The Riding Season Ain't Over Just Yet

Over the several weeks, the temperature dipped down to the minus 20s with the wind chill or the winds were howling at +20 km\hr but today's temperature warmed up to a balmy - 2 degrees Celsius and the winds died down enough to go riding outside.  I can't remember the last time I rode outside but it was probably in November.  In these parts of the world, we haven't had much snow while the US and Europe have been absolutely pounded.  In fact there is barely enough snow to cover the grass so that means the roads are free of snow so I layered up and headed out.

It felt great to be riding outside and my original plan was to put in a solid 80 minute bike ride but I quickly realized how badly I was out of shape and my "hammer time" turned into poking along.  Although I had ridden the route hundreds of time, I found even the smallest hill forced me to slip into the smaller chain ring.

At one intersection I stopped and waited for the lights but when I started to pedal hard, my rear wheel locked up as I was in the middle of the intersection.  It turns out that I hadn't tightened the fly nut enough and the tire slipped out.  That would have been a serious problem whipping down a hill.

Because of the wet road conditions, I came down Warden Ave which has a less steeper hill than Kennedy Road (which I usually hammer down seeing if I can get above 65 km\hr).  As I returned home, I started to run out of energy but I had a GU package in my bento box and tried to scarf it down.  It wasn't easy as it was half frozen just like my water bottle which I filled with "hot" water before I left.  Next time, I'll have to use boiling hot water

A much more enjoyable 80 minutes on the bike than riding inside.  Perhaps I'll be able to go out a few more times as Saturday is supposed to be eight degrees Celsius!!

My  bike needs cleaning after riding 40 km

Ok Seriously, WTF???

A Cry For Help

U.S. woman goes ‘all out’ with 30,000-calorie Christmas feast

Dec 28, 2010 The Toronto Star

A New Jersey mom who aims to be the world’s heftiest woman enjoyed what was arguably the world’s biggest Christmas dinner over the weekend.

43-year-old Donna Simpson, who currently weighs more than 600 pounds, sat for two straight hours and consumed nearly 30,000 calories worth of food, reports the UK’s Daily Mail.

The massive feast consisted of two 25-pound turkeys, two maple-glazed hams, 15 pounds of potatoes, five loaves of bread, five pounds of herb stuffing, four pints of gravy, four pints of cranberry dressing, and 20 pounds of vegetables.

In total, the huge meal cost about $230 to prepare.

Simpson also had room for dessert as she consumed a sugary “salad” made of marshmallow, cream cheese, whipped cream and cookies.

The mother of two young children said that while she always eats as much as she wants, Christmas gives her cart blanche to “really go all out.”

Simpson, whose stated goal is to reach 1,000 pounds, has drawn intense criticism for her intentional weight gain.

But Simpson insists she is healthy and says “people who feel guilty about eating are hilarious.”

As an Internet personality, Simpson earns an income from her personal website, where people pay to watch her eat. She reportedly consumes nearly 12,000 calories a day, spending more than $600 a week on food.

Wow Am I Ever Fast!!

I went for an one hour run this morning and according to my trusty Polar watch I ran 13.56 km at an average pace of 4.27 min\km!!  Clearly all the cookies and beers I've been chowing down have paid off.  Funny when I went to Google maps, I ran only 10.5 km.  I wonder which one is right?

On another note, my Road ID worked perfectly....

Server is too busy

Arrrrgggghhhh


Have you ever tried online boxing day shopping on Christmas Eve?  All you get is aggravation or "Server is too busy."  (*&^%$$$#^&*())

Best Buy and Futureshop open their Boxing Day Specials online at 8 pm on Christmas Eve and its impossible to buy anything as the server crashes or its sold out

Maybe Cevelo has some boxing day specials.....P2 perhaps?

So what does this post have to do with triathlon?  Nothing other than the fact that I weigh 180 pounds today but at least I swam 2,500 metres this morning.  I was the only one in the pool from 6:05 to 6:25 am.  The lifeguard was dying of boredom watching me flounder around

Hmmmm lots of bored people out there tonight.  Massive amounts of hits on the website eh L?

