Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Tuesday Swim Update
Well it appears that several people are interested in what happened this morning after the little discussion with a fellow swimmer. If you recall, a fellow swimmer that I will call "C", is unfamiliar with swimming in a group. Brian had it out with her and I "discussed" the situation in the parking lot after Thursday's swim, so this morning's swim was the first chance to see if she had changed her ways.
This morning's swim was pretty much a dog's breakfast (write-off). I had a late meeting Monday night and didn't get home until 8:00 pm. I had a salad, bowl of soup and one piece of bread and then got the kids ready for bread. When I woke up, I was starving and had some left over pieces of Jake's apple. I meant to eat more but started reading some blogs and forgot to eat. The work out was pretty mindless as it seemed as if Serge wanted to work with the Mallard's swim team more than us. The workout was
300 meter swim front crawl
100 meter IM (25 meter each discipline)
100 meter kick
Repeat four times.
Pretty mind numbing but after the first 300 meters I felt weak and tired. The idea was to do each set faster but I started out on a fast pace and it went down hill after that. I think everyone else felt the same as no one was swimming fast and I think I was the only one to finish the entire workout (barely).
Fortunately, C was gracious and allowed me to swim by her a couple of times but mostly there was a lot of resting in between sets. It seamed as if everyone was having a crappy workout but perhaps you can teach an old dog new tricks. We'll see but today was not a good swim.
This morning's swim was pretty much a dog's breakfast (write-off). I had a late meeting Monday night and didn't get home until 8:00 pm. I had a salad, bowl of soup and one piece of bread and then got the kids ready for bread. When I woke up, I was starving and had some left over pieces of Jake's apple. I meant to eat more but started reading some blogs and forgot to eat. The work out was pretty mindless as it seemed as if Serge wanted to work with the Mallard's swim team more than us. The workout was
300 meter swim front crawl
100 meter IM (25 meter each discipline)
100 meter kick
Repeat four times.
Pretty mind numbing but after the first 300 meters I felt weak and tired. The idea was to do each set faster but I started out on a fast pace and it went down hill after that. I think everyone else felt the same as no one was swimming fast and I think I was the only one to finish the entire workout (barely).
Fortunately, C was gracious and allowed me to swim by her a couple of times but mostly there was a lot of resting in between sets. It seamed as if everyone was having a crappy workout but perhaps you can teach an old dog new tricks. We'll see but today was not a good swim.
Doh!!!!!!
Marathon winner disqualified because he didn’t sign up for race
Paul Moseley/Fort Worth Star-TelegramScott Downard was stripped of his title in this weekend's Cowtown Marathon because of paperwork, or, more specifically, a lack of paperwork.The 25-year-old won the Cowtown Marathon in Fort Worth, Tex. on Sunday but wasdisqualified when he crossed the finish linebecause he never registered for the race.
Downard was using the bib of a friend who had signed up for the race but was unable to compete. The Oklahoman freely admitted the issue to race officials when confronted with it after crossing the finish line.
Kolin Styles, 25, was named the winner. He finished the race in 2 hours, 40 minutes, 54 seconds, more than three minutes behind Downard.
"I'll take it," he told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
A race official told the newspaper that Downard was understanding about the disqualification and said he'd come back to compete next year.
Remarkably, a similar situation occurred in the 2003 race.
Over 9,000 men and women participated in numerous races at the annual event. Almost of all them signed up on time.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Monday Update
Thursday Master's Swim
My Master's swim class is pretty small with only about eight or nine other swimmers. We share the pool with the Mallard's swim team where I routinely get demolished by 13 year olds every time I try to race them. (Note to self: I make way more money than they do). We have two lanes and are split up into "slow" and "slower". I'm in the slow group. One of our fellow swimmers, I'll name C, is an older lady and an OK swimmer but I'm way faster. She always says she's not competitive and enjoys swimming for the company. Over the last couple of years she has been a minor nuisance. I think she's just learned how to swim as she has zero pool etiquette:
a) She absolutely won't let you go ahead of her
b) If you try and pass, she will speed up
c) She will be resting at the wall and as soon as I approach, she will push off
d) She likes to swim over the black line at the bottom of the pool rather than to the right of the line resulting in several near collisions
e) She likes to rest right in the middle of the lane against the wall so there is no room to turn
Most of the time, we end up complaining about her in the change room but this time Brian decided to confront her. They ended up "discussing" the etiquette of swimming for half the class. I kept swimming to finish the set and then got the low-down in the dressing room. Later, C caught up with me in the parking lot and she continued the discussions with me. After standing outside for 10 minutes, I started to get cold. We'll see on Tuesday morning if anything changes.
