saturday was our big day on the road (almost 9 hours of driving).  We drove from Charleston to St. Augustine, Florida.  Last year we stopped in Savannah but it was still roughly 6 hours to Clermont from there so this year we opted to at least get to the top of Florida so we only had a couple of hours drive to Clermont.  That way we could spend a bit of time exploring in the morning before we hit the road.  We did a day trip to St. Augustine last year and loved it so we thought it would be nice to stay the night there.  G and I went for a bit of walk on the beach in the morning and then I left G to continue his walk and I went for a very sweaty run.  It was 17 degrees and very muggy.  I only had my tights and a short sleeve dry-fit t-shirt in my overnight bag so that's what I ran in.  OMG I was drenched.  At least it got me used to the heat. 

Going through West Virginia on our first night

Walking along the beach in St. Augustine yesterday morning

The house we’re in this year in pretty freaking awesome.  It’s in a newer development within walking distance to the NTC.  Being in a newer development, it also has a POOL.  WAHOOOO.  The house we stayed in last year was a very old home with no real useful outdoor space which was a shame given how awesome the weather was.  This year, I intend to take full advantage of the upgraded outdoor space.  Here's hoping the weather cooperates!  

This past week was nuts.  For some reason I thought it would be smart to schedule all my appointments in the week before we left.  UGH.  So much scrambling!  It meant a lot of missed workouts but whatever, I know the next two months will give me more than enough time to get some solid work in.   My back was also causing me some grief so I opted to skip a swim to let it rest.  I really wanted to come to Florida feeling as good as possible.  I don't want to spend my time here sitting on the sidelines.  So let's just say I had a really good recovery week, ha ha.  I'm going to spend my morning planning out my next few weeks here.  

So, this is how my big time recovery week went:

Monday:  OFF

Tuesday:  9km run with 4km at tempo

Wednesday:  2450m swim

Thursday:  45 minute ride, 1 hour of strength training

Friday:  OFF

Saturday:  OFF

Sunday:  6km run around St. Augustine with 2km at tempo pace.  Easy to do on the flats!

Total time:  3h and 50 minutes.  I am clearly very well rested, haha.

Today I'm headed to the NTC for a swim and probably some strength training and then the afternoon will be a Training Peaks review day.  Last night we met up with a couple of our friends from here (Hi Marianne & Butch!) and I was talked into doing the Cherry Lake Duathlon this weekend.  I always say make sure your first race of the season isn't your first brick.  OOPS.  I had planned on starting brick workouts this week so, looks like I'll get ONE in before the race on Saturday.

Now it's off to Target to do some grocery shopping.

Happy Monday gang!

~ Coach PK

Monday Musings: Hitting the Road

Happy Monday!

Well Mother Nature blessed us with a reprieve from the polar vortex this weekend.  It felt like spring out it was so nice!  I hope you managed to get out and take advantage of it.  Looks like the brutally cold temps will be staying away for the next week, which means we *should* have a fairly uneventful drive down south.  Yup, we're headed back to Clermont for two months.   I'm super excited!  But first, the massive task of packing.  UGH.  And of course this coming week is when I scheduled all my appointments.  Because I somehow thought that would be a good idea. Ha.

I have some exciting news to share!  I have been accepted as a Lole Ambassador!  They were looking for a female run coach to round out their roster of Ambassadors so I got the spot!  This means I get to host 4 (or more) events at the Lole Yorkville store, all running related.  It also means that I get a discount on my favourite clothing brand.  I live in their stuff.  I also train and run in it so this is a huge win / win for me.  The most fun part?  I will be hosting a clothing party as well!  I'm not sure where or when just yet but I have some ideas so stay tuned for that.  Guests will get a discount too.  WOOHOO.

Anyway, I'm trying to head to Florida as healthy as possible since I will be away from my normal health care practitioners for a couple of months and I don't want to have to go and see someone down there as it more than likely won't be covered on our extended benefits.  So, I'm trying to get 'tuned up" as much as possible, ha ha.

Speaking of which, I had another fascial stretch therapy session this past week and she focussed on my upper body.  Wow.  I am feeling SO much better in the pool.  My chest feels so much more open and my shoulders don't feel as tight.  My shoulders were a bit of a mess.  So much so that my therapist took a picture of the difference.

Crazy right???

