A weekend of parties and a little exercise.

I survived my big Christmas party weekend, although I feel like I am coming down with a cold and I feel generally groggy. Friday night I went out to dinner with my friend, Greg Smith who was visiting from Boston. Saturday morning, I was up as usual and headed to the Spa for spin class and some exercises and stretching. I always enjoy having to get up for that, even if I have been out late. We went to the Farmer's market and then went for drive to Cavendish and had lunch at the Pearl Cafe. We also went for a short walk on the beach. It was then back to town for drinks at my house with some more friends and off to Greg and Corena's Christmas party. Sunday morning I went to the gym and ran 4 miles on the treadmill and did some stretching. Sunday afternoon was another Christmas party at Mary and Laura's followed by a party at Chris and Craig's. I got home at about 8 pm last night and went to bed early.

This morning, I swam at 7 am and did about 1800 m. I did a bit of IM and some sets of 300 and 200 metres.

Getting ready for a big weekend

This last weekend before Christmas is going to be crazy with something going on the next 3 nights and a party on the afternoon on Sunday. I hope to get in a bit of exercise. This past week was pretty good for this time of year. I ran on Sunday outside for 45 mins.; monday swam for 45 mins and did hot yoga for 1 hour 15 mins.; Tuesday swam 45 mins and did spin for 45 mins and a half hour of stetching; wednesday swam for an hour and ran 35 mins and about 20 mins of stretching; thursday ran for a half hour and 20 mins of stretching; friday swam for an hour. tomorrow- saturday i have a 45 min spin class and i will do weights and stretching for about 30-45 mins. That's about 10 hours of exercise this week. More swimming than anything else but i like swimming and find it easy in the winter time as opposed to getting geared up to run outside. I weighed myself yesterday. I weigh 154 which is up a couple of pounds from a couple of weeks ago. The past few years, I haven't seen that much of a fluctuation with a range of 150-160; 150 being right before an ironman and 160 being in the dead of winter. Somewhere in the middle would be normal I think.

weekly wrap up

If I forget to post often enough I have a hard time remembering what I did for workouts and that was the original purpose of this blog- to keep track of what I am doing re training. After the last post on Wednesday of last week, I took Thursday off. On Friday morning I did the triathlon swim class again. I recall that we did some speed drills and I was not all that fast. I have very good endurance but there are some weaker swimmers that are faster over short distances. I have been swimming about 4 times a week so my total swim time last week was about 4 hours. I ran on the treadmill on Friday evening for about a half hour. I believe I ran 4 times last week on the treadmill for between 30-40 minutes each time so my total running time may have been 2.5 hours. I did yoga for 1.15 hours and one spinning class for an hour; That is more than 8 hours of exercise which is not bad for the winter.

On Sunday, I ran outside for about 45 mins and then and went to the gym for about a half hour and did some stretching and exercises. I have been stretching alot to try to deal with my tight hamstrings and related issues. My right foot is still bothering me a bit and seems to bother me more when I run outside as opposed to running on a treadmill. I swam this morning (Monday) for 45 minutes. I feel like I have been eating alot as the Christmas season settles in and it is habit forming.

Lots of Stetching

I have been doing more stretching than I have ever done in an attempt to deal with my body alignment issues caused by lack of flexibility. I am enjoying hot yoga on Monday nights for the stretching and also because it is something completely different. This week there was one other guy in the class who did not look any more experienced than me at yoga which was good.

I swam Tuesday morning for about 45 minutes and worked quite a bit on Butterfly stroke. I have finally got the rhythm of the kick twice then butterfly stroke. I had no one show up for spin class yesterday afternoon so I ran 5 miles on the treadmill and did some stretching and pushups (50). This morning (wednesday) I did the triathlon swim class and we worked on all the strokes; kicked 500 metres with fins, swam 500 metres free, did some back stroke and breast stroke drills and then about 500 metres of butterfly drills. Its odd that I am finding the butterfly easier to master than the breaststroke. I can feel the rhythm and mechanics of butterfly but I have a hard time getting the feel of the breaststroke kick, even though I have been working on the breaststroke for a fairly long time.

Better Mood

My moodiness seemed to only last a few days. I took thursday off last week from training. On Friday, I did the triathlon swim class which was a tough workout as usual. Saturday morning I did spin class and then in the afternoon, I went for about an hour long ride on the Confederation Trail on my mountain bike. That is the first time I have used my mountain bike this year. I am going to try to do that more often this winter. Sunday, I went to the gym and ran 4 miles and did some exercises. I gained about 4 pounds last week which is the first significant weight gain I have had since doing ironman canada. I did quite a bit of wining and dining this past weekend as it was my birthday.

Moody

I have been a bit cranky the last couple of days for no apparent reason. It might be the changing seasons. Who knows. Last night when I was going to bed, I decided I couldn't deal with Type A personalities in the morning so I skipped the triathlon swim class this morning. I teach a UPEI class on Wednesday nights and when I get up at 5:15 am to drive in from New Glasgow and go to a swim class, it makes for a long day. Monday evening I did hot yoga again and it was great. I felt like I had never stretched as much. I hope it helps my right leg issues. I swam for about a half hour on Tuesday morning and then did spinning class Tuesday afternoon. Spinning was a good workout and I think these yoga classes will help with my instructing spinning. In yoga, the instructor constantly is talking about how you are breathing and how you feel. Spinning is actually a bit like that in that you can zone out and not think about anything. Today, Wednesday, I am taking the day off.

Tomorrow it is supposed to be warm again and I will go for a run.

Week ending Nov. 28th/09

The rest of the week was not too heavy in terms of training. I didn't do anything Thursday and then on Friday I did the triathlon swim class in the morning. It is a tough workout with a solid hour of fairly intense swimming. Friday after work I went to the gym and ran 4 miles on the treadmill and did some weights and stretching. Saturday morning I did my spin class. Yesterday, (Sunday) I went for a nice steady 9 k run. I am bothered by some issues on the right side of my body that I am told are caused by tight hamstrings and muscle imbalance. I am having foot pain in my right foot. I was thinking it is odd that I am experiencing this now when I have not been training that much compared to the summer. But, I suspect it builds up over time.

I am going to hot yoga again today in my attempt to become more flexible. I am looking forward to that.