Slight confidence boost

I ran for about 2 hours after work yesterday. That's the longest I have run in a while. I think when I was in New york in March I maybe ran about 2 hours one day around Central Park. I am not sure how far I ran last night but in was in excess of 20 k for sure. I have been a little uptight about my upcoming half ironman because i haven't really run any half marathons since the fall. Sometimes, I have a hard time mentally with getting geared up to go running. I don't really look forward to it. Then when I do it, I have no problems physically and usually feel great. I don't really understand why I don't look forward to it. Last night was like that. Once I got going I enjoyed it and I enjoyed it more as it went along. I let my mind wander and I often think about how I would feel if I were racing at that particular time. I didn't run particularly fast but I felt like I had lots of "gas in the tank" and could have run faster had it been a triathlon. I would like to run 1:45 or less in my upcoming half ironman. The last time I did the Mooseman my half marathon time was 1:45. I am a little stiff this morning from the run last night.

Now my swim this morning was not a confidence boost. I was aiming to swim 3000 m and complete one the ironman swims that I am supposed to do this week. I didn't have enough time this morning and only got through about 2500 of it. And, I didn't feel super strong in the water. I felt a bit heavy and didn't have a lot of energy. I am was pretty much alone at the pool this morning and sometimes that has an effect as well. When there are more people around, my competative instinct kicks in and I tend to have more energy. My plan for tomorrow is to bike for about 3 hours and 30 minutes. I am going to add going to Stanley Bridge onto my normal Charlottetown to Cavendish, New Glasgow back to Cahrlottetown route.I will follow that up with a half hour run.

New road bike

Yesterday, I rushed from work around 4:30 to try and get 2 hours of cycling in. I was heading toward the Hillsborough Bridge when I heard a little "poof" and my rear tire went flat. I have tubular tires on my tri bike and that is the first flat I have ever had. I think the tires are just worn out as they have never been changed. They are actually on the wheels from my previous tri bike. So, I had just purchased a new road bike at Smooth Cycle that I hadn't picked up so I rushed over there to trade bikes. My new road bike is a "Kuota Kebel" and it looks very much like my tri bike which is a "Kuota Kalipur." Same colour and both carbon. I managed to get in about an hour and 15 minutes of cycling. The road bike feels good; a little "stiffer" than my previous bike.

This morning we had our weekly swim lesson. We used fins a bit to work on flutter kicking and butterfly kick. We then did some butterfly with the fins and then without the fins. My butterfly stroke is improving a bit but it is still difficult. Today, I am getting a massage and am not supposed to work out after that. Tomorrow I am hoping to do a long run. I am a little uptight about the fact that I haven't done many 20 k runs lately but in less than a month I am doing a race that has a half marathon after biking 90 k. Although, I try to tell myself that 20 k is not a long run for me and I don't need to worry.

Training for Ironman Canada

I am in week 2 of a 17 week training program for ironman canada which is the end of August. I am also now teaching 2 nights a week at UPEI until the end of June as well as working full time. Luckily, I don't have to punch a time clock at my day job but I do try to keep regular hours. I am thinking, though, of leaving work around 4:30 pm because that extra half hour will make a surprising difference in getting training done by a reasonable time.

I am not as meticulous as some of my friends in exactly following my training program to the letter. I simply can't with everything else I have to do. What I do is scan the week's workouts and then decide how I can fit them in my schedule. I leave the long workouts for the weekend. For example, this week calls for 2 three hour plus bike rides. I did one this past Saturday (which I am counting toward this week) and will do another one this weekend. I don't have much difficulty fitting the swims in because they are usually only an hour or a little more and I can do that before work. Today, I am planning a 2 hour bike ride which is really more than the program calls for.

Yesterday, after work I did some running drills which is a new thing for me. I really enjoyed it because it was different. I ran for about 10 minutes from my place in town to Victoria Park. I found a fairly quiet stretch of roadway and spent about 20 minutes running fast in one direction and then doing various drills on the way back (high kicks, knees up, skipping etc...) Then I ran for about 15 minutes after that making it about a 45 minute workout. The program calls for this workout every week or two. It is a nice change from just straight running. This program that I am doing has very detailed instructions and a lot of variation in intensity. Hopefully, it will improve my ironman time. I would like to finish in around 11 hours or less. Last year my time was a little over 11 and a half hours and I didn't feel like I gave it everything I had.

The Weekend

On Saturday, I opted not to do the Mother's day time trial and got a couple of hours extra sleep. I headed out on the bike about 8:30am and went out through Oyster Bed Bridge, North Rustico, Cavendish and New Glasgow and back to Charlottetown. The weather was great and I felt pretty good. It took me a little less than 3 hours. The good thing is that I don't regard that as a long ride anymore. I did my usual half hour run right after biking. A few years ago when I was training for my first half ironman, I used to bike 90 k and then run 20 k just to prove to myself that I could complete the race. Now, I wouldn't dream of doing that. I find that a short run after biking is pretty much all you need to get the feel of the adjustment from biking to running.
I didn't do any training on Sunday because of the weather. This morning, I swam 2700 m which included a 1000m straight swimming. This is part of my ironman training program. It was supposed to be a longer swim but i am going to have to get up earlier to do more than 3000 m. After work i am going to run. My training program calls for running drills like skipping, high kicks, grapevines etc... which I have never really done before. I might try and find a spot in Victoria park or on the trail where there are not many people around to see me.