I'm definitely feeling much better through my chest and upper back.  I could still use a bit more mobility through my t-spine but I'm sure that will come if I keep working at it.  I can really feel the difference in the pool, which is fantastic.  G commented that I'm swimming much better.  I think my form is a bit better too.  Now I just need to work on my catch a bit more.  My goal is to be able to swim between 1:40-1:45 in a half ironman distance swim.  So I've got a bit more work to do.

I had a big week of workouts planned but by Friday I was feeling a bit run down.  I hadn't slept well for a couple of nights (thank you hormones!) and it caught up with my on Friday.  I had a swim and a run on tap and I did neither.  Saturday I thought I felt better (my HRV said otherwise but I ignored it) and I got on the bike and tried to ride for 2.5 hours.

I made it 10 minutes in and couldn't settle my heart rate so I pulled the pin.  This time next week I will be able to ride outside for as long as I want so I am not going to worry about trying to cram anything in this week.

So instead of the monster week I was hoping to have before we leave, I had a meh kinda week.  But it's better than nothing.  This is what went down:

Monday:  1 hour sweet spot ride.  Felt really good.

Tuesday:  35 minute run (6.7km).  I was supposed to have some tempo work in there but some poor food choices for lunch made that NOT happen.  I followed that up with 15 minutes of lower body work.

Wednesday:  2750m swim.  This felt good.  I was a bit sore from the FST treatment the night before but otherwise I felt ok.

Thursday:  60 minute strength session.  I did almost the entire workout I had my class do.  55 minute V02 max ride in the p.m.  That didn't go over so well.  My legs were toast (not surprising given I did my strength work first, duh).  The hard riding also bugged my lower back.  So I made it through half of the intervals and then called it a day.

Friday:  OFF

Saturday: OFF

Sunday:  2650m hard swim,  followed by a 13km run home in the a.m.  Then I did 60 minutes of strength work with my class in the p.m.   The GoPro came to the pool yesterday so there was some goofing around.

Totals for the week:

Swim:  5400m
Bike:  71km
Run:  19.7km

Total time:  8h 10 minutes.  

How was your week of training?  Have you had poor food choices ruin one of your workouts?  What did it for you?  Mine was having Chipotle for lunch.

Happy Monday!

~ Coach PK.

Monday Musings: Back at it

Hola!

I know some of you enjoyed reading about my weekly workouts so I'm bringing Monday Musings back for my build up to my two 70.3 races this year.  It's definitely going to be an interesting year given that my two big races are 5 weeks apart.  We'll see how this old bod of mine holds up to that.

This past week was my first really solid week of training since the beginning of the year.  I'm feeling pretty good save for my low back, specifically my right side around my SI joint.   It seems to get stuck and irritated and I'm still trying to figure out why.  Some of it is core control for sure but I also feel that my lack of rotation in my T-spine doesn't help.  So I'm slowly working on fixing that.  Thankfully it's not preventing me from working out but there are days that I feel it and it bothers me.

This was my first week of experimenting with 10 day hard / easy format to see how I feel and how my body reacts.  After 10 days I'll probably take a rest day, just to play it "safe" even if I am feeling ok.  Sometimes I find taking a rest day a mental necessity vs a physical necessity.  I'm being much more "intuitive" with my training right now.  By intuitive, I mean if I feel good physically and mentally on my scheduled rest day, instead of taking the day off completely, I'll do an easy activity, usually a swim or yoga.  Something that isn't overly taxing.   I'm also using HRV4Training which monitors my heart rate variability to let me know whether or not I'm fully recovered and can proceed as planned or if I need to limit my intensity for the day.  It hasn't steered me wrong yet and I've been using it for a year now.

So, on to the fun stuff.  What did I get up to this week?

Monday:  Upper body strength workout

Tuesday:  13km long run

Wednesday:  2300m swim in the am, and a 1 hour endurance ride, short upper body workout in the p.m.

Thursday:  40 minute zone 2 run and a 1 hour mostly lower body workout - I actually did most of the workout I was teaching, which was a blast.

Friday:  1900m swim with sprints, 1 hour sweet spot ride.  My legs were feeling pretty sore from my strength class, ha ha.

Saturday:  2 hour mostly endurance based ride.  I had planned on doing lower body work afterwards but my body decided it needed a nap.  So I slept for about 40 minutes and then wasn't motivated to do anything else afterwards, ha ha.

