What do 4 Cliff Bars, 1 Harvest PowerBar , 2 Bagels some Crasins and a whole lot of Gatorade get you?.....

It gets you a little over 6 hours in the saddle and almost 155 km traveled. :)

Tammy, my Massage Therapist who is training hard for IMCDA, asked me a few days ago if I'd be interested in coming along for her long bike today. Her target distance, 160km! The longest I've ever ridden in my entire life.. and I mean ever was a few weeks ago when I pedaled 96km in almost 4 hrs 15 min. It took me a few days to recover from that ride too!

Reguardless, I jumped at the opportunity to really push myself past that "100km" barrier and beyond... way beyond!! I was venturing into the unknown and to be honest I was a little bit concerned how my legs and body would hold up over such a long distance. This was going to take my training to an entirely different level. This was going to give me a glimpse of what it will take to compete in an Ironman.

We met up at Starbucks around 9am. Duane and Jim were going to ride with us out to Cochrane then head back into Calgary. Wimps!! It was a beautiful morning but windy, very windy and it took fricking ages to make it out to Cochrane. Avs was ~ 20km/h because of the strong headwind.

Duane, Jim and Tammy about to set off!



Once we fought our way through the wind to Cochrane, the two stooges turned for home and Tammy and I pointed our bikes South to set forth to Bragg Creek.

Just outside of Cochrane I hear this HISSSSSS coming from my rear wheel.. OMFG I got a flat!!! My first flat since returning to riding this year. My first flat in almost 10 years!! Umm... do I remember how to change a flat? Luckily I took a bike maintenance workshop at Bow Cycle in February!

My post flat fixing glory LOL.


Ok that wasn't too bad, I can now fix a flat!

We made our way to Bragg Creek and made a small pit stop to refill/remix our water bottles and sport drinks. Time to press on to Elbow Falls in K-Country.

I must say this was my favourite part of our ride. We were out in the middle of no where riding towards the beautiful Rockies. It's like the road was our own private play ground and we were on permanent recess!

I had never been out this way on a bike before so this was a real treat! There is something really special about riding down a new stretch of road and taking in the scenery.

Speaking of scenery here's a token tourist pic at the entrance to Kananaskis Country... in some ways I felt like a tourist today!


All in all it was one of the most amazing days of riding I've ever experienced. I am very glad to have shared such a wonderful day, "playing on the bike", with my good friend Tammy.

Thanks Tammy!! I'll get a few pics of you yet!!

My first group ride!!

Finally felt well enough to get a full training day in (took me a few days to recover from my LSD on Wed). I was wet by 7:05am this morning and logged 3.5 km. It wasn't my best swim but by the latter half I started to find my "balance" and "feel" for the water.

It's very interesting that when I focus on counting my strokes, I relax and "glide" further. Stroke counts were 17-19.

I quickly hit the change room and suited up for my ride with some folks from my Tri swim group. I would be riding with some accomplished Ironman Triathletes. I was pretty excited to participate in my first group ride (ever) and take my new bike for a long ride too!!

It was a beautiful sunny day. A tad chilly at 9:30am when we set out but it warmed up right quick! This is the view we had today.

First let me say, I love my road bike. She's incredibly responsive and the 54cm frame fits me like a glove. We pedaled 90k in 3.5 hrs and I felt very comfortable on the bike throughout the entire ride. I'm like a kid in a candy store and am now eyeballing a set of Zipp 303's.

Secondly, I really enjoyed riding in a group setting as it just makes time (and distance) just fly by! I really got to know the folks from my Tri swimming group much better and listening to their stories about IMC, IMCDA, IMLP and IMFL was truly inspiring.

Last year at IMC, Jason our "trip coordinator", missed qualifying for Kona by 6 min!! He's determined to qualify this year!

All in all it was a wonderful day, spent with some good friends. I'm really looking forward to our next group ride when I hope to break through that 100km "mental" barrier!

TGIF

Oh I am loving my new bike.






Oh what a great way to end the week....




Oh I can't wait until Sunday's long ride.... think I will bring a few..

Oh Henry's with me

ok yeah I am in a weird mood tonight, maybe it's the giddiness of having my new ride! LOL

Rough week

Ever have one of those weeks where things just seem "off"? Well that's been my week thus far.

