Week ending April 10th, 2010

This week I did well getting up early all 4 days. Wednesday am I went to the gym before work and did some weights and an ab workout. Wednesday evening I did hot yoga; Thursday morning I swam with Darcy and we did about 2200m. Thursday at lunch I ran with Rob J. for a quick 7 k. This morning, I went to the gym again and did basically the same workout as wednesday. I swam at lunch time again. This week I have done 3 swims which is a bit more than I have been doing. Tomorrow, I have big plans- spinning class in the morning, a bit of a break and then cycling for about 3 hours. I would also like to do hot yoga in the afternoon but I don't know if I will be able to squeeze all that in. I have agreed to go for a 2 hour run with Corena on Sunday.

Easter Weekend

Having a 4 day weekend was a great way to catch up on everything- home stuff, workouts, rest, etc.... On Good Friday, i ran about 12 k around town; On Saturday, I biked out to Oyster Bed Bridge, South Rustico, Wheatley River and back to town. (about 55 k); I also went to hot yoga class on Saturday afternoon for an hour. I took Sunday off and Monday, I biked from New Glasgow and went around Cavendish, Rustico, Oyster Bed, Milton and back to New Glasgow (about 50 k.) and then did my first brick by running 7 k around New Glasgow. I was pretty slow when I started to run but felt better after about 2-3 k. This morning, (Tuesday) I swam about 2000 m doing 100s and 50s on a minute.

Tired again

I didn't get up early to work out once this week (which is unusual) I got back from New York on monday afternoon having gotten up at 2:15 am on monday to get to the airport for a 6:30 am flight. (having to take a shuttle which requires getting you there 2 hours before etc...) On Tuesday, I did a fairly easy spin class; yesterday, I swam at lunch for 2000m and did hot yoga after work for an hour. Today, I am going for a massage but will swim after work. Tomorrow, (Good Friday) I plan to go for a run of around 10 k.

I am hoping to make this coming a weekend a big training weekend in terms of doing some cycling and a long run. My goal is to do at least two decently long bike rides (60 k or more) and one long 2 hour run on Sunday. that should be doable considering i have 4 days off. If I do that I think I will feel a bit better about my upcoming half-ironman in June.

In NYC

Last night I went to a "Bikram Yoga" class on 27th street. It is 90 minutes long and a very difficult workout. It is not the relaxation get in touch with your inner self type of yoga. It is kind of militant in that you are told what to do and you are to do it immediately for the length of time you are told. There were alot of people in the class who had to stop or take breaks because they were dizzy with the heat. I noticed that the routine was the exact same as the class I went to in San Fransisco. I walked about 35 minutes each way to get to the class so I felt I got a fair amount of exercise yesterday. Today, I ran for about 50 minutes in Central Park. There are thousands of people running in the park; there are running clubs everywhere and people are just flying. I felt pretty slow and was getting fed up getting passed all the time so I speeded up a bit as I went.
I am a little concerned with my body issues relating to my right side body weaknesses that I have been working on all winter by going to yoga. I am still having pain in my knee (which could be arthritis) some pain in my right foot (which had gone away once I started doing yoga and strength exercises) but has just come back. I thought the balancing work in yoga had fixed my foot problem. Anyway, we will see how it goes. It may just be an ongoing thing that I have to deal with.

I walked around midtown today and did some shopping. Tonight, I am going out with a friend in Chelsea for drinks and dinner. Planning on going running again tomorrow if it is nice.

Off to New York

I have had a busy week at work and good week of training. I am pleased to say I have been biking 3 times in March! Since my last post I biked about 40 k last Thursday with Greg and Corena in Stratford/Pownal. On the weekend on Saturday Greg, Corena and Ellen and I biked about 45-50 k out around Brackley. It was great. I am feeling a little stronger this year starting out on the bike. I have done more spinning classes over the winter than last year and have also gone a bit harder in spinning. On Friday past I swam about 2400 metres at lunch time. I did a spin class on Saturday morning and then some weights and stretching. Sunday, I ran 17 k at a moderate pace and felt ok. Monday, this week, I did hot yoga. Tuesday, I did a fairly easy spin class. Today (Wednesday) I swam about 2000 m and did a hot yoga class. My weight this week is around 152 pounds which is light for me.

Tomorrow, i am off to New York for a fun weekend. I plan to do two longish runs and a couple of yoga classes if possible.

Not much for early mornings these days

I find that I go in cycles with respect to getting up early. I can make it a part of my routine and it becomes almost normal. Other times, I find it wears me down. By early mornings, i mean getting up before 6 am. For the past several years I have been swimming about 3 mornings per week. It was been great and has resulted (ironically) in me getting to work earlier than if I did not swim. When I don't swim, I take my time getting up and getting to work and don't roll into work until about 9 am. when I swim, I am done swimming at 8 am and get to work before 8:30am.

But for the last couple of weeks, I have felt tired and have only gotten up early a couple of times to swim. I have swam at lunch time a few times to make it up. (now that i think of it, i did get up early twice this week- today and monday) Today, I swam about 2500 metres which is a bit longer than I have been swimming. My left shoulder gets a bit sore which means I am doing something wrong or have a weakness causing overuse of that shoulder. (or it could be old age) Yesterday, I did nothing. I was going to go to a yoga class but opted to skip it and get home early. Tuesday, I ran about 8 k and felt sluggish. Monday I swam. Today, if the weather holds out, I am thinking of going for a 40 k bike ride (bike ride number 2 of the season)

Cycling on March 13th

Yesterday I went for my first bike ride of the season. It was great. Tyler Read and I went for an easy 40 k ride. The weather has been fantastic and bodes well for lots of early spring riding. Otherwise, I also did a spin class yesterday and went for a couple of short fast runs with my friend, Rob, last wednesday and friday. I did hot yoga on wednesday and friday as well. I swam on thursday and did a spin class on thursday evening.

Today, (Sunday) I ran about 13 k and felt a bit tired. That is not surprising as I did about 3 hours of exercise yesterday.