Winter Solstice

From Wikimedia

The winter solstice occurs exactly when the Earth's axial tilt is farthest away from the sun at its maximum of 23° 26'. Though the winter solstice lasts only a moment in time, the term is also a turning point to midwinter or the first day of winter to refer to the day on which it occurs. More evident to those in high latitudes, this occurs on the shortest day and longest night, when the sun's daily maximum position in the sky is the lowest.^[1]

The seasonal significance of the winter solstice is in the reversal of the gradual lengthening of nights and shortening of days. Depending on the shift of the calendar, the winter solstice occurs on December 21 or 22 each year in the Northern Hemisphere, and June 20 or 21 in theSouthern Hemisphere.^[2] The 2010 winter solstice (summer solstice in the southern hemisphere) will occur on December 21, at 23:38 UTC. This is 11:38 pm Western European Time (WET) or 6:38 pm Eastern Standard Time (EST)^[3]

In the northern hemisphere, today is the shortest day of the year.  Thank God as it probably explains why I've been in such a pissing mood for the last week.  Today a colleague gave me a bottle of Crown Royal for Christmas.  When I got home, I cracked it open and had a drink and then switched to beer....and its only Tuesday.

Any massive successes at work are over shadowed by minor irritants.  Grrrr

.          

Pigging Out

This is the most challenging time of the year as the eating and drinking binging begins.  All the chocolates and cookies begin to add up as the weight inches up to that magically line in the sand (10 pounds over race weight) which is where I'm at now.  Friday was my office's pot luck Xmas party where the branch manager's brother makes a killer turkey with equally killer gravy.  Some one else brought sushi which I could easily have eaten by myself.  I brought a 12 pack of Victoria Bitter (Australian finest beer).  Needless to say, I gained two pounds overnight.

Friday night was a downer as we went to a visitation.  Our former neighbour's younger brother passed away several days ago.  On Monday I ran into Joe who I haven't seen in a couple of years and we started chatting about running.  Joe just got into running and ran the Toronto marathon a couple of months ago.  He asked me about triathlon training and we chatted for about 15 minutes.  He changed the subject and asked if I remembered his wife's younger brother Stephen.  I vaguely recalled meeting him a couple of times and remembered he was a pretty big guy.  Joe explained that he had gotten bigger and had a massive heart attack the previous night and died.  I was shocked as he was only 36 years old.  He had put on quite a bit of weight and was around 270 pounds.  It was a very sad night as Joe's wife was absolutely devastated about her younger brother.  Such a waste.  The next day I called a friend who is about the same size and told him about Stephen.  I told my friend I was very worried about him and he needs to start to thinking about his young kids.  He agreed and said he was trying.

I ran Saturday afternoon for only 35 minutes to test the groin injury and it was ok but I only burned 340 calories which I easily consumed Saturday night.  We went to friend's for dinner and I grazed on the appetizers and then attacked a lovely T-bone steak.  It tasted awesome as I have really cut back on eating steak and red meat for that matter.  I think I have steak about three or four times a year when before I used to eat it almost every week.

Unsurprisingly, I gained another 0.2 pounds so rather than take the scheduled rest day, I opted to ride.  I toyed with the idea of riding outside as it was only -6 Celsius but only a slight wind.  The trouble was that while the main roads were dry, my street is constantly ignored by the city plows and sanders and thus there was a nice layer of packed snow.  As much as I hate to ride inside, I decided that was the safer course of action as the last thing I need was to wipe out and damage my bike.

The ride was barely pleasant as I ran thru my prescribed drills but more importantly I burned 643 calories.  Ok so I don't ride as hard as I should.  It must be that lack of mental toughness

Slap Chop

Yeah Man!!

I went and saw Kevin this morning for an analysis on my groin strain (that doesn't sound so good) but earlier I rode for an hour.  I didn't follow the training plan but just rode for an hour to see how my leg/groin would hold up.  It was no problem as I watched episode one of season two of Weeds.  Its getting interesting as Nancy's "boyfriend" who is a DEA agent confronts her about her drug dealing.

Later I went and saw Kevin and his analysis was that it was only a mild strain - grade one.  Not so serious.  I should be able to run on Saturday.....yeahhhhh mannnnnn!

Fuck

I played hockey tonight and pulled my groin.  This could be a problem as my inner thigh is sore.  In all the years of playing hockey, I've never ever had this problem.  Fuck fuck fuck.  Ok, maybe coach was right about not playing hockey.....fuck that shit

I emailed Kevin (chiropractor) for an appointment for tomorrow

On a different front, my weight this morning was 175.6  but will probably going up after a not so good Tuesday.