Thursday Night - 30 minute recovery run
This run felt horrible has I ran right after getting home from work. I should have ate something as I thought about taking a gel in the middle of the run. Yes, that would have been 15 minutes into the run.
Friday - Nothing, rest day
Saturday - Not much to write. Two hour ride followed by a 30 minute outdoor run.
I started wearing my heavier riding jacket as its still pretty cold outside and I'm soaking wet from riding. I do a complete change of clothes and even wear my heavier wool running socks as it was around -8 degrees Celsius (17 degrees F).
Sunday - One hour ride and 30 minute strength training
The one hour ride was interesting as there were more intervals but this time I decided to ignore the heart rate. Coach told me to back off once I went above the prescribed limits for the session but I don't feel like I'm getting a tough enough workout. This session was on the big chain and I almost puked by the time I finished the last interval.
Monday - One hour ride and 30 minute run
Not much to write about other than I felt really good coming off the bike. I ran at a 5:17 min\km pace which was probably the fastest I've run in a while. My legs were sore from the weight training on Sunday
My Master's swim class is pretty small with only about eight or nine other swimmers. We share the pool with the Mallard's swim team where I routinely get demolished by 13 year olds every time I try to race them. (Note to self: I make way more money than they do). We have two lanes and are split up into "slow" and "slower". I'm in the slow group. One of our fellow swimmers, I'll name C, is an older lady and an OK swimmer but I'm way faster. She always says she's not competitive and enjoys swimming for the company. Over the last couple of years she has been a minor nuisance. I think she's just learned how to swim as she has zero pool etiquette:
a) She absolutely won't let you go ahead of her
b) If you try and pass, she will speed up
c) She will be resting at the wall and as soon as I approach, she will push off
d) She likes to swim over the black line at the bottom of the pool rather than to the right of the line resulting in several near collisions
e) She likes to rest right in the middle of the lane against the wall so there is no room to turn
Most of the time, we end up complaining about her in the change room but this time Brian decided to confront her. They ended up "discussing" the etiquette of swimming for half the class. I kept swimming to finish the set and then got the low-down in the dressing room. Later, C caught up with me in the parking lot and she continued the discussions with me. After standing outside for 10 minutes, I started to get cold. We'll see on Tuesday morning if anything changes.
Thursday Night - 30 minute recovery run
This run felt horrible has I ran right after getting home from work. I should have ate something as I thought about taking a gel in the middle of the run. Yes, that would have been 15 minutes into the run.
Friday - Nothing, rest day
Saturday - Not much to write. Two hour ride followed by a 30 minute outdoor run.
I started wearing my heavier riding jacket as its still pretty cold outside and I'm soaking wet from riding. I do a complete change of clothes and even wear my heavier wool running socks as it was around -8 degrees Celsius (17 degrees F).
Sunday - One hour ride and 30 minute strength training
The one hour ride was interesting as there were more intervals but this time I decided to ignore the heart rate. Coach told me to back off once I went above the prescribed limits for the session but I don't feel like I'm getting a tough enough workout. This session was on the big chain and I almost puked by the time I finished the last interval.
Monday - One hour ride and 30 minute run
Not much to write about other than I felt really good coming off the bike. I ran at a 5:17 min\km pace which was probably the fastest I've run in a while. My legs were sore from the weight training on Sunday
Friday, February 24, 2012
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
The Toronto Triathlon Festival Comes To...Toronto
So the long awaited event was finally announced this morning. When this race was first proposed to city council late last year, it was assumed that it was the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC) and their new 5i50 series (Olympic distance) would be staging this race. Oddly enough, the WTC converted the old Muskoka Long Course (2 km swim, 55 km bike and 13 km run) into the new 5i50 race for July 22, 2012. The exact same day for the new Toronto Triathlon Festival. Talk about competition.