Sunday:  2650m swim.  I had a 35 minute run on the schedule and put it off until after my Strength clinic.  Big mistake,  because once I got back from that, I had no desire to get my running stuff and go out for a run.  LOL.  So much for the Lululemon 40/80 challenge badge on Strava.

Totals for the week:

Swimming:  6,850m 
Cycling:  4h 13 minutes
Running:  20.6 km 

Total time:  10h 22 minutes 

That's slightly higher than normal volume for me this time of year but I'm building my time up for when I get to Florida.  I know I'll probably be between 12-14 hours / week of training if it's anything like last year.  When you have the opportunity to ride outside for two months in the winter, you take full advantage of it.

How was your week of training?  Who else is chasing some big goals this year?

~ Coach PK

Monday Musings: Stepping outside my comfort zone

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, well this one pretty much sums up my week.   This week wasn't about any hard, gut busting workouts (there were a couple of those).  Nope, this week was about me stepping outside my comfort zone personally.  

Most of you that know me personally, probably see this fairly talkative, bubbly person that seems to have no problem when it comes to talking to groups of people.   You couldn't be more wrong.  I am petrified of speaking in front of crowds.  When we had to do speeches in grade school, I could write something witty and funny but the minute I had to get up and read or talk, I felt extreme panic and would fumble my words.  I had no choice in grade school, it was part of your marks, but moving forward in life, I always liked to keep to myself in groups.  Even in my old career, I would get sweaty palms and butterflies in my stomach when we had conference calls or pre-pro meetings that I had to speak at.  

When it comes to one on one work, I'm good.  That's my wheelhouse.  I feel I make great connections with people when it's one on one.  As a coach that's important.  But, not all coaching is one on one.  This year I told myself I was going to step outside my comfort zone and put myself out there.  The first time I did that was when I overheard two women chatting about training for a triathlon in the change room of my old gym.  I asked the one girl what she was training for and we started a whole conversation that ended with me telling her I was a coach and giving her my contact info.  (Hi Trish!!)  My next "outing" was joining the Toronto Triathlon club as a coach to lead the West end ride group.  That first night was so scary for me and I was so glad to have Eric with me.  Leading that ride on Tuesday nights has been one of the most rewarding things I've done.  It's challenged me to be creative and adaptable.  And it's helped to somewhat alleviate my fear of speaking to groups in public.  

The scariest, yet most rewarding moment for me came this past weekend.  Thanks to Miranda, a friend and fellow coach, I was approached by John Salt from Multisport Canada to be the honorary Race Director for the Toronto Island Women's Only Triathlon this past Saturday.  It was an opportunity for me to give back to the community and to put myself out there.  I was so nervous, I hardly slept the night before.   People kept telling me I'd be great but I didn't believe it.  Once I got down there and started working with John and company, the fear started to dissipate.  I got to work the finish line of the race and honestly, that was probably one of the most satisfying experiences I've ever had.  I was hoarse by the end of the morning.  John was great about the whole thing, he said if I wasn't comfortable talking in front of people just to let him know.  I said I would say something.  I had to, I couldn't bail.  Time to step out of my comfort zone.  Steve Fleck introduced me and handed me the mic and I said a few words and handed the mic back to John.  The hand off was a little awkward but a few people that I knew that were down there said I was great.  It was a big victory for me and kinda has me thinking that perhaps I should take some kind of public speaking class.  One more thing to add to my list of things to do, ha ha.

The other big thing I did this past week was take my new bike out for a spin.  G was only too happy to go for a rip with me on the grass and single track trails around the Humber path.  I went whipping around things that only a year ago I wouldn't have ever even thought of attempting.  The new steed, officially called Roll The Bones,  is amazing.  I am really looking forward to taking some CX classes in the fall.   Bring on the mud, grass and barriers!

There are a couple of other crazy things that I've got lined up that are going to take me WAY outside my comfort zone.  One of them is still in the works but the other is a done deal.  G and I along with 4 of our friends, have signed up to do Hawaii 70.3.  It's our friend Rick's 50th birthday next year and this is how he wanted to celebrate.  Soooo, we're off to Hawaii for two weeks next year.  This means I really need to get over my fear of swimming in the ocean.  I am freaking petrified.  Mostly because of the unpredictability of the water and the potential for swells.  I get motion sickness so I am very worried about NOT being able to get through the swim.  Good thing we're going back to Florida in February - I've told G we need to go swim in the ocean to practice.  Even if I do it a couple of times that's better than nothing!  

