Injured

I went for a long run a week ago around New Glasgow and I have had a very sore hip ever since. I was wearing fairly old sneakers which could be part of the problem. It was also a very hilly route. I am not sure what the exact cause is. I took most of last week off and then ran for about an hour yesterday. My hip is still sore but not as bad. I am going to buy new sneakers this week to see if that helps. I also wonder if I have over stretched things by doing yoga too agressively. I think that is also possible. Otherwise, I am hoping to get back to my routine and also start doing more indoor spinning. I need to get my trainor set up for the winter. I purchased a new cyclo cross bike and i hope to use it a bit outdoors this winter. It is hard to believe that i will be heading to Tucson in about 2 and a half months for cycling. It helps make for a shorter winter.

enthusiasm returning?

I think my enthusiasm for working out is returning a bit after being a bit low through september and october. I am swimming twice a week and feel ready to up that to three times a week. I have been running two or three times a week and feeling pretty good when I run. I ran 15 k this past sunday and that didn't feel too bad. I am back doing yoga about three times a week and I think that is still good for my flexibility and overall health. I am teaching a spin class once a week and feeling like I will try to cycle a bit outdoors if the weather premits it. I am booked to go to Tucson in february for a week of cycling so i would like to keep my cycling fitness up as much as possible. I am also signed up for both a half ironman and full ironman next summer.

Home renos

This has been a busy fall for home renos and it has cut into my training a bit; I have been building a new pool in New Glasgow; had new floors installed in New Glasgow and have ripped out an old bathroom and kitchen in Charlottetown and building a new bathroom. I am also supposed to have some work done at 46 Prince. It seems like alot but I didn't intend to have it all done at once.

In terms of triathlons, I am starting to plan for next year. I am doing Mount Tremblant 70.3 in June next year and an ironman there in August. I am booked to go to Tucson in February to go cycling. I would also like to qualify for the age group world championships in London in 2013 (the qualifying race is next year) Work is busy as usual which is good. I am swimming about 2 days a week but not very intensely. I have run twixe this week so far for about 40 mins each and have done two hot yoga classes.I am taching spinning on Saturdays. I haven't been biking outside for about a month. I would like to go once or twice more before the winter. I have cycled more than 3000 k this summer which I think is quite a bit.

Taking it Easy

Since the ITU Worlds, I have been taking it relatively easy. I have been doing hot yoga; have started teaching spin classes on Saturday mornings. I have been swimming just once a week, doing drills. I haven't run much but will get back at it soon. It seems like a break when I only do one workout per day. This week, I went for a long hike with some friends on Sunday; I did hot yoga three times, swm once etc...

On the home front, my swimming pool in New Glasgow is nearly complete but it is a little too late in the season to use it. It will be ready for use in the spring. There is also a whirlpool that I can use all winter. Otherwise, work is busy but good. I am taking my mother to Maine for Thanksgiving weekend and looking forward to that.

World ITU Triathlon Championships

I just got back from the ITU World Triathlon Championships in Beijing, China. It was a great trip. I was reasonably happy with my performance, finishing 34th out of 75. I was, perhaps, a bit cautious on the bikeas the course was a bit difficult and tricky. The race was also at the end of the season and my enthusiasm wains a bit as the season goes on. But, I met really great people and it was fun to go to a place a bit out of my comfort zone. I tend to do things that i am comfortable with and go to places I like. It was great to go to a place that I would never have gone to, except for this triathlon.

We had lots of great chinese food, and it was very cheap.We did some sightseeing: the great wall, forbidden city, summer palace and Tien mien Square. The security everwhere was quite intense both around the triathlon and the city in general. Also, the smog is as bad as people say with alot of days where u can't see the sky and it is like fog.

My coaches instructions now are to take 2 weeks off from training. i am going to do some workouts for fun and I am doing hot yoga. I signed up today for ironman 70.3 in mount tremblant, quebec which will be a warm up for the ironman that i am doing there next August. After going to Beijing, a group of us agreed we would try to qualify for the 2013 World Championships which will be in London, england on their Olympic course.

going to china

i am leaving for China on Sept 4th for the world ITU triathlon championships in Beijung. i am going as an age group competitor having qualified in a race in New Brunswick last year. It is really just an excuse to go somewhere i would not go otherwise. The reality of it is setting in. I am only going for 10 days as i am busy at work and it is a stuggle to take off more time than that. I have two days trips booked; one to the Great Wall and one to the Forbidden city and around Beijing. I am going with a group as part of triathlon canada so i won't really be alone and i expect i will meet people.

