Going Mainstream

You know triathlons are going mainstream when they're are featured in a TV show like the "new" Hawaii Five-0.

A cheesy storyline where four triathletes rob a jewelery store during a triathlon.  Apparently they used real athletes and a couple of pros.

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/Slowtwitch_Forums_C1/Triathlon_Forum_F1/Hawaii_5-0_and_triathlons_P3088674/

I tried to post a clip from the website but CBS blocks showing anything in Canada but found another site so if you have 42 minutes to kill or just fast forward to the last five minutes when the "action" takes place.

To get rid of the annoying ad, click on "close to play' button

Crap Swim

John P wrote about a crappy swim he had the other day and today I had one as well.  It was only 2,000 meters but it was a struggle to the end.  I did:

400 swim

9x50 0:10 (1-3 kick, 4-6 pull, 7-9 swim)
300 swim
300 pull (skipped the pull)
9x50 0:20 seconds rest
#1 breathe every 3 strokes
#2 breathe every 5 strokes
#3 breathe every 7 strokes
100 easy
2000 Short Course Meters

The thought of bailing around the 1,700 metre mark as John P's blog came to mind.  I hung in to finish but my form was pretty bad.  I was bagged from the night before.  I had a work function and didn't get home until 10 pm, had a couple of beers and then crashed but I woke up at 4 am and couldn't get back to sleep.
 
Tammy asked how was swimming when I got home.  I mumbled I was a "little" tired.  I can't really tell her how bagged I was if I plan on sneaking out for hockey tonight.  Worse case scenario, if I don't play, I'll ride tomorrow morning outside.  Hopefully the roads will be dry and it won't be as windy. 
 

2011 Races

Coach called today and we chatted a little bit about the goals for 2011. First race of the new year will be the Chilly Half Marathon on March 6, 2011 followed by Around The Bay March 27th and the "new" Toronto Goodlife Marathon on May 15, 2011.  That's a lot of fucking running!!!!!

While I'd be the first to admit that I am not built to run, its probably my better discipline of triathlons (which is really not saying a whole lot).  My biggest worry is if my legs can hold out.  If you remember that I had a lot of running injuries in December through to June of this year due to my orthotics being toast and the seat dropping on my bike which screwed everything up.  For 2010, I had minor issues with the hamstring and it flared up every once and a while.  If I'm going to be doing that much running, then its bound to be a problem.  I mentioned this to coach and we agreed to add more strength training as well as sets of specific exercises for me to work on.  Oh yea!

When I got to the pool this morning at 5:45, I noticed the parking lot there were a lot of cars there.  It turns out that the other pool is closed and the Masters swim club that I was swimming with earlier this year had moved over to my pool.  I saw several people there and they kept asking when I was going to rejoin.  I'm still undecided as one complaint that I have about Masters is that there isn't enough mileage and they mix in too many other strokes.  For instance, I swam about 2,500 yards today following one of the workouts posted on Slowtwitch.  I thought it was a good workout and while I'm sure there is lots of things that Masters can help me improve on, its whether or not its worth it.  I'll decide in January.

My Junk Is Frozen!!

I tried getting a couple of guys to go riding this morning but no one wanted to join me.  The weather wasn't that bad it was -1 degrees (Celsius) and with 20 km\hr wind brought the temperature down to -5 degrees.  I've certainly run in a lot colder weather but for riding, this would be the coldest.  I was really interested in how the new riding jacket would hold up.  The last couple of times I wore it, the weather was too warm and I was totally soaked in sweat.  Today was the perfect test so I wore:

1. Long sleeve running turtleneck shirt
2. leg warmers
3. winter running tights
4. riding shorts
5. two pairs of wool socks
6. one set of wool gloves and the lobster claw gloves over it
7. riding jacket
8. thick booties over the riding shoes
9. balaclava
10. sunglasses (not because it was sunny)

I felt like the Michelin man walking to the door but at least I was warm.

It was a struggle riding even though I was riding with the wind when I headed out as it was blowing south west.  I did the usual route straight up Mccowan Road until I hit Aurora road and then west until Kennedy.  Once I started south on Kennedy, riding into the wind, it was pretty strong.  As I headed back home, my toes began to get cold and eventually numb and by the time I turned east on Elgin Mills Road, I was riding straight into the wind where my junk was exposed.  I should have worn my running wind brief but thought the two layers of pants would be good enough.   Not quite, as I was in pain coming down the home stretch and even though the ride was only 1:15, I doubt I could have lasted much longer.