Like I said, this week was a big one in terms of stepping outside my comfort zone!  Training wise this week, things got shuffled around or missed completely so I could take advantage of the opportunity to be a race director.  I didn't do a long ride, nor did I do a long run.  But that's ok.  This week is my last big week of training before I start to taper for Placid and it's going to be a good one for sure! But I'm getting ahead of myself.  Let's look at how this week rolled out...

Monday: OFF  

Tuesday:  7km run with my pal David, followed by a short 20 minute weight workout in the a.m.  TTC hill ride in the p.m.

Wednesday:  2600m swim

Thursday:  Awesome 30km ride around Ellis with Morning Glory in the a.m., followed by a 9km run with David.  

Friday:  25km ride on the cross bike.

Saturday:  OFF.  Meant to do my long run but was exhausted when I got back from RD duties.

Sunday:  Toronto Island Sprint.  Raced NAKED (ie no garmin).  750m swim, 20km bike, 5km run.  Although according to sports stats the distances are VERY different.  There will hopefully be a race report this week.  Suffice to say a fun time was had!

I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend.  Congrats to all the folks that raced this weekend and a huge shout out to all those that finished Ironman Mont Tremblant yesterday.  Enjoy your well deserved rest!

Happy Monday!

~ Coach PK

Monday Musings: A new addition

Howdy Folks!

This past weekend was a BIG weekend of racing.  There was SeaWheeze in Vancouver, Steelhead 70.3 in Michigan, MSC Bracebridge Race weekend and Iron Girl to name a few.  I had a couple of athletes racing (SeaWheeze & the ENDURun Half marathon) and Gary and I also raced (recap to come this week!).    Hard to believe that there's only a few weeks left of the summer racing!  We've got yet another race on tap this weekend at Toronto Island.  And, there's less than 4 weeks until Lake Placid 70.3!

We had a pretty action packed weekend but that's what usually happens when we race.   We opted to drive out to Gravenhurst the day before and stay the night so we didn't have to get up at 4:00 am to drive out that morning.  After the race, we headed back home to Toronto.  By the time we got back, unpacked the car and showered, it was close to 4:00pm.   So much for Saturday!  Although I did still have enough time to get a bit of "shopping" in.

If you follow my IG stories, you will have seen a bit of video from my local bike shop, Wheels of Bloor.  I love those guys.   They have the best selection of bikes and they are the biggest Cervelo dealer in Canada.  Gary and I have bought all of our bikes from them.  The crew they have working there now are such a great bunch of guys.  Knowledgeable AND personable which is huge when it comes to bike shops.  I find that some shops are very knowledgeable but not always personable.  Anyway....that's my little shout out to the WOB guys.

You probably see where this is going right?

You don't?  Well, let me clear it up for you.  We added another "member" to our "family".  Yup,  I bought a new bike.   How many bikes does one need?  The right answer is N+1, ha ha.  That now makes 8 bikes between G and I.  I never thought I'd see the day that happened.   I have a road bike, a tri bike and a mountain bike and now I have a cyclocross bike.  By mid summer, I'm usually planning for the off season, and this year I wanted to try some cyclocross racing.  Now that my bike handling skills have improved, I think I'm ready to try a race or two.

Here he is.  It's a Felt F65x with a matte black frame with red, grey and white accents.  Dead.  Sexy.

He also needs a name.  In keeping with my current tradition of naming all my bikes after Rush songs, I have a couple of names in mind.  G thinks I should call him By-Tor since my road bike is named Snow Dog (as per the song By-Tor and the Snow Dog).  I kinda like Xanadu, but perhaps that's a bit too feminine.  I also like Roll the Bones and One Little Victory.  Granted I will probably never ride this to One Little Victory but I still like the name, ha ha.

So that's the latest addition.  I may try to take it out for a spin in the park this week just to get used to how it handles but the real adventures will have to wait until post 70.3 just to be safe.

Speaking of Lake Placid, this was supposed to be a bit of a scale back week for me given that I was racing on Saturday and for the most part, it was just that.  I kept the intensity and volume low all week, knowing what I was in for on Saturday.  Saturday hurt like hell and I thought for sure I'd be in rough shape on Sunday but I actually felt alright and I got the all clear from my HRV app to do some intense training if I wanted to.  My original plan was to ride 3.5 hours and run 50 minutes.  The 3.5 hour ride turned into a 4 hour and 20 minute ride, followed by a 1 hour run.  The ride was tough.  We climbed almost 950m according to G's Suunto (which I trust more for correct elevation vs my Garmin) and I was riding my TT bike instead of my road bike.  Needless to say, I'm feeling much better about my climbing on my TT bike, ha ha.  The run off the bike didn't happen right off the bike, more like 25 minutes off the bike but my legs were still heavy from the ride and it took me a while to find my stride but once I did I chugged along nicely.  That was the big workout of the week so let's look at the rest of my week.