I'm very pleased to hit a new pb for my LSD run this week: 70 min ~ 9km. I'm slowly building my base but man I'm pretty sore today.

I decided to forgo my training and make this a recovery day. There is no sense in pushing myself and risking injury. Tomorrow is a huge day, 3km swim, and then a 1:20 brick workout. 1 hr spin class, 20 min run.

A few cool things did happen today though.

- I'm getting a head start on my Massage Therapy program and taking a course this spring/summer on Tuesday and Thursday nights. Class begins on May 2nd until the end of July, 7 hrs a week which isn't too bad. The great thing is by getting this class out of the way this Summer, I'm freeing up 115hrs from my Fall course load. That's 115 more hours to train!!!! :)

- I've decided to leave the Y and will now train at the Talisman Centre previously known as Lindsay Park Aquatic Centre. The Talisman is 2 blocks away from where I'll be going to Massage Therapy School so the move was inevitable. It's going to be much more convenient.

I'll still be teaching a spinning class at the Y this summer and will probably still go to Duane's 10:30am Friday Spin class (on weekends I'm not racing). I've been a fixture in that class for over 3 yrs.

I do my first swim at the Talisman on Sunday. 50m pool. YAY!!


Oh, one last thing.. in case you're wondering why I put up a picture of the Cervélo Soloist Carbon. That's my new road bike. I pick her up next week :)

Happy Easter!!

Happy Easter!

Well, it's not quite a bunny outfit but it's the best I can do!

Eating chocolate is great......

but I'd rather be riding. :)

So tomorrow I start my new program from MarkAllenonline.com. Here's a snippit for the next 2 weeks! Click on image for larger view! :)



Work hard, train smart and recover well.

It's a good Friday

Well technically it's still Thursday night but it sure does feel like Friday. Maybe because it's a long weekend.

Happy Easter!!

Man this week has just zoomed by!
Quick recap of my training:

Mon: Felt great from the race although my right soleus was a bit jacked up. Had a nice deep H20 recovery run and put in a solid 45 min weight training session. Ended the day with a niiice massage.

Tues: Had a fantastic 6am swim session and put in a solid 2 hrs on the bike then did a nice recovery swim, practicing my TI drills. Got some more practical hours in spin class at the Y which is good. I need to have my practicum completed by May 7th. The first class I teach at the Y is on May 10th!

Wed: Probably my most important workout, LSD run. 65 min at 71% MHR and covered about 8km. I ran indoors in a "controlled" environment as this was the longest and furthest I've ran since completing my 1/2 IM 10 yrs ago. Next week I'll push for 70-75 min outdoors.

Thurs: (today) Another awesome 6am swim! Actually I toally geeked out and was wet by 5:45am LOL. My legs were a bit sore from the LSD and my weight routine was mostly lower body today. I was doing some pretty funky excercises on the bosu ball thus I'm a tad sore tonight and I think I hear my bed calling me. :)

TGIF: Brick day! Actually I was thinking about incorporating a bike run bike run workout but that may be a tad too advanced for me (right now) so I'll just stick with my scheduled 90 min ride and a 20ish min run. My soleus is still a tad tight so I don't want to overstrain it.

Looking ahead: Going to eat lots of chocolate this weekend as my latest fitness report shows me at around 7% bf and 80.4 kg. I've been eating like a horse all week.. SOOO hungry...all the time... and I don't think my body likes being below 80kg. I was 79kg there for a bit. I figure I can indulge a little bit this weekend. :)

Big announcement!

I've re-evaluated my training program and made some adjustments. I've become confident that with the proper training my body can handle an Ironman distance. Thus I'm determined and committed and feel it isn't entirely unrealistic, to complete an Ironman 14-16 months from now. The goal race being IMCDA or IMC. It depends on my school schedule.

If I want to realisticly and safely reach that goal, I need to train smarter and more efficiently. Especially given the fact that I will be attending Massage Therapy school in September. Keeping that in mind, I've decided to give an online Triathlon coaching service a 12 week trial run. In this case, MarkAllenOnline.com. My new program starts on Monday! I'll be posting regular progress reports!

Happy Easter, eat, drink and eat some more!

What a day!!

The Mount Royal College Sprint Triathlon is in the books and what an incredible experience!