I've certainly run in much colder temperatures but when it comes to protecting the junk, there is no such thing as too much protection.  The new riding jacket was perfect but my water bottle had frozen and I started the ride with warm water.  Next week, I'll put hot water.

Tomorrow I'll try a short run and oddly enough the temperature has been climbing in the last couple of hours.  It will be about 10 degrees with rain by tomorrow morning when I run, which is better than the -20 degrees out in Calgary.  Suckers!

I think I found a new bike that I like.  It might take some time to get used to..........

Let's See Him Do It With A Tri-Bike

Swam today 2,500 metres in 50 minutes.

Maybe ice hockey tonight (if I'm lucky)

Flow

Tonight I did my first Body Flow Class" at Goodlife.  It was bring a "friend" month and so Tammy brought me.  I guess I'm my wife's friend.

Body Flow is
A fusion of yoga, tai chi and pilates. Take an unforgettable journey that leaves you feeling centered and calm. Builds flexibility and strength.


As important as training is for a triathlete, I'm a big believer in using yoga to help strengthen and stretch the body to minimize injuries.  However that said, I haven't been able to make it to any classes.  Tammy and I talked about doing a "couple thing" where we would get a babysitter and do a class once a week.  This was suppose to start back in September once the kids went back to school.  Last night was our first night. 

Overall, it was ok as there were several things I could not do and I think it was helpful but I did do one yoga class with Personal Best last year and it was much harder.  Tammy was killing herself laughing at my wobbling poses in fact the instructor (Tammy's friend) asked her what was so funny in front of everybody.  Kind of like in school.  "Tammy, what's so funny?  Perhaps you would like to share it with the rest of the class or go to the Principal's office."

Would I go again?  Yea sure why not.  It was helpful

This morning I rode on the trainer for one hour and it was painful.  I find it so boooorrriiiinnnngg so I watched a show called Weeds that I borrowed from my manager.  I've heard of it but never seen it before.  I think its a HBO production but needless to say, I won't be watching that show when my kids are around.  Yikes

I can not belive how hungry I've been for the last couple of days.  It seems I'm constantly grazing.  Oink oink

Going Postal Part Duh

Ok so I finally got to see how many laps I could swim in 30 minutes to enter in this Postal contest on Slowtwitch.  Anyways I banged out 1,700 meters in 30 minutes for a 1:45 pace per 100 meters (or that's what they calculated for me).  Hmmm that seems way too fast.

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=3057354;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread

The idea of this challenge is that the triathlon season is over and how to keep motivated in the pool.  I've toyed with the idea of rejoining the Master swim club as lane swimming quickly becomes extremely boring but I'm not sure why (well ok obviously its cheaper to lane swim) I haven't.  Without my swimming buddy, its sure is boring.  However there is a USA swim coach posting workouts on this thread and I've been doing them which makes swimming a little more interesting sooooo do I really need to go back to the Masters?  Time will tell what I end up doing.

Here's the "Part Duh."

I play hockey on Tuesday night right after work and I got to the rink and started getting dressed but when I went to put on my helmet, it was no where to be found.  Now, I maybe a moron but there is no way I'm playing ice hockey without a helmet as the guys I play with can be a little chippy in fact there was a fight last week (no not me).  How often do you see a fight in pick up hockey?  Not very often.  I ended up going to the lost and found and borrowed a kid's lost helmet (yuck) that was a little too small and my head was hurting by the end of the game but it did the job.  I found my helmet downstairs in the basement when I dumped my gear later tonight.  Tammy had hung it up on a pole and I didn't see it when I was packing my gear.

Earlier today I went to Semi Sports for some physio treatment on my hamstring.  On Sunday, Tammy had this great idea of cleaning the basement and throwing out the carpet we had saved from upstairs when we got hardwood.  I must have tweaked my hamstring going up and down the stairs so many goddamm times and I  ran Monday morning followed by a leg workout.  By Monday afternoon, my hamstring was aching so I made an appointment.  As you may recall, I've had on and off hamstring issues this year so I better take care of this sooner rather than later.  The therapist told me I have weak glutes and hamstring and gave me some exercises to do.  Stop me if you've heard this before........