Monday:  OFF

Tuesday:   26km with the TTC Crew and a 25 minute weight workout

Wednesday:  2450m swim

Thursday:  8km run in the a.m and 28km interval ride around Matheson, 15 minute weight workout.

Friday:  OFF - drive up to Gravenhurst, have a beer, dinner, ice cream, watch a huge thunderstorm, go to bed by 9:30 pm.  Oh the exciting life of a triathlete.

Saturday:  RACE DAY!  750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run.

Sunday:  119.2km ride, followed by an 11.4km run.

Totals:

Swim:  3254 m
Bike:  195 km
Run:  24.5 km

Total time:  10h 43 minutes

Still a big week but definitely scaled back from my previous week.   I had another big week mapped out but there may have to be some shuffling that takes place due to a very unique opportunity.  That's all Imma gonna say about that for now.  :)

Congrats to everyone who raced this weekend!

Does your bike have a name?  What do you think I should name my new steed?

~ Coach PK 

Monday Musings: The Holiday Monday Edition

Happy Holiday Mondayyyyyy!

Well we are officially one week into August and I am coming off my biggest week of training since the Lake Placid training camp back in May.   I actually feel pretty good today other than some stiffness in my legs and a tiny headache.  I'm chalking up the headache to the pint of beer and two glasses of wine I had last night, ha ha.

Remember last week when I said that G and I would probably save our short course racing until next year.  Well......that has changed.  We've signed up for two back to back sprint races.  We're doing Bracebridge sprint on Aug 13 and then my favourite, the Toronto Island Tri on August 20th.  We weren't sure the Toronto Island race was going to happen due to all the flooding on the island but they reopened the Island last Monday so the race is a go!  I haven't raced a sprint since 2015 so I'm bracing myself for the hurt.  I suspect I'll be taking a couple of days off afterwards because I'm just not used to racing at that high intensity.  Actually let me rephrase that.  I'm not used to RUNNING that hard these days.  Should be interesting to see what I can manage off the bike.

Looking through my training log, I've definitely put in 3 solid weeks of training.  That being said, I have yet to ride more than 83km on a long ride, ha ha.  I've spent a fair bit of time on my bike, just shorter rides.  I've also made a concerted effort to get into the pool and open water more.  I've been working on my stroke in the pool and I'm seeing a bit more speed but I'm still not catching the water well when my hands enter the water.  I swim much better with paddles but obviously I can't race with those so I have to keep working at it.  That will be my focus for the off season for sure.

This week is a recovery week for me so that means dialling back my volume and a bit of my usual intensity.  We are racing at the end of the week so will be a speed workout.   I'm starting to add a bit of more targeted run speed work back into my training.  My glut and hamstring have been feeling better, still not 100% but definitely better so I'm testing out my legs with a little bit of faster running.  Nothing too crazy but enough that I am getting a bit of harder workout in.  Adding this extra intensity would probably explain why I was so tired on Saturday.   So much so that I gave up on my workout.  Shit happens.  If there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's when I need to listen to my body and pull the pin on a workout.

With that, let's look at my big fat week of training....

Monday:  OFF

Tuesday:  Double ride day:  30km with MGCC in the a.m. and 18km with my TTC group in the p.m.

Wednesday:  2150m swim in the a.m.  9km run with 3x1km repeats at 4:20/km followed by a 30 minute weight workout.

workout = CRUSHED

Thursday:  45.9km ride with Morning Glory.

Friday:  2600m swim, followed by a 25 minute weight workout and then a 2.5km run to test out my race day shoes sock less.

Saturday:  1263m swim at the Quarry followed by a 28km ride in the howling wind.  That was enough.  I was exhausted.   I went to bed just before 9pm that night and slept until 5:30 am the next day.  I woke up rested and ready to tackle a very big day.