my training has been going well. it is always a challenge to balance work, social activities and training. Summer on PEI is very social and there is always lots going on. I think my swimming and cycling are very good and my running is ok. I have been working hard on my running and i see some improvement but it is not as rapid as i would like. I will be getting organized this week; packing including packing my bike and other triathlon gear. Travellling with a bike is becoming an increaing problem as planes are getting smaller and they frequently don't have room for them. The airlines simply don't put them on if it is crowded and make no apologies. it can take several dasy for your bike to get to your destination. the biggest challenge for me in getting my bike to china is getting it out of charlottetown airport where all the planes are small. i am going to go early on departure day and speak nicely to someone to see if i can impress upon them that it needs to get on the plane.

triathlon by the sea 2011

I did this race this past weekend and the swim portion was terrible. I have done this race 3 or 4 times and each year the swim is a problem. This year it took me 40 minutes to swim 1500 metres. (it would normally take me around 25 minutes to do that distance) I have done some tough half ironman swims over 2000 metres that only took 34-36 minutes. In the race this past weekend, you couldn't see the buoys because of the waves and at one point I had no idea where I was. I could see the shore but that was it. Based on this experience, I will not do this race again if the swim is in the same location. It will be interesting to see if it stays in this location. Otherwise my training is still going fairly well. My running is still not as good as I had hoped it would be despite considerable effort on my part and doing lots of speed work. I am wishing that I had maybe done more roadrunner races which might of helped but i cannot do everything.

triathlon by the sea

I did this triathlon this past weekend in Dalvay. this is the 3rd or 4th time i have done this race and almost every year, the swim is a probalem. The north shore of PEI in August is just not suitable for having a triathlon. This year, it was terrible as you couldn't see the buoys because of the waves and I had no idea of where to swim toward. The swim took me 40 minutes which is a lot longer than a half ironman swim would take me. I had a rough swim in a race in Monaco in a half ironman with big waves which took me 37 minutes but this race was 500 metres shorter and it took me 40 minutes.

Lake Placid

Last weekend I went ti Lake Placid to watch ironman and have a little vacation. I took my bike and a friend, Billy Macdonald. I swam the course (full 4 k) in about an hour and 7 minutes; did the bike course as well on quite a hot and windy day. Didn't time my self exactly but averaged about 30 k/hour which is what i would do in an ironman. I thought about signing up for 2012 but being there did not really make me want to do it again. I am already singed up for the new Tremblant ironman in August 2012 and that is probably enough.

I am finding that the summer is flying by as usual; Work is very busy and i havebeen training alot for the wordl ITU championships in China. I am not sure if I have plateaued a bit or am getting a bit tired. Sometimes, I think I may overtrain and overrace a bit. I have done so far this season: red island relay, china point duathlon, mooseman half iron, glenfinnan duathlon, canoe cove duathlon and fredericton triathlon. my performance in everyone improved quite a bit from last year. My running remains a challenge. I think it is faster than last year but i almost have a bit of a mental block about really pushing it. Today i did the Rustico duathlon as part of a three hour training day. I biked to it from charlottetown, raced and then biked to new glasgow and back to town. i was reasonably happy with my performance- 6th about of about 35-40 . i had my garmin on which i think i should do more often for running in races. I was running with my heart rate in a good spot (int eh low 14os) and was doing usually 4:30 ks or better. that would be 44-45 minutes 10 k. i can do better than that and would like to have it down around 42 in a race.

mid summer training

This is the time of year when training becomes more difficult: my enthusiasm wears off and i I start to get a bit tired from a lot of races. Last weekend, I did another duathlon and had a pretty good result (3rd). i was a bit disappointed with my run; running 46 minutes and something. i have been working at my running and have gottena bit faster but it is still a challenge. Otherwise, my training is going well. This past week i cycled for 4 hours on monday; swam on tuesday; ran twice on wednesday (7 k and 9 k) swam thursday and friday; cycled on thursday for an hour and a half; ran friday a speed workout and cycled for 3.5 hours saturday. That is about 18 hours which is a lot. My coach calls it "maintaining your aerobic base" which i think i used to fail to do. i would do lots of short races in previous summers but no long rides or runs. You do loose your base endurance when you do this. Tomorrow, I am going to go for a long run.