Tired

At about 4pm on Wednesday after dealing with a stressful client, I suddenly realized i was exhausted. I got home from Cuba on Saturday, rushed around and started in on some heavy training on Sunday and Monday and then crashed on Wednesday. I slept for 11 hours Wednesday night. Yesterday, the weather was still bad for any outdoor activity so I went to the UPEI gym and ran 40 laps of the track and then did some stretching and an ab workout. I had NO energy during the run and almost quit at about 32 laps. (This blog won't always be about how great my workouts were and how good I feel). Not sure what the problem was yesterday. This morning I tried one of my ironman swim program workouts. This is first one I have done this year and it was ok. I did 3000 m and it took a little over an hour. The only disturbing thing was that I realized that my stroke count lately has gone UP instead of down. When you swim as much as I do, it should not be going up; it should be going down as you get stronger and more powerful. I think its because I haven't been paying much attention to that and have been focusing on other things. As I have said before, I really enjoy swimming but in terms of triathlon, you can spend a lot of time in the pool and not make much or any gains in your race time. I have had some fast times in previous half ironmans when I had very poor technique. My swimming technique has improved a lot but my times haven't improved much at all. What I used to lack in technique, I made up for with fitness and just going for it.

I am still debating about whether to do the Mother's Day time trial tomorrow as part of my bike workout or just going biking for 3 hours and then doing a short run.

weather

Yesterday, I listed what I thought my training would be over the next couple of days. But, of course, it is looking like it might rain for the next 2 or 3 days which can completely change everything. I was going to drive out and do the Mother's Day time trial course after work. If it is raining a bit, I may run instead. If it is raining hard, I will go to the gym for a change. Yesterday, after work I ran about 11 k. As usual, I felt poor starting out and felt better throughout. Maybe its aging or something, but I feel really stiff sometimes when I start to run and then it goes away. I was thinking to myself that if i was doing a 10 k race, I would need to run for 10 or 15 minutes before the start of it. The ironman training program that i am just starting has some running drills (highknees, high kicks, grapevines) so I was sort of fooling around on the trail last night doing that. (when no one was around to see me look foolish)

This morning, I had my swim lesson with Dave, the swim coach, and Darcy and Corena. Its always interesting to see how different people have different strengths and weaknesses in their swimming. We did some drills with paddles; one arm swim, swimming with fist closed, and then for the second half of the class we worked on backstroke and breaststroke. I am really happy to be learning how to do those strokes properly.

I have noticed over the past couple of weeks that I am loosing a little bit of weight; maybe a couple of pounds. I haven't weighed myself but I can tell by how my clothes fit. Over the past few years since I have been doing triathlons my weight has fluctuated between 150-160 and usually right in the middle being the norm. At 150 or less I start to look skinny and not necessarily in a good way. I tend to be around 150 when I get to the day of an ironman race. Last night I had trouble getting to sleep again which is odd because I usually just fall into bed, read for 5 minutes and fall asleep. I am not sure why I am having trouble getting to sleep as I don't think I am particularly uptight about anything.

Oops

I apparently mixed up the number of weeks on my ironman training program and didn't realize yesterday was day one of 119 day training program for ironman Canada. The good news is that the training I had planned for this week exceeds the training on the plan by quite a bit. This is because I am gearing up for the Mooseman half ironman next month. Yesterday, I swam 2500 metres by just putting my head down and swimming 500s. I wanted to do longer sets for a change. I got off to a rough start by forgetting my swimming stuff in New Glasgow. So, I went to my house in town and found another swim suit and goggles and went back to the pool. After work I went riding with Ryan D. out to Pownal and then around China Point. It was a nice ride and a little windy coming back. I think its about 60 k in total. Three hours of training plus work on a Monday is not bad.

Today, I plan to run for an hour after work. Tomorrow, weather permitting, I may try to do the Mother's Day time trial route in case I do that on the weekend. I have my swim lesson tomorrow morning. Thursday, my plan is to do the longest run I have done in a while (about 23 k.) to have that out of the way before the weekend. Saturday morning I plan to go riding for 3 or 4 hours and will maybe do the Mother's Day time trial as part of that. I will get up early and ride out to the time trial. Time trials are the one thing that I am decent at since that is all you do in triathlon. In road racing, you speed up and slow down and I have no experience doing that. The one thing that could change my plans re Saturday would be rain. I have no interest in racing in the rain when I don't have to. Spending over 11 hours during ironman Lake Placid last year in a complete downpour was enough to do me for a long while.

Last night, I was just about falling asleep around 11pm when I started to think about triathlons, my schedule, racing etc... and I woke right up and then couldn't get to sleep for another hour and a half.