Sunday:  83km easy ride with Morning Glory followed by a 17.5km run.  The ride was easy (avg hr was 110 BPM, Garmin T.E was 1.6).  The run was good until about 13km and then my legs were tired.  But that's exactly the kind of workout I needed.   I found that in Tremblant my legs started to fatigue by the 14km mark so I wanted to make sure I got some longer runs done off the bike.

Totals:

Swim:  6013m
Bike:  206km
Run:  29.06km

Total time:  13h 8 minutes.  Yowza!

I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday Monday, despite the crappy weather!   I'm going to spend the rest of my day off getting some baking and meal prep done.  Enjoy whatever you get up to today!

~  Coach PK 

Monday Musings: Where is summer going?

Happy Monday!  And hello last day of July.  What the what???  Yup, it's the first day of August tomorrow.  Summer is flying by.  I'm pretty sure I say that every year.   The funny thing is that we haven't over scheduled ourselves this summer.  In previous summers we've raced almost every weekend.  Last year that didn't happen at all so I figured we'd have the itch to do that again but not so.  I think the fact that we've got a big late season race has kept a lot of our usual short course races off our radar.   I am thinking that next year we'll get back to some regular short course racing.

Despite our lack of shorter racing, G and I have been enjoying summer.  We've had just the right amount of chill out time, family time and fun non training time.  I think that balance has really helped us feel like we're not always training.  We had a conversation a few weeks ago about how we both feel like we haven't been training per se, even though we have been.  Training has never gotten to the point where it's become a chore or that we dread it.  I think we've been doing this long enough that we really recognize the need for breaks and adjustments and are ok with taking them.  Although, sometimes I think age dictates the breaks, ha ha.

This past weekend was my first open water swim since Tremblant and my first long ride since July 2nd.  Yup.  Almost 3 weeks of nothing longer than 35km.  I figured it wasn't going to be awesome but I was pleasantly surprised.  My swim coach has changed my stroke slightly so I was curious to see how that would translate in the open water.  Instead of bilateral breathing, my coach now has me breathing to one side every stroke for 3 counts, then three strokes with my face in the water, then back to breathing every stroke.  I experimented with switching sides while I was swimming, just to help me sight a bit better.  I swam almost 1900m and was pleasantly surprised to see my overall pace at 1:49/100m vs. my normal 1:55/100m.  And that was swimming at a comfortable pace, not pushing it.  I don't know how much faster I'd actually go given that I don't have a variety of speeds in the water, ha ha.  But it was nice to see some improvement!

I promised myself this time around I'd spend more time on my TT bike and I'd do more bricks.  During the week I'm riding with my cycling club, Morning Glory, so I'm on my road bike, but I still try to do a run after I ride.  It's much harder to run off a road bike than a TT bike.  I've also added a short strength routine into my training, especially since I have to work on loading my hamstrings to deal with that lingering tendonitis (which is getting much better btw).

So, let's get down to this past week of training shall we?

Monday:  Off from workouts but did a V02 max test.  That experience and comparison to my Garmin predicted V02 max will be up on the blog this week

Tuesday:  Double ride day!  28km with Morning Glory in the a.m. and  22km in the p.m. with the Toronto Triathlon Club

Wednesday:  2150m swim followed by my 30 minute strength routine.

Thursday:  It rained so the Morning Glory ride didn't happen.  Instead I spent 45 minutes (20km) on the trainer watching Game of Thrones and then followed it up with an 8km run at 1:30 pm.  Holy crap was it ever hot.

Friday:  I ended up skipping swimming as I had a massage the night before and was still fairly sore from it.  I had a lot of work done around my shoulders and they were tired.

Saturday:  1883m open water swim, 74km ride that resulted in a few Strava QOM (!!!) and a 6.2km run off the bike.

Sunday:  16km run, 22 minutes of strength work, 2500m swim in the outdoor pool!

Yup, it was a pretty big week and I'm feeling it this morning.  There will be much stretching and foam rolling throughout the day!

Totals:

Swim:  6533m 
Bike:  144km - only 6 km short of my weekly mileage goal.   Arg.
Run:  30.3km

At least I hit my swim and run targets!

Total time:  10h 41 minutes

I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend!  Good news if you're in the GTA - Toronto Island is OPEN, which means that the Toronto Island Tri & Ontario Women's triathlon weekend should be a go!  Get on out and RACE LOCAL on August 20 / 21!

I'm off to tackle my To Do list but I'll leave you with this thought....

Find your passion and work for it!  

~ Coach PK