For those who are not familiar with the triathlon situation in Southern Ontario, there are two main race series. MultiSports Canada has 11 races while the WTC runs Trisport Canada which has 10 races including Muskoka 70.3. There are also a couple of independent races as well so within a three hour drive of Toronto, there are more than 20 races over the summer. That's a pretty good selection of races.
Canada's Olympic gold champion, Simon Whitfield is the main attraction and will be using this race as a tune up for the Summer Olympics in London, UK. This will probably be his last Olympic games so hopefully he'll be able to win gold one more time.
I emailed coach and asked if this race would work into my schedule and she responded that week will be the last and final build for Ironman Mont-Tremblant. She didn't get into details but it would be probably something like a 6 hour bike ride and the next day a three hour run. As long as I got those workouts completed, I could race the TTF. I can't imagine having much gas left after that workout but it would be fun to race in Toronto.
For those who are not familiar with the triathlon situation in Southern Ontario, there are two main race series. MultiSports Canada has 11 races while the WTC runs Trisport Canada which has 10 races including Muskoka 70.3. There are also a couple of independent races as well so within a three hour drive of Toronto, there are more than 20 races over the summer. That's a pretty good selection of races.
Canada's Olympic gold champion, Simon Whitfield is the main attraction and will be using this race as a tune up for the Summer Olympics in London, UK. This will probably be his last Olympic games so hopefully he'll be able to win gold one more time.
I emailed coach and asked if this race would work into my schedule and she responded that week will be the last and final build for Ironman Mont-Tremblant. She didn't get into details but it would be probably something like a 6 hour bike ride and the next day a three hour run. As long as I got those workouts completed, I could race the TTF. I can't imagine having much gas left after that workout but it would be fun to race in Toronto.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Major Disappointment
One of the advantages of having a Power Tap is you can actually see if you're getting stronger (or weaker) as it shows how many watts you're pumping out. Watts are watts. The trouble with just measuring speed is that it can be greatly affected by other variables (ie wind, terrain etc). Another factor is how much resistance is on the trainer. Too little resistance and I'm flying along while too much resistance means I'm working hard.
I was comparing my watts to Peter A who is about the same size and weight but a faster rider. Since we have the same coach and I'm sure, similar workouts, I figured our output should be roughly the same. We traded emails yesterday and he told me at 250 watts he's really working hard while for me, at 250 watts its a step up from a warm up. This isn't making sense. We should be roughly the same.
Last year, days before Muskoka 70.3, I was having trouble with my Power Tap. It kept losing the signal and no data was being recorded. I told ex-coach and he installed new batteries in the hub. That seemed to have been the problem but my watts suddenly shot up by 25 percent. I mentioned it to ex-coach and he simply said "I must have had a great ride." Hmmmm ok. Needless to say, this really screwed me up at Muskoka as my watts were all over the place.
So I emailed new-coach and she said while its not realistic to compare our results, make sure to check to torque. She emailed me a simple procedure and sure enough, even while the wheel was spinning with no peddling, the Power Tap was showing I was generating 24 watts. Crappppp!!! And here I thought I was getting stronger on the bike as I was pumping out 450-500 watts as maximum effort. Worse, new-coach told me it wasn't a linear measure, meaning that at low power, the difference is 24 watts but at higher power, the difference would be much more. Sure enough, for this morning's workout, I was no where near Monday's numbers. At the end of today's workout I tried for an all out sprint and could only muster a max of 351 watts where on Monday, I was hitting 491 watts. A massive difference. I'm back to being a wimpy rider.
New-coach told me that the torque should be checked on a regular basis and especially after changing the hub batteries. Thanks ex-coach!
I will try a couple of 15 minute runs later this week. Hopefully I'll be able to make it without having to walk home. My calf feels fine. Wait stop me if you've heard that one before!