Improvement

I have now done about 4 races and shown quite a bit of improvement over last year, in each race. I have done two duathlons, a half ironman and the red island relay. my running in particular has improved but also my cycling. My enthusiasm for training and racing has been high but we have had a couple of days of bad weather and I have been feeling a bit lazy. I am doing a triathlon this coming weekend in Fredericton. NB and hope to keep on with the trend of showing improvement.

I have also changed my diet a bit with less carbs from bread and pasta and more protein, vegies and fruit. I am not sure yet how that is going to work with my training and racing as I used to eat alot of bread and bagels. We will see. I have lost a few pounds over the last week or so and am around 150 which is about as light as I have ever been in my adult life. Tomorrow i am scheduled to do a 3000 swim and a speed workout running. Wednesday is a two hour bike ride and another swim i think. I would like to try to do one of the cyling pei thursday night bike rides as they are very tough and good training.

Mooseman 2011

I think this is the 5th time i have done this race. I enjoy the trip down to New Hampshire and it is a good way to start the triathlon season. Last year it became part of the ironman 70.3 series and they made the bike course much more difficult. (probably added 15-20 minutes to everyones time) my times have ranged from 5 hours 3 minutes to 5 hours 36 minutes last year in the new course in extremely wet conditions. This year it was a nice day and i went alot harder on the bike. My bike time was 12 minutes faster than last year. I am a bit disappointed with my run time as it was slower than last year by about 2 and a half minutes. Overall, though, my time was 8 minutes faster than last year so i have to be happy with that. During the run today, my legs were very heavy and it never got any better. Usually that feeling goes away after you run for a bit. It can be partly due to going hard on the bike course. Also, I have been doing alot of short fast runs and haven't done a run like that after a really hard bike ride. I guess that is something to work on.

racing season

I did a duathlon last weekend and the red island relay this weekend. i was pleased with my performance in both races. i was second overall last weekend and second today in the solo division and 9th overall out of 73 teams. In both cases , it was quite a bit better then i did last year. i am particularly happy with my running. today, i passed a couple of people running that i have never passed before. my coaching i have been receiving from pro triathlete, Torsten Abel, is really been beneficial. Next weekend, i am doing the mooseman 70.3 so i hope this trend continues. i have been so busy racing that i have had much time to do a lot of training in between. But, i am looking forward to mooseman as it is always a fun roadtrip. Before i know it, my trip to China will be coming up in early sept for the ITU Worlds. I also decided last week to go to Lake Placid this summer to watch the race and sign up for next year. that should be fun as well. I will take my bike and do some riding as well as swimming.

Racing season is upon us

I did the cycle PEI TT this past weekend and was pleased with my result. My time was a little over two minutes faster than last year. Part of that might have been better wind conditions; part might have been my new bike and new training regime. I am feeling pretty good about my running. I have been doing speed drills and feel that my running is certainly as fast as its ever been. My goal is to see if I can achieve a PB in 5 and 10 k distances this summer. I may do a 10 k in a couple of weeks and compare my time to last year. It is about 3 weeks to Mooseman triathlon. It always seems that that triathlon comes early and it is a difficult race at the best of times. I don't have any particular goal in mind with that race other than doing better than last year. That shouldn't be too hard as it poured rain last year and that had an effect on my bike ride, both physically and mentally.

I am still really enjoying my training with coach, Torsten Abel. I think it is really helping me and making my training more focused. It should translate into better results but even if it doesn', i am still enjoying the training process. This past sunday, i ran for a hour doing some speed intervals; i then biked for two hours; today i swam 4350 metres at a moderate pace ( i couldn't really swim that distance at anything faster). tomorrow is another speed/run workout and a recovery run.

Big swimming week

Last week I swam over 15,000 metres which is the most i have ever swam in one week. I generally enjoyed it and felt pretty good. I have been doing longer distances- usually more than 3000m per swim. One swim last week was 4200 m which, again, may have been the longest swim I have ever done. I did a good tempo run workout last wednesday. doing one minute fast, one minute easy -fifteen times in a row. On Saturday, I did another one that was about an hour and twenty minutes long and two segments of running hard for 12 minutes each. I feel like my running and swimming have improved since I started being coached in February. I am not sure about my biking as I haven't been outside a whole lot yet. I did a couple of workouts on the trainor last week and then did 90 k on Sunday. it was good for the first two hours and then I died for the last hour and a half. Still, 90 k is an ambitious bike ride for April 10th on PEI. I am going to Cuba this Friday and taking my bike which I am looking forward to. I have never taken a bike on a cuba vacation before but I always see lots of people biking down there.