The Schedule Said Run, So I Did

This morning's temperature was a balmy -14 degree Celsius with winds at 39 km\hr which brought the temperature down to -23 degrees.  For those who don't know metric, I'll translate.....it was fucking cold and windy.  Perfect for a light jog. Yesterday's rain turned to ice and the streets were like a skating rink.  Fortunately Christmas came early and Tammy gave me my presents.  One was Yaktrax which worked perfect.



I pretty much ran a regular speed despite the road conditions.  However I did feel a little sore in my back and knees as the steel coils aren't as cushioning as the shoes itself.

The other item was new wind briefs which is a must in this weather.  It worked like a charm but I think if I was doing a two hour run, I would have to double up.

I headed out at 5:30 am and ran east for one kilometer and then north, straight into the wind.  Many times I wondered why I wasn't inside riding my bike.  I ran into the wind for two straight kilometers and then turned west onto Major Mackenzie where on the south side, there is a subdivision but on the north sides there just farmer fields and the wind just whips along.  I ran just under 10 km in one hour and totally ignored the run workout on the schedule as I was just content to get the damn run in.

PS:  Weight this morning was 177.6.  Down three pounds in one day.  Now if I can only do that for ten days in a row all my problems would be solved.  Well at least race related problems

A New Low Or Rather A New High

I stepped on the scale this morning and I knew it wasn't going to be pretty.



I've seem to gain five pounds in three days.  That's a pretty good trick as five pounds is over 15,000 calories. Yesterday I was tired from Friday night's hockey (went to bed at midnight and woke up at 5 am) and I hemmed and hawed about going out for a run.  Basically throughout the day, I was just grazing.  Too tired to do anything but sit around and eat.  Finally at 4:45 pm I went for an 70 minute run.  According to Polar, I ran 14 km at a 4:54 min\km pace.  Highly unlikely.

Then we went to my friend's birthday party where consumption of lots of food and beers contributed to my current state (mild hangover).  We did play ball hockey in his driveway with some of the kids.  I haven't  played ball hockey in over 20 years.  It was quite fun especially when I scored the game winning goal after which we went back in and had cake and more beers.  Good thing its off season.

Actually the large part of my weight gain has to do with salt.  On Thursday, Tammy bought a pasta dish that was very salty and my weight went from 175.4 to 177.6 and then last night, I was eating peanuts which again were salty and that's how I gained five pounds from Thursday night to Sunday morning.  Well that's my story and I'm sticking to it.  If my theory is correct, I should be back down to 175 around Thursday.

Going Postal Part 3

After joining the Postal Challenge on Slowtwitch in November, the object was to see how far I could swim in 30 minutes (1,700 metres) and then a month later see how much I improved.  On Friday, I did the challenge again and only swam 1,575 meters.  Doh!!  That's not how it supposed to work, unless I miscounted on the first test.

Thursday's 11 km run was a little brisk with the windchill, the temperature was -20 Celsius.  Brrrr winter is here.

Last winter I played hockey on Friday's afternoon at noon.  It was a very fast skate as there were some guys that played Junior A hockey.  I was clearly the worst guy there and this year I tried to get back in but they made in invite only.  In other words, I didn't make the cut.....for pick up hockey (doh) so I started playing with the guys I used to play with a couple of years ago on Friday nights at 9 to 10:30 pm.  I stopped playing last year because it was almost impossible to go to sleep around midnight and then wake up at 5 am to train.  I find that Saturday is pretty much of a write off unless I take a nap.  For instance, I'm supposed to do an hour run today but I might bail as I sure could use a nap.  I'll probably not play anymore once January rolls around and the schedule begins to build up.

Pretty much a boring update

Miami 5i50 - Fail

The Return Of The One Legged Drills

Well its pretty safe to say that outdoor riding is done for the year.  I was hoping to get out for one more ride but winter has arrived (along with the usual layer of salt) plus the temperature is colder than normal so I've returned to riding indoors.  This morning's workout was one hour ride with the beginning of one legged drills and out of the saddle.  I don't mind doing the latter but absolutely hate the former and if I skip the drills, they only get harder and longer so its easier just to start now.  Besides, right now the one legged drills are only three sets of one minute which is manageable.....barely.  At least it helped pass the time quicker.  I watched the rest of the episodes of Weeds Season One.  The last episode had one of the girls kissing her female friend.  Great except they're about 10 years old....epic fail. 