I was pretty excited last night and went to bed early, or at least tried too and was up at 4:30am. I tossed and turned but I kept thinking about IMAZ and www.CanadianTriathlete.ca forum member VTIRON who is competing in it today. Good luck mate, hope the race is going well (you're probably still racing as I write this!)

So after humming and hawing about Ironman I decided it was time to get up..... 5:30am. Ug, it's going to be a long day, but a good day!


I love breakfast, it's by far my favorite meal of the day. Today was just like every other day. Breakfast of Champions! Muslix and milk.. with a dash of protein powder thrown in. :) Today I had two bowls. Gotta fuel up!



Since I was a keener and laid all my gear out last night I had lots of time to comtemplate which sports drink I should take with me today. Hmmm.. now which one should I choose??




I ended up choosing poorly because I experienced some bad stomach cramps during my run.. more on that later! :) Beer at 6am is a bad thing? who knew! (just kidding)

I made my way up to the Y for some pre, pre race stretching, just to work the kinks out. I'm feeling pretty good, a bit nervous but excited at the same time. :)

I pick Matt up (another www.CanadianTriathlte.ca member) and we make our way to MRC to register, get body marked and set up our transition area. We have some time to kill so I have a moment to pose with "Elle".

She served me well today. I clocked the 17.5 km bike leg in 29 min 45 sec, Av Spd: 35.3 km/h. I hit one of my goals. I rocked on the bike!




The race begins at 10:45am but I'm in the 4th swim heat, meaning I have almost an hour to kill. This is where my nutrition/hydration plan fell short. I made two mistakes. 1) I didn't drink nearly enough during the morning in the hours leading up to the event. 2) I ate TWO cliff bars around 10:15am and because of mistake (1) and the fact I didn't hydrate on the bike, my run was a tad uncomfortable for my GI tract. LOL

Lesson learned. Drink the water fool!!

The swim went great. I didn't expend too much energy and tried to remain efficient. I actually had a few folks comment on my "nice and clean" entry after the race. Score one for TI. There is much work to be done on my stroke though..

Anyway...

The bike was awesome, just what I wanted to accomplish.

The run was a biaytch! It wasn't until around the 4km mark when my legs began to feel "normal".

Lesson learned. More brick workouts are needed.

Post race pic, basking in the glory!




It was a great event and I feel so very blessed to have both the physical and mental health and wellness to participate in the sport of Triathlon again.

The first baby step towards competing in an Ironman was taken today. :)

Preparation

Swim gear: check
Bike gear: check
Run gear: check
Nutrition: check
Hydration: check
Post Race beer: CHECK!

I woke up this morning and realized that tomorrow (Sunday) a goal I could only dream about for all these years is about to come to fruition. I am on the eve of competing in my first Triathlon in almost 9 years. My first Triathlon since being hit.

Pinch me.. is this real?

My goals for this race.
1. To enjoy and take in the experience, to treasure every second I'm out there. It is truly a gift to be competing again.
2. To swim effortlessly and efficiently. TI style all the way baby!
3. I would love to post a top 10 bike split. :)
4. To focus on a smooth T2 and not push the run too hard too early.
5. DO NOT GET INJURED!!

I spent the day relaxing and did some work on "Elle". I gave her a nice cleaning, tune up and test ride. Everything looks A-OK.


She's set, cocked and ready to rock for tomorrow!



Since this is essentially my first Triathlon, hence I'm a proverbial N00b, I wanted to make sure that I have everything I need for tomorrow. So here it is! Now all I need is a spiffy transition bag!

Yeah I am the total QR fanboi lol


I think I have everything. I'll get my post race nutrition (endurox and a few other goodies) set up tonight. I'm pretty excited so I hope to get a least few hours of sleep tonight!!

Much needed recovery day

I've definitely pushed myself to the next level this past week and my body was crying out for a break today. I woke up at 5am and just didn't feel "right". You know.. the type of feeling where your muscles just have zero energy and you're a tad moody and don't feel like doing much of anything? Classic over training symptoms.

It doesn't surprise me really. Huge training session on Sunday. New weight program and yoga class on Monday. New swimming class on Tuesday, etc.. etc... etc...

Probably too many changes too soon.

My RHR was a bit elevated too so I figured it would be prudent to listen to the signs my body was sending and take today as a FULL recovery day.