No time to Blog

I have been receiving coaching from pro triathlete, Torsten Abel, since the first of February and his training program is fairly intense. I am already starting to see results in my swimming and running and i feel strng on the bike trainer. Last week, i did a long run on the sunday; took monday off and did yoga; tuesday- swam 3000 metres and did a cycle workout for an hour and a half, wednesday last week was a hour run, thursday was a 3200 metre swim and and 1:30 of spinning; Friday was 3200 metres swim and an hour run; saturday was a spin class and another hour and a half on the trainer. Sunday just past i did a long steady hour and fourty five minute run; monday did yoga; tuesday swam 3200m and cycled for 1:15 on the trainor and today did two runs of about 45-50 minutes each. It will be good to get outside cycling soon.

New Bike

Last week I purchased a new time trial bike (Trek Speed Concept 9.5) from Mike's Bikes in Moncton. Very flashy looking bike. Very aerodynamic. Not as light as my Kuota and it doesn't come with full dura ace like my Kuota. Still, it is a nice bike and I will be eager to see if it feels fast.

My training with my coach, Torsten Abel has been going well. I am noticing improvement with my swimming endurance and speed. I have been swimming about 9000 km a week whcih is quite a bit more than i was doing earlier in the winter. I have been spinning on the trainor indoors about 3 hours a week. I have been doing a couple of runs during the week and one longer run on Sunday. This past week, the plan called for two runs on Wednesday- one at noon and a recovery run after work. Running fast is the one thing that does not come naturally to me. I have to work at it and I will never be a really fast runner.

Swimming comes easier to me. I didn't start swimming until i decided to take up triathlon about 8 years ago. I like the water and have always been comfortable in the water and I think that helps.

I almost went cycling outside this past thursday. I think it was warm enough but I didn' really want to get my bike dirty. I am hoping to get outside in the next week or so. I am going to cuba for a vacation in mid April and seriously considering taking my bike, I always see lots of people cycling when i am there. Tomorrow, I am supposed to run for and hour and a half and increase the heart rate by about 5 beats per minute every 30 mins.

enjoying new coached program

i am no into my second month of doing a daily routine set by a coach. I am enjoying it so far, because it is new and also, I don't have to think about what I am going to do. The swims are all 3000m plus so my endurance is certainly getting better. now that the coach has met me and done some testing, the runs and biking are at specific heart rates, based on my heart rate ranges.

Last week, I think I did three swims of all close to 3000 metres; The coach likes paddles for strength so i have been doing more of that. My times are getting faster. I am now swimming 1:35 100s with ease. In other words, that is my normal time for 100 metres without pushing it. that is definitely a bit faster than I used to be. I did a fair bit of running last week; two runs of about 50 mins each in low heart rate zone and then a longer run on Sunday in my 3 heart rate zones. (20 mins in each zone getting faster) and then another recovery run of 30 mins easy in the afternoon. I did a spinning session of about 1:15 on the trainor and taught a spin class which is counted as training. Also did two weights session targeted at triathlon training- one for lower body and one for upper body. The lower body was single leg presses, single calf raises, squats and lunges. The upper body was tricep extensions, seated row, pull ups, tri dips, push ups.

Tucson

My trip here got off to a rough start. My bike was 2 days late getting here and that was very frustrating. The second day was especially frustrating as my bike was in Tucson but the delivery company just failed to deliver it. Calling the United Airlines baggage line just increased my frustration as I could never get an sort of concrete answer as to when it would be delivered. Anyway, it came late monday night and I had 4 days left so I went cycling everyday since. The first day (Tuesday) I did part of Mt Lemmon which is a famous route here. The whole ride is quite long with a lot of climbing and I didn't think doing the whole ride would be a great idea on day one.

The second day, I went to my coaches house for lactate threshold testing. We did the bike testing first which involved testing my blood after cycling at different intensities. The results were that my cycling is quite strong and my lactate threshold is somewhat high; I should have quit there. I did the running test right after biking (and after biking 5 hours the day before) My heart rate was quite high at relatively slow speed and my running lactate threshold is low. I think if I had just doneI the running test and been fresher, it would have been better. Nevertheless, running is what I need to work on. I did improve my running times last summer, doing around 44 minute ten ks in triathlons and running some individual ten k races in around 43 mins which is not bad for me. On Thursday and Friday I cycled about 4 hours each day and by today (friday) I was feeling pretty good. I am glad I did this trip and it was pretty much what I wanted to do. (get in a week or so of cycling in the winter) a couple of extra days would have been better but it has been pretty good.