I also started on some leg strengthening exercises.  I asked the coach for some workouts and he mumbled a couple of exercise I could do.  Several months ago, I asked Rishi twice (a massage therapist who is also a trainer) to build a work out schedule and he never got back to me.  Annoying.  Why won't any get back to me?  I told Risihi I would pay him.

Swimming is going along ok but my shoulders are sore when I use the pull-buoys.  I told Bryan that I'd probably rejoin the Masters in January.  He was pretty happy as he has no one to keep up with him but I didn't tell him I'd probably only go once a week and swim on my own for the other day.  As mentioned earlier, the problem with the Masters is that there isn't enough focus on pounding out the laps and too much focus on other strokes although given my shoulders, maybe that isn't such a bad thing.

STOP ASSHOLE!!!

Ahh the joys of winter running:  wiping out on snow covered ice and almost getting hit by cars that don't stop at four way stop signs.

This morning, I debated whether to run or ride outside for a long time.  The temperature, with the wind chill, was minus nine degrees and a stiff wind of 15 km\hr.  Common sense prevailed and I opted to run as it burns it more calories than riding.  I don't mind running in this type of weather and given what my spring race schedule looks like, I'd better start getting back into running shape.

It was a pretty uneventful 60 minute run until I stepped on some ice that was covered with a fresh layer of snow.  I didn't fall down but as soon as my foot started to slip, its funny how the body reacted.  I tensed up and stayed upright but my triceps tightened up instantly and were actually sore for a couple of minutes.  I continued on until I was literally at the last 200 metres when I came up to an intersection with four way stop.  I ran through the intersection only half paying attention to a car that had sort of stopped and proceeded to roll through the intersection right towards me.  I yelled as loud as I could, "STOP ASSHOLE!!!" as he hit the brakes less than two feet away from me.  I must of have scared the shit out of an old couple walking by on the sidewalk.  As I ran by I gave him a dirty look and the finger.  The thing that annoyed me the most, was his windows were completely fogged up and he couldn't see anything other than what was directly in front of the car.  Moron

According to my Polar watch, in 62 minutes I ran 12.05 km for a pace of 5.12 min\km.....yea right.  I really need to get the foot pod reset.

Coach sent my December workout schedule.  He included a list of potential races for 2011:

                  2011 Race Schedule

Peterboro 1/2 Marathon Feb. 27-2011 - ???
Chilly 1/2 March 6-2011 - ??? 
ATB - 30K March 27-2011 
Sporting Life 10K May 2-2011
Goodlife/Miss Race May 15-2011
Muskoka Long  June 26-2011
Peterboro 1/2 Iron July 11-2011 - ??? 
Calgary 70.3 July 31-2011
Muskoka 70.3 Sept. 11-2011

Yikes!!  That's a lot of races although some races (???) would be either/or.  For instance, obviously I won't be running Peterboro Half and the Chilly Half Marathon the following week but I will be running one of them depending on how I feel and how training is going.  He also has me running the Sporting Life 10 km which I absolutely hate because its so crowded and its impossible to get any space.  Even though Yonge Street is completely shut down, it is a solid mass of runners from start to finish.

 

I'm In!

Around The Bay - Hamilton, Ontario. 

The oldest road race in North American, even older than the Boston Marathon.  I signed up.  This will be the third time I'm attempting this race.  The other two times, I didn't even make it to the start line due to injuries.  Last year would have been perfect as the winter was so mild.  This winter is supposed to be colder than normal.  Wonderful.  There is nothing more than I enjoy than going out for a 2 1/2 hour run in the middle of February.  I wonder what the temperature will be at that time of year?  This February it was zero degrees.  Perfect to run.  With my luck, next February, it probably be -30 with wind gusts of 30 km/hr.  Hello frostbitten toes and other frozen body parts!

This morning's workout was a 45 minute run.  Completely uneventful.  Yesterday's workout was a 61 minute ride on the bike while I watched a couple of more episodes of Weeds.  Totally uneventful. 

If I don't play hockey Friday night, I'll attempt one more outdoor bike ride Saturday morning as long as the roads are dry. 

As we head into December, I noticed with some of my fellow bloggers/triathletes, the level of activities and posting has dropped dramatically.  Tis the season.