I also wanted to get my hand checked out as six weeks ago I got hit with the puck in the palm of my hand and it still aches whenever I put pressure on it like if I do push ups or riding.  It turns out its a deep bruise that hasn't healed properly.  Good thing its the off season

Oh yea I need to get around about updating thoughts on the 2010 race season

IMFL - No Shit? That Ain't Chocolate Gu

Good To Ride

Today was a great day to be outside as over the last three weeks, I think I've done only two indoor rides and one ride outside and with a rainy Sunday, I had to get out.  Initially I wanted to ride in the afternoon but Tammy said she need a break as the kids had yesterday off and it was chaos in the house, so I opt to ride in the morning instead.  Its a really good thing I didn't play hockey on Friday night as it probably wouldn't have gone down to well with Tammy putting the kids to bed Friday night and then me taking off for 90 minutes Saturday morning.  The sacrifices I make......yea whatever.

It was a good to get out but the new riding jacket I bought was way too hot to wear and within a couple of minutes I was beginning to work up a good sweat.  The ride was the usual out and back only 40 km and I opt to take the easier route (ie flat as a pancake) but I quickly found how much endurance I've lost and by the end of the ride I was beginning to run out of gas.  How pathetic.

I hate this time of the year because: a) the race season is over and nothing to look forward to b) the days are shorter c) the weather is usually miserable but at least today was nice and sunny

Only six weeks until Chistmas

Going Postal

On Slowtwitch (online triathlon form) there is a swim contest going on amongst some users.  The idea is that as we are now in the "slow season,"  training becomes harder as there are no goals to focus on so someone came up with the idea of measuring your improved performance starting from now to the spring.  One way is your best time to swim 500 metres or the amount of laps you can swim in 30 minutes.  I've sat on the sidelines (figuratively) but followed the workouts a US swim coach post every week.  By following the workouts, its helped alleviate the boredom of swimming lap after lap which is the reason I haven't rejoined the Masters....yet.

So today, I decided to take the plunge (literally) and see how many laps I can swim in 30 minutes.  I calculated I should be around 60 laps (1.5 km).   Also I was interested in how many calories I burned swimming so I brought my heart rate monitor and wore the strap in the pool.  First problem that the belt kept slipping off so I had to keep tightening it and then for some reason it wasn't picking up my heart rate.  I ended up chucking the HR but kept the watch on to time my 30 minutes.  I also had my second running watch on the same arm (yes I looked like a geek wearing two watches) to count laps as I couldn't count laps if my life depended on it.  I lose count after three laps so I use the counter on my watch. 

So off I go and start out at a pretty good clip however the one problem with the pool in Stoufville is that its always so warm so I really began to die after 20 minutes.  I took a quick peak at my counter watch to see how many laps I had swam and it was........zero.  WTF!!  Even though I was pressing the button after each lap, it wasn't counting.  I was so annoyed that I didn't feel like doing anymore swimming, that and the bath like temperature did me in.  I'll try again on Tuesday where I swim in Markham and the temperature isn't as warm.

This sounds like a pretty whinny blog but its pretty much all that's going on right now.  I hate the off-season.

I need to get out and play more hockey

Hamilton Half Marathon Race Report

This was only the second race I've ever run with Tammy as this was all about her race after coming out to watch me frolicking around with triathlons for the last two years.  It was also the first half marathon she's ever done.  The babysitter arrived at our house at 6 am sharp and we left to meet Don (my bro) at our parent's house for 6:30 am.  One good thing was that Daylight Savings ended the night before so actually it was like meeting at 7:30 am instead.  The drive to Hamilton was pretty uneventful and we got to Confederation Park in good time.  We ran into Lisa in the parking lot with a guy from her office.  I guess he was going to pace her for this race.  The race ended at Confederation Park and we were bussed to the start line where we waited inside a school until the race started.  It was a cool and brisk morning but there were several people wearing shorts.  I'm not sure it was that warm.  The weather was pretty good but cool.  Thankfully it wasn't rainy or windy.  I wore my vest as I figured it might be a little cooler than if I ran at a normal pace and I was pretty much bang on.

Once the race started, we were running at a good clip.  Don took off almost immediately as he was looking to run at a much faster time (two hours) than what I was planning.  I figured we'd be aiming for around 2:15 which would have been pretty good.  The first 10 km was at a pretty good clip and in hind sight, a little too fast as Tammy began to flag around the half way point but hung in until the the last four kilometers.  We were ahead of the 2:15 pace bunny until around the 17 km mark and I thought we could keep pace until the end but Tammy really ran out of gas.  The last 3.5 km were a real struggle but she finished at a good clip for the last 500 meters.

I was very worried about being able to keep pace as we'd be running at a pace of over one minute per km slower.  In all, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be as I would amuse my self by running ahead and taking a couple of pictures and emailing it to Paul and Tammy's parents.  Its really hard to type and run at the same time.  Almost as hard as texting and driving at the same time. Ha Ha not that I would know about that!! Another time, I stopped to take a very long leak in the industrial section of the town and had to sprint hard to catch up.  That felt good (the sprinting).