Heading to Arizona

The weather the past couple of weeks has been challenging for training. I have completed my third week of my coached training program. It was been going well and I am enjoying the bike trainor workouts in particular. I am heading to Tucson this weekend for a week of cycling and looking forward to it. I have heard that the weather there has been good. I am meeting up with my coach for some testing which should be interesting. This week I have done 2 and one half hours of spinning on the trainor; one run on the treadmill and one run outside; two swims and two hot yoga. I am swimming in the morning and doing yoga after work. I bailed on spinning today and packed. work has been a bit slower which i am enjoying.

week 2 of my new plan

A couple of weeks ago I hired a triathlon coach, Torsten Abel, to provide me with daily workouts geared to ward the upcoming year. I am in week 2 and it is going well so far. Torsten is a pro triathlete and finished 26th at Kona lat year and coaches his wife, Leanda Cave, who is also a pro. They live in Tucson, Arizona. This has given me some renewed enthusiasm and a focus to my workouts. I am still doing the UPEI Swim club swims plus biking and running as directed by Torsten. Lsat week, I did about 3 runs; two spinning sessions, 3 swims, 3 or 4 yoga. so far this week, I have done two and half hours of spinning, 2 runs and i am doing another one today (2 runs in one day); 2 swims and i am swimming again tomorrow and i am sure there will be lots to do on the weekend.

I leave next Saturday, feb 19th to go to Tucson, Arizona for a "training/vacation". I hope to get in some good base miles for cycling and meet Torsten and Leanda. He is also going to so some lactate threshold testing on me which will be interesting.

My reach exceeds my grasp

I never seem to get in as many workouts as I aim for. Today, for example i was going to do a 90 minute yoga class and run. I didn't get the run in. I just ran out of time. This week, I ran twice outside (about 45 mins each time) and once indoors on the UPEI track. I keep saying on here that I am not running enough but I am not doing too bad given that it is winter. I did three good swim workouts last week, one spin class, one at home trainor session of about 45 mins and 4 hot yoga classes. Thats about 12 workouts during the week. I have hired a triathlon coach for the coming year and am supposed to start training this week with him. He will give me weekly workouts and we will interact online. He lives in Tucson and we will meet when I go there in February. It will be interesting to see how that goes. It is only about 3 weeks until I go to Arizona to go cycling and I am looking forward to that.

Gearing up for spring

After Christmas every year, i seem to get a bit more enthusiastic about training. I am also getting excited about my upcoming trip to Tucson, Az. in February. The prospect of that has motivated me to get on my bike trainor. I have been doing some spinning at home on the weekends. Last week, I did 4 hot yoga classes, three swims, two runs, a spin class at the gym and a spin session at home. Bill, the swim coach, says my swimming is getting stronger and he is going to do a more specific triathlon plan for me when it gets closer to racing season. My friend, Bryon Howard from Calgary has introduced me to a triathlon coach in Tucson, who I am going to meet with when I am there and do some fitness testing. I have also agreed to hire him on a monthly basis for some programs and training advice.

week ending jan 8th, 2011

Last week, I did 3 good swims with the UPEI swim club. I am still really enjoying that program and am working alot harder than I would work on my own. I think it will pay off a bit come triathlon season. I ran outside 2 or 3 times, about 8 k. each time. I still haven't down much long running beyond an hour in quite a while but I guess I don' t really need to be doing that right now. I did 3 hot yoga classes last week. I have been doing yoga for over a year now and am starting to see real improvements in my flexibility. I think it is especially beneficial to my running. I did a spin class on saturday morning followed by some weights. That would be about 10 hours of exercise last week. I finally got my bike/trainonr set up yesterday and am hoping to do at least one bike/trainor session per week between now and the third week of february when I am going to Arizona for a week of cycling.

Christmas 2010

I went for a run on Christmas day around New Glasgow; on boxing day went to hot yoga class and also ran in Charlottetown. I went to the gym and did another run on the treadmill and some weights. Did another hot yoga class on Wednesday. On thursday, went to Montreal for New Years. In Montreal I went for a fairly long run (1 hour and 15 minutes) up Mount Royal and back. It is now New Years day and I may go to another yoga class in Montreal.