I was comparing my watts to Peter A who is about the same size and weight but a faster rider. Since we have the same coach and I'm sure, similar workouts, I figured our output should be roughly the same. We traded emails yesterday and he told me at 250 watts he's really working hard while for me, at 250 watts its a step up from a warm up. This isn't making sense. We should be roughly the same.
Last year, days before Muskoka 70.3, I was having trouble with my Power Tap. It kept losing the signal and no data was being recorded. I told ex-coach and he installed new batteries in the hub. That seemed to have been the problem but my watts suddenly shot up by 25 percent. I mentioned it to ex-coach and he simply said "I must have had a great ride." Hmmmm ok. Needless to say, this really screwed me up at Muskoka as my watts were all over the place.
So I emailed new-coach and she said while its not realistic to compare our results, make sure to check to torque. She emailed me a simple procedure and sure enough, even while the wheel was spinning with no peddling, the Power Tap was showing I was generating 24 watts. Crappppp!!! And here I thought I was getting stronger on the bike as I was pumping out 450-500 watts as maximum effort. Worse, new-coach told me it wasn't a linear measure, meaning that at low power, the difference is 24 watts but at higher power, the difference would be much more. Sure enough, for this morning's workout, I was no where near Monday's numbers. At the end of today's workout I tried for an all out sprint and could only muster a max of 351 watts where on Monday, I was hitting 491 watts. A massive difference. I'm back to being a wimpy rider.
New-coach told me that the torque should be checked on a regular basis and especially after changing the hub batteries. Thanks ex-coach!
I will try a couple of 15 minute runs later this week. Hopefully I'll be able to make it without having to walk home. My calf feels fine. Wait stop me if you've heard that one before!
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Lanced At Panama!
Wow! Lance Armstrong just finished Panama 70.3 with a smoking time of 3:50:55 only passed by Bevean Docherty. Ironman Live was so overwhelmed, I couldn't even load it so I had to track it via updates on Slowtwitch. The posts were coming fast and furious as when I refreshed the page, there were a couple of new posts every 10 seconds or so.
LA's splits are
19:22 for the swim (hmmm he beat my time by only 18 minutes or so. Must had a good current)
2:10:18 for the bike (well I should hope he can ride faster than me)
1:17:01 for the run (hell, I'm hurt so I can't run at all)
Pretty impressive for a 41 year old fart. Although I am neither a fan or hater of LA, this should be an interesting race season with all eyes on KonaWednesday, February 8, 2012
Bagged!
Its a good thing I'm on a recovery week.
On Tuesday I swam with Masters at 5:30 am and it was actually a longer swim than usual . The workout was supposed to be 3,000 meters but I didn't finish but I think I bailed around 2,400 meters. After work I played my usual Tuesday night hockey at 5:30 pm where I was standing in front of the goalie trying to screen him. My defenseman took a big slap shot from the point. I jumped but the puck still nailed me in the foot. Crap that hurt! After hockey I showered and got dressed in record time as I had a evening meeting back at work for 7:00 pm. By the time I got home and to bed it was around 10:00 pm.
I was totally bagged but still woke up at 4:30 am simply because I couldn't sleep. My foot was a little sore and I was slightly limping. Good thing I don't have to run because I hurt my calf! I did my 45 minute recovery ride and 20 minutes of core and stretching. By that time it was 7:00 am so I headed upstairs and helped get the kids breakfast. I had my breakfast and then went upstairs to shower. I got dressed and then laid down with my suit on. It was 8:15 am. When I woke up 30 minutes later, Tammy had taken Vanessa and Jake to the bus stop and then went to the gym. I got into work a little later than usual.
On Tuesday I swam with Masters at 5:30 am and it was actually a longer swim than usual . The workout was supposed to be 3,000 meters but I didn't finish but I think I bailed around 2,400 meters. After work I played my usual Tuesday night hockey at 5:30 pm where I was standing in front of the goalie trying to screen him. My defenseman took a big slap shot from the point. I jumped but the puck still nailed me in the foot. Crap that hurt! After hockey I showered and got dressed in record time as I had a evening meeting back at work for 7:00 pm. By the time I got home and to bed it was around 10:00 pm.