All in all, it was a pretty good course as I liked running down Red Hill Valley Parkway which was shut down. Even towards the finish line the course went through a park along Lake Ontario which had a nice wide path unlike the finish to the Ajax and Mississauga Half Marathon which is quite narrow.  I really hate running in races where its a narrow path or very crowded like the Sporting Life 10 km down Yonge street which is so packed, its solid all the way.  I'm scheduled to run the full marathon next year as I think it would be a good race except for the finish as it loops around a water park the path turns to gravel for a couple of hundred meters which really sucks.  Also the water stations were a little disorganized as high school kids were in charge of handing out the drinks.  Some of the cups only had a mouthful of water so I grabbed three or four cups.

Oh, one lousy thing.  It took 45 minutes to exit the park as there was only one exit for all the cars to leave. Good thing the kids we're not with us or they would have flipped out

Race Results:

Don:   2:07:11 - he was on pace to break two hours but cramped up bad near the end
Lisa:  2:13:59 - end of the year race
Tammy:  2:19:09 - great race
Peter:  2:19:11 -  at least I wasn't sore after the race

Next Up:  Around The Bay (Hamilton) March 27, 2011 but maybe the Ajax 10 km Snowflake Run Dec 19th, 2010

Later this week I'll update thoughts of the 2010 race season

Next Up...Hamilton Half Marathon

Hopefully Sunday's race won't be like today...blah rainy, cold and miserable.  My calf seems to be ok and skipping a couple of runs seemed to do the trick.  I ran yesterday morning for about 11 km and it seemed ok as I ran at a slower pace.  My older brother Don is battling an achilles injury but should be ok to run and Tammy all of a sudden has pain in her right knee.  One trip to Kevin confirms that she has bursitis of the knee (yes I had to look up how to spell bursitis).  What is bursitis?

The knee joint is surrounded by three major bursae. At the tip of the knee, over the kneecap bone, is the prepatellar bursa. This bursa can become inflamed (prepatellar bursitis) from direct trauma to the front of the knee. This commonly occurs when maintaining a prolonged kneeling position. It has been referred to as "housemaid's knee," "roofer's knee," and "carpet layer's knee," based on the patient's associated occupational histories. It can lead to varying degrees of swelling, warmth, tenderness, and redness in the overlying area of the knee. As compared with knee joint inflammation (arthritis), it is usually only mildly painful. It is usually associated with significant pain when kneeling and can cause stiffness and pain with walking. Also, in contrast to problems within the knee joint, the range of motion of the knee is frequently preserved

Both Kevin and coach said stay off her feet but should be ok to run.  It might be painful but the run shouldn't cause any damage. 

Earlier this week I discovered a swim workout schedule that a swim coach had posted on Slowtwitch.  I've only been going to lane swimming and haven't decided to rejoin the Masters Swim Club.  There are several things I liked about the swim club.  One was that there were other people to talk to also a coach to provide some drills and guidance.  I've found with lane swimming, like running for two hours, it gets very boring when you're just pounding out the laps with no variance or structure.  So I decided to try the drills that this swim coach posted on Slowtwitch.  Tuesday's swim went like this:

WARM UP

2x450 10 sec rest
#1 swim, #2 (25kick/25swim)

MAIN
6x100 pull on 1:40
4x150 (100 strong/50 smooth) on 2:30
4x100 (25 back/25 swim) on 1:45

COOL DOWN
100 choice

(2,600SCM)

I got most of it complete but ran out of time as I need to be back home by 7:15 am to so Tammy can walk Rebecca to the bus stop.
 
Today's workout was like this:
 
WARM-UP

400 choice
4x50 (25 kick/25drill) 10" rest
6x50 swim (descend 1-3 & 4-6) on 50/55

MAIN
2x200 (150free/50 not free) on 3:25
2x200 pull (strong) on 3:20
200 negative split

COOL DOWN
100 choice

Again, I got most of it completed although not at the splits recommended.  Today's workout was a little bit shorter which is ok as I swim up in Stouffivlle which is a 15 minute drive back home.
 
Overall, I like having some structure rather than just swim blindly.  I'll continue for a couple of weeks and see how it goes.  Hopefully the coach will post some more drills just to mix it up.
 
Oh yea, that new bike I've been talking about...all of a sudden, it may not happen.  We just got a nasty letter from CRA.......doh!!  This could be a problem.