I did end up going to the Y for a short bit to do some stretching (and socializing LOL) but all in all it's been a very low key day.

Tomorrow will be a mini taper day in lieu of my race on Sunday. Short swim: ~20 min then a mellow spin class, in which I'll be starting my practical teaching in preparation for my Keiser Certification course on May 7th. Then I'll be "certified" to teach Power Pacing (Spinning) classes at the Y! The first "official" Spinning class I'll be teaching on my own is on May 10th! Too cool!

Saturday will be another recovery day. Just some mellow stretching and then I'll give Elle a tune up and a good wash.

Race day on Sunday!!!!

Why do we... Tri?

The average person must think a Triathlete is an odd duck. I mean, who the hell wants to swim, then go for a bike ride, THEN go for a run??!!

Case in point. This morning I woke up around 4:45am (yes I am a keener LOL) ate TWO bowels of muesli, tossed Elle (my Tri Bike) on the roof rack, made sure I had a solid nutrition solution for this mornings training....in this instance, a protein smoothie, endurox mix, a few bananas and some yoghurt... oh and a 500 ml bottle of 50:50 water/gatorade.... yeah it's in me.

By 5:30 I was all packed up and set out to the Y for my 6am Triathlon Swimming class.

It was a bit rough being in the pool at 5:55am. I'm not used to working out that early but after a hundred metres I started to find my groove. It turned out to be a really fun class! I was waitlisted for the winter session and couldn't get in but luckily my number came up for the spring session so here I am, doing lengths with some pretty hardcore Triathletes! I met some folks who are training hard for a couple 1/2's over summer and ending their season with IMFL. Very cool!

It was a really neat experience to swim in an organized club style environment. I think the biggest thing I took away from this morning’s workout was learning to swim with lots of people around. I say "learning" because you really need to keep the focus on your own stroke and form and not worry about the person in the lane beside you or the person behind you. It was very different then my regular swims when the lanes are virtually empty. It was great practice for a race setting (both open water and pool) when there's heaps of swimmers around.

After the swim I took about an hour and did some easy stretching then geared up for a nice recovery ride outside. I went at a VERY easy pace covering about 32 km in 1.5 hrs, AVHR: 121 (65%MHR). Unfortunately I decided to do some exploring out in the country just North of the City limits and of course there was strong COOOLD NW head wind. ARG!

Did I mention it was cold?

So anyhow, back to my main thesis..

Why do we Tri?

It's simple really. Because we love the lifestyle and more importantly we truly love the training. I mean, anyone who wants to go out riding at 8:30am in the cold and the wind is either nuts or really... really loves to ride.

Pretty sure I'm the latter. :)

Just one of those perfect days

Today was just plain fun! I think the biggest reason why I'm all smiles of late is because I am having SO much fricking fun with my training!

You just can't beat the feeling of waking up early on a Sunday morning (by early I mean 6am) with a nice long swim and bike planned for the day. Today was that day. I hit two new PB's today and pushed my training up to the next level.

Something in the pool just felt right. Maybe it's because I was going in with the mindset of swimming 3+ km but my stroke felt very effortless and I just "glided" through the water with relative ease. I ended up logging 3.2 km, my longest swim ever.. and I mean ever LOL. I felt great! I still need to roll with my hips more when I breathe as opposed to lifting my head and I need to focus on keeping my head in a "neutral" position at all times. It's coming though :)

After my swim I geared up for a 4 hour ride. Again, things just seemed to gel on the bike today. Perhaps it was because I started with the mindset, I am riding for 4 hours today! It's a good thing I had that mindset because on the way back from Cochrane a weather system blew in.. literally. Geez I never had to pedal into such a strong headwind like this morning! It was a cooold NW wind too and my fingers and toes were freezing. I could see my breathe so it was cold and I was cursing the weatherman the entire way back into Calgary LOL.

I rode up this hill!!

Once I hit the city limits the weather seemed to clear and the sun came out which warmed things up a few degrees. I did my "YMCA" loop a few times which is about 25km per loop and ended up pedaling 96km in about 4 hours. That's the longest I've ridden since completing my 1/2 in Victoria back in '95. It was a perfect endurance ride, Av HR was 139.

It was a perfect way to spend a Sunday.