I was totally bagged but still woke up at 4:30 am simply because I couldn't sleep. My foot was a little sore and I was slightly limping. Good thing I don't have to run because I hurt my calf! I did my 45 minute recovery ride and 20 minutes of core and stretching. By that time it was 7:00 am so I headed upstairs and helped get the kids breakfast. I had my breakfast and then went upstairs to shower. I got dressed and then laid down with my suit on. It was 8:15 am. When I woke up 30 minutes later, Tammy had taken Vanessa and Jake to the bus stop and then went to the gym. I got into work a little later than usual.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Superbowl Sunday
I'm really not a big football fan and will watch the Superbowl with mild interest although money always make things more interesting (I bet my manager). Usually we go to Billy's house who has a great Superbowl party where the boys will play a game of touch football starting around 2 pm and then head back to catch the "Big Game." We've been playing for 12 years and have played in all kinds of weather from -20 degrees to 5 degrees and this year has been one of the warmest on record. However, due to my current running injury, I can't play and I wasn't really all that eager to play with IMMT coming up. With my luck, I'd blow my knee out and wreck the 2012 race season.
On the training front, I've just finished three weeks of build and head into a recovery week which is good timing as work is getting very busy. Because of my calf injury, Around The Bay is officially out. I've registered four times and only ran it once. Highly annoying but also totally my fault as I told coach to ramp up my running way beyond what she originally secheduled. Fortunately its sold out so selling my bib shouldn't be a problem.
The bike sessions have been interesting and much harder than last year's indoor sessions. The biggest focus is maintaining constant pacing but I have no idea what watts I can maintain for an interval even though I've had the Power Tap since June 2011. Small wonders why I switched coaches this year. New coach has been great in providing feedback on my Power Tap files. I don't expect her to look at every file but an occasional comment is very helpful. The rides are all interval focus which are great as last year I had too many mindless rides of doodling around and it showed in my race results. For example, today's main set was 5 x 10 minutes interval with constant increasing power on each interval. By the last interval, I was barely hanging on. Perfect, hurt me.
But back to the Superbowl. In case you're not familiar, the Superbowl is legendary for airing new commercials. In the United States, a single 30 second commercial spot for the 2012 Superbowl costs $3.5 million however in Canada, we do not get to watch the US commercials but rather we get the Canadian version. This year is no different. Here is one of them. Budweiser surprised an amateur hockey game by providing fans, cheerleaders, and announcers. My claim to fame, I've played a couple of times in the rink where the commercial was filmed. Its a dump and looks nothing like what's on the commercial.
On the training front, I've just finished three weeks of build and head into a recovery week which is good timing as work is getting very busy. Because of my calf injury, Around The Bay is officially out. I've registered four times and only ran it once. Highly annoying but also totally my fault as I told coach to ramp up my running way beyond what she originally secheduled. Fortunately its sold out so selling my bib shouldn't be a problem.
The bike sessions have been interesting and much harder than last year's indoor sessions. The biggest focus is maintaining constant pacing but I have no idea what watts I can maintain for an interval even though I've had the Power Tap since June 2011. Small wonders why I switched coaches this year. New coach has been great in providing feedback on my Power Tap files. I don't expect her to look at every file but an occasional comment is very helpful. The rides are all interval focus which are great as last year I had too many mindless rides of doodling around and it showed in my race results. For example, today's main set was 5 x 10 minutes interval with constant increasing power on each interval. By the last interval, I was barely hanging on. Perfect, hurt me.
But back to the Superbowl. In case you're not familiar, the Superbowl is legendary for airing new commercials. In the United States, a single 30 second commercial spot for the 2012 Superbowl costs $3.5 million however in Canada, we do not get to watch the US commercials but rather we get the Canadian version. This year is no different. Here is one of them. Budweiser surprised an amateur hockey game by providing fans, cheerleaders, and announcers. My claim to fame, I've played a couple of times in the rink where the commercial was filmed. Its a dump and looks nothing like what's on